The Person I Marry - Bower Books

The Person I Marry is a very sweet book written by Gary and Jan Bower.  The Bowers are the parents of 12 children, and authors of several children's books.  The Person I Marry is part of the Bright Futures Collection, which includes several other titles.  This particular book is a celebration of marriage, and all those wonderful qualities the person you marry should have.

  It begins:   "Long before thinking of diamonds & glitter,

here are some things that I need to consider."

The story emphasizes love, commitment, and purity - among other Godly virtues.  Children of all ages, as well as adults are the audience for this book.   I felt a special connection to my husband as I read the book aloud because our marriage (by the grace of God) embodies so many of the qualities in the book.  


You can watch this video about the book.  As you can see, the drawings are stunning, and the rhyming text makes it such a sweet read.  The Bowers truly are blessing their readers through their ministry of writing books.  

The Person I Marry from Bower Books on Vimeo.

I must admit, reviewing this book was difficult.  We received it in an electronic format and were instructed to read it on our computer.   For my children and I, a large part of the reading experience is snuggling on the sofa together to share a great book.   I tried to load the book on my iPad and the experience was less than optimal.  Reading the book by the computer wasn't that great, either.   I'm sure the hardcover book is wonderful (the story and pictures looked superb), but it just didn't translate in an electronic format.  


My ten year old daughter thought it was a good book (but again, her attention span for it wasn't long because of the format).  My six year old son didn't stick around for the reading.   I think my husband and I were the most impressed because we looked beyond the format and saw the gravity of the words.  


The Person I Marry must be good because it won the 2010 Book of the Year from the Small Christian Publishers Association.  You can purchase the book through Bower Books for $11.99.   I would see this as a wonderful gift to give to grandchildren, Godchildren, or just a book to purchase and have in your library.  If you ask at checkout to have the book autographed, that's free!   I thought that was pretty neat.   


To read what my crew mates are saying about this book you can visit the crew blog. 

Disclaimer: I received the above named product from TOS Crew in return for my honest review. I have not been compensated in any other form. 

It All Starts with Saying "Thank You"

I know we all teach our children to say "please" and "thank you".  

But are they really thankful, or do they say it out of obligation?

I think being thankful begins as the rote saying of "thank you" and somewhere along the line turns into genuine thankfulness.   As our children grow older they naturally look outside of themselves.   My six year old might LOVE  the trip to the store to get a Lego set and have dad build it with him that day and he will say thank you.  My ten year old daughter, however, understands the personal commitment that went into that outing and her thanks are more genuine. 

Nothing saddens me more than to do something for a group  (of children - who are old enough to know to say "thank you" - in particular) and not have one child say thank you.  This has happened to me recently, and it is disheartening.  It seems as if children are just TOO BUSY to stop and say thank you.  We should NEVER be too busy to express our thanks or appreciation!     

Here are ways we try to teach our children to be thankful in our home... again, remember it starts out as a rote expression of thanks, which hopefully leads into genuine thanks.


Read the rest of the post today at Three Thinking Mothers... where this week we are talking about inspiring thankfulness in others.