Book Review: Women of Worth by Bethany Frymire

In Women of Worth, Bethany Frymire gets to the heart of how we think about money. She’s down to earth, genuine, and refreshingly open about her own journey. The writing is engaging and at times even entertaining (how many finance books can say that?). While she offers sound, practical financial advice, the book goes much deeper, addressing identity, faith, and viewing money through the lens of stewardship over all aspects of life.

Reading the book feels like sitting down with a wise and fun friend over coffee or lunch. Bethany is especially relatable to busy moms juggling a hundred responsibilities and comes across not just as a financial expert, but rather a trusted friend who can help guide you along your journey with money. She doesn’t just talk the talk, she lives out the principles and illustrates them through stories from her own life.

Throughout the book, you get the strong impression that she knows God deeply and regularly seeks His guidance. Biblical wisdom is woven through the book in a beautiful tapestry that connects financial decisions with broader areas of life.

While the book is written primarily with women in mind, men can learn a great deal from the stories and practical financial guidance it contains not to mention gain insight into the women in their lives.

The stories of people Bethany has worked with bring the principles to life. She touches on issues such as overcoming debt and shame, bucket budgeting, incorporating your values into your investment strategy without sacrificing performance, charitable giving and how it shapes both your finances and your heart, maintaining a “God owns it all” mindset, and teaching children and young adults how to manage money wisely.

This book is a valuable resource filled with practical steps for anyone who wants to manage their finances with Biblical wisdom and a stewardship mindset. I highly recommend it!

You can also connect with me on Goodreads to check out more reviews and recommendations. 

Book Review: Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down by Richard Adams is a delightful and in parts quite exciting story about the adventures of a group of rabbits who strike out on their own after misgivings about danger in their warren. They encounter lots of dangers and uncertainties as they search for a new home. Some of these come from traditional enemies like predators, men, and weather but also other rabbits which provides lots of drama, mystery, and excitement. At several points in the story they share folklore tales of a rabbit named El-arairah who functions a little like Br’er Rabbit from Uncle Remus stories but with a bit more leadership of all rabbits. They also have their own language with a number of words used throughout the book.

I really enjoyed the character development of Hazel and his steady leadership throughout the book. Bigwig’s mission to Efrafa was like a mini spy story and I liked how he was the featured character for that section along with the battles they engaged in. Fiver was a bit mysterious but seemed settled and accepted in his role as a sort of prophet or seer by the end. General Woundwort was a primary antagonist and it was an interesting examination of a totalitarian and tyrannical system of governing. Kehaar the seagull was a fun addition to the cast with his brash sometimes laid back style and a loyal ally to the rabbits. 

For a story that Adams said was originally made up to entertain his daughters, there was a very male focus with all of the main characters being male and their society oriented in a patriarchal system with the females having minor docile roles that seem only there to serve the interests of the male characters. Adams seemed to try to slightly address this in one paragraph that I could see but didn’t really hold water for me. There’s also a strong militaristic orientation of the rabbits from a hierarchical perspective which could have been drawn from Adams’ experience in World War II.

There’s been question of whether or not this is a children’s book and in my thinking, you’d probably want the reader to be at least late elementary to middle school age due to the intensity of parts of the story though a discerning parent could either skip or guide a younger child through some of the more intense parts.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and the adventures that the bunnies went on. It’s a classic in personified animal stories. They have well developed systems of thinking and acting which are interesting to read and think about how animals perceive the world and what their concerns, hopes, and dreams are. You might even learn a thing or two about rabbits.

If you found this review helpful and want to give it a thumbs up on Goodreads, I’d be glad to connect at this link.

The Slinky Song by Andrew Robert Allen

Sometimes the simplest lyrics and melodies connect with a 3 year old in a way that you'd never expect. This is a hit at our house.

 

This is the slinky song it isn't very long

This is the slinky song it isn't very long

Slinky, Slinky, Slinky, Slinky, Slinky, Slinky 

This is the slinky song it isn't very long

Happy 50th Anniversary!

