Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women, by Zondervan {Homeschool Crew Review}

My daughter has been searching for a devotional book she wants to use for 2019. When we were offered the opportunity to check out Beloved: 365 Devotions for Young Women, from Zondervan, authored by Lindsay A. Franklin, she agreed to check it out for herself.

This is a lovely, hardcover book, and measures 5.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches. The pages are of quality heavy weight. Each page is decorated with a lovely flowered boarder. The book is numbered by days, 1-365, rather than dated, so your daughter can start using this devotional any time of the year. There is also a ribbon marker, which makes it easy to keep track of one's place in the book.

Each page begins with a Bible passage (New International Version), followed by two or three paragraphs enhancing the Bible passage, and ends with four lines on which your daughter may journal her thoughts and impressions from what she's read.

Most mornings (well, usually it's after noon before she awakens, since she closes at McDonald's five nights a week) after she wakes up, Jen has been reading one devotional page, on her own. She began at the beginning of the book. To be honest, she actually hasn't been doing any of the journaling, though. And I've read through the last couple dozen pages or so, myself.

This devotional discusses the lives of more than 50 women in the Bible; some named and well known, such as Ruth, Mary, and Martha, and others whose names are not even mentioned, such as the widow who gave two mites...or all that she had, and the woman who suffered for twelve years of bleeding.

Jen said the first few pages discuss the Proverbs 31 woman, then Eve, followed by Noah's wife. Really? How much do we know about Noah's wife? Well, for one, she remained faithful to Noah when all the rest of the world turned against him and didn't believe the message God gave him to spread to the world. She, and obviously her daughters-in-law, had a faith of their own in God to enter that ark and be saved.

Day 16, especially, made her stop and think. Genesis 6:8 states that Noah found favor in God's eyes. This, in spite of the wicked, perverse world in which he lived. The Bible predicts that at the end of time, this world will be as the days of Noah.

But God's people will stand out, even if we don't want to. "But sometimes we have to stand out. When the tide around us has turned away from God, we should look different than everyone else, just as Noah and his family did during the days before the flood. We are called to be lights in the midst of a dark world."

Jen expressed that, while she does like this devotional, she is looking for something for herself that has longer readings each day, and that she isn't really interested in a section for journaling for herself.

While I didn't see anywhere that specifically recommends an age range for this, I did see mention of "young adult" (which I do consider Jen to be, still, at age 25). It probably would be best suited for teen aged young ladies, maybe even up to 20 or 21.

This would make an excellent Christmas gift for your teenage daughter. I know that we plan to pass our copy on to one of our young teen aged friends at church, for her Christmas gift.

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