My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In Your Heart’s Desire, Sheri Rose Shepherd take fourteen ideas about life, love, and God and puts them together for a book that gives a great overview on relationships with the opposite sex. Different from most books in this genre, this one is geared to women. At first glance that might not seem like it’s unique, but it’s for the married and single woman. The woman who may or may not have found the man who is going to walk through life with her.
Married women can use this book to improve their marriage, and singles can use this book to know what they should be looking for, as well as teaching them now how to become a woman a man would want to marry.
I read this book on my own, but I believe it would be idea for a women’s group to go through it together. One thing I really liked was her warning to respect your husband’s privacy if you are going through this as a group. What a great reminder, because what man would want to feel like his failures were shared with and discussed to a group of ladies! That would likely cause more problems than it would solve!
Another very unique feature of this book is at the end of each chapter there is a QR code which takes you to a video on YouTube where the author discusses the chapter for a few minutes. I’ve only ever seen one other book utilize QR codes, and I think this is a great concept. For those who do not have a smart phone, there is a link you can type in to take you directly to each video. This gives the book a more interactive feel because you not only are reading words on a page, but the author gets to talk directly to you. Here is the video the QR code take you to for chapter two.
Each chapter begins with a Scripture, then later there is a “Love Coaching” section which is to help you apply that chapter to your life. For instance, one chapter has an exercise on how to help you feel rid of shame you may carry needlessly (and as women, isn’t this something most, if not all of us, struggle with?). Another chapter has ideas on how to help cultivate respect for your husband. After this section, there is a prayer and another Scripture. Finally, “His Love Letter to You” concludes each chapter. This “Love Letter” is written as if it were coming from God. At the end of the book, there is a section of chapter highlights.
My favorite chapters were “Desiring a Godly Man to Marry (for singles)” because I am still single, this one was quite appropriate for me. I also loved chapter thirteen “Desiring to Glorify God by Showing Honor and Respect”. The letter she shares on pages 169-170 asking forgiveness of men who we may have hurt was nothing short of amazing. How many times as women have we lumped all men together? Sure there are men out there who have really hurt the women in their lives, but can we honestly say, “That’s just like a man?” because what about the men who are desiring the Lord in their lives and are doing their best to love those around them? That’s not fair to those men when we blame all men for the actions of a few.
This was a great book for any woman and while the chapters are short and doesn’t have time to go in depth in any one topic, it’s a great overview, and even if you have read books about marriage before, I would recommend this because it gives a lot of great ideas to think about and hopefully implement into your life!
FTC disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. The opinions are my own.
Helpful links:
http://www.yourheartsdesirebook.com/
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