Blessings for the Morning: Prayerful Encouragement to Begin Your Day, by Susie Larson, is a little book of blessings that can be read in the morning to spiritually jump-start your day. The book is arranged with a blessing and a scripture quotation on each double page. Each of these has a header sentence that introduces the theme, such as “Wisdom to guard and guide,” and “Forgiveness and mercy,” etc.
What I liked about this book:
Presentation-wise, this is a gorgeous book. The cover is padded, the colors are well selected, there is a nice pink bookmark built in so you can keep your place, and a “presented to” page at the beginning. This would make a nice gift for graduations, birthdays, etc. All of the pages have full-page photos as the background image, making this a very vibrant, colorful book, which helps give it more appeal beyond just the words on the page; though it is not overly wordy, there is no “wasted space.” The photos themselves are very beautiful, and usually involve nature–sky scenes, landscapes, flowers. In fact, the presentation is probably one of my favorite parts.
But the blessings are nice too. They are not deep or complicated, but seek to remind us that God is with us as we begin our day. Most of them contain about 4 to 7 lines. Here are examples of some of the lines from different blessings:
“In this day of uncertainty, may God give you a faith that cannot be shaken.”
“When the storm rages overhead, may you know–with everything in you–that new mercies are on the other side.”
“May God heal your heart, soul, mind, and body, and may you approach life with eternity in mind.”
What I didn’t like about this book:
There wasn’t much. Obviously this is not what you want if you’re looking for any kind of in-depth study of scripture. Some of the phrases used may seem to become repetitive, especially if you want to read it more than daily. I could also perhaps critique the out-of-context use of certain phrases, such as “God is for you,” which certainly depends on the person reading, and does not offer a blanket approval to everything any person does–otherwise it could venture into sentimental territory.
But provided this is read by someone who has enough understanding of scripture to see the bigger picture and is not using this as a means of learning it, then it can be a lovely way to remind oneself of some timeless and encouraging truths from God’s word, and remind us to keep our focus on him–because he values us very much.
Disclosure: I received this book free from Bethany House through the Baker Books Bloggers www.bakerbooks.com/bakerbooksbloggers program. The opinions I have expressed are my own, and I was not required to write a positive review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/wa….