Devotions For A Healthier You – Book Review
Devotions for a Healthier You
By Katie Farrell
At first glance I thought this was going to be more fluff than substance. The book itself is beautiful. It begs to join the other decorative books one might have on a coffee table.
To do that would be a huge injustice. Inside the cover of Devotions for a Healthier You are pages of Truth women need to have poured into their spirits. Truth that will enable women to live fully as a Beloved of the Lord.
This is not a diet book nor is it a guide to exercise. There are a few recipes and a one-week meal plan at the end of the book and there are a few “get moving” tips, but that is not the substance. The substance and strength of Devotions for a Healthier You lies in the personal devotions that Ms. Farrell shares, drawn from her own journals, that are founded on Scriptures and speak to the heart of who we are in God’s eyes. She clearly presents the gospel message in her Day 1 devotion. The other 70 devotions speak to specific aspects of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health from the solid foundation of Scripture.
As a leader of a women’s ministry I regularly hear women share their struggle with body image, identity, worth and value. I struggle with these issues! Ms. Farrell consistently keeps our focus on who we are to God, how to find our identity in Christ, and how to honor Him with our decisions. I particularly liked the Scripture based “Prayers for Health” that she included. These prayers are an excellent example of how to pray scripture for our own lives. She gives the reference so the reader can read the full verse and make the prayer her own.
I am also grateful that she included a listing of “Identity Scriptures”. These are verses that speak into our lives the truth about who we are in Jesus and to God and are the foundational heart of the rest of the book. Many of these are verses that I have personally adopted as my own and regularly return to when I need to be reminded of God’s love for me. I would recommend a reader copy these pages and post them on her refrigerator!
I tried several of the recipes included throughout the book and found them to be fairly easy to prepare and pretty good. Ms. Farrell’s recipes tend to all use the lighter and fat free versions of ingredients that I personally do not agree with because those items tend to have artificial additives in them. Many of the recipes do support gluten-free eating but not necessarily sugar-free eating. Although she uses sugar substitutes in her recipes there are a number that have ingredients with hidden sugar in them. This is simply a cautionary note. The recipes are a great option for someone who doesn’t know where to start toward making clean-eating changes in their life. I would not recommend this book to someone looking for a complete guide to healthy eating as that is not it’s intended purpose.
The prayers, the Scriptures and the devotions all combine to create a wonderfully encouraging, loving and supportive addition to any woman’s quiet time resources. It speaks to our hearts and our spirits. This is a book I would keep several copies of to give away in my ministry; to give a friend who struggles to believe God loves her; to give a woman who is new to her faith or to someone seeking to know Jesus. This would make an excellent first devotional book.
In fact, I have a copy to give away now! Leave a comment below about a challenge you face in living healthy, a success you have had or even your favorite healthy recipe! I’ll select a winner from the comments (please make sure you have signed up to receive future blog posts so I have your email).
Living Holy,
Denise