50 years ago today, these two said I do. With so much going on in the world, it feels rare and a great blessing to have parents who have loved and been committed to each other for so many years. I’m so thankful for both of them in how they raised my brother and I in a home that valued faith in God and has celebrated many milestones and successes together as well as supported each other in the hard parts and challenges of life. I am thankful to have them as an active part of my life and as grandparents to our son. 

As you grow up and become an adult your relationship with your parents shifts but it’s so nice to have confidence that they are for you, acting as a resource and source of wisdom and counsel, and cheering for you as you navigate education, career, hobbies, friendships, relationships, marriage, and parenting. I’m blessed and thankful that God brought their paths together 50 years ago and that they have been such good parents and friends. Happy Anniversary Grady and Diane!

When the Grumpies Come to Town Song

When the grumpies come to town you must tell them settle down 

If you feel a little sad or even kind of mad

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down 

Settle down (settle down) settle down (settle down)

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down

When the grumpies come to town you must tell them settle down 

If your tummy says it’s time and you’re starting to whine

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down 

Settle down (settle down) settle down (settle down)

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down

When the grumpies come to town you must tell them settle down 

If your face is turning red cause it’s time to go to bed

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down 

Settle down (settle down) settle down (settle down)

It’s time to make a change and turn that frown around and tell the grumpies that they need to settle down

Read Through the Bible

This morning I finished reading the Bible all the way through again. I’ve been doing this off and on for the past 25 years or so and don’t know how many times I’ve completed it but in each season of life, I’ve found so many relevant passages speaking to the challenges, encouraging me, and pointing me to the author and perfecter of our faith. 

There is something powerful about consistently exposing your mind to a source of wisdom and spiritual truth over a long period of time and I have seen God use it over and over to impact my life. In Psalms 119:105 it says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I’ve found the Bible to be a guiding light for me and will probably be reading and learning from it for the rest of my life.

If you’ve never read the Bible or read it all the way through it’s actually not that difficult to do. Like any good habit, all it takes is a little consistency and with just 10-15 minutes a day you can read through the Bible in a year. Apps like YouVersion’s Bible app have plans breaking it into bite sized chunks with a few chapters from the Old Testament, a few from the New Testament, a chapter from Psalms, and a couple verses from Proverbs each day. You can even make it a part of your commute or fitness routine by listening to the audio version. It’s the best seller of all time and can impact your life in deeply meaningful and eternally consequential ways. Why not start reading it today?

In Pursuit of His best,

Andrew

Book Review: This is Water by David Foster Wallace

There are only a few books that I intentionally have purchased with plans of reading them again. This Is Water is one of them. Originally a keynote from David Foster Wallace to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College (listen to the audio at this link) and put into a short book format with a sentence per page. The audio or video version is excellent as well and adds an element of humor that you may not pick up in the written version. The book does such a good job of bridging the gap between the idealism of the young launching into the world and the realities of the mundanities of adulthood and choosing how to think about them.

There is a lot of wisdom and truth and humor throughout the book but these are some key quotes that stood out to me.

“Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think.”

“If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is and who and what is really important-if you want to operate on your default setting- then you like me probably will not consider possibilities that aren’t pointless and annoying. But if you’ve really learned how to think, how to pay attention, then you will know you have other options.”

“there are all different kinds of freedom and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom.”

“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual type thing to worship…is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things…then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty… and you will always feel ugly and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you…worship power you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power of others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on. Look the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful. It is that they are unconscious. They are default settings.”

(From a content warning perspective, he does reference suicide and given how his life ended, perhaps the speech should be taken as foreshadowing and with a grain of salt.) 

There are countless graduation speeches and some are profound, inspirational, instructive, funny or otherwise entertaining. On the whole, this slice of the graduation speech pie rates up at the top and can help shape a person’s thinking in meaningful and helpful ways if taken to heart. Best of all it can be read in 15-20 minutes at most. I recommend this book to anyone but especially those on the cusp of launching into adulthood or starting probably any endeavor that you’ve not attempted before.

If you'd like to read and review more books with me on on Goodreads, connect with me at this link.

In pursuit of His best,

Andrew