A Better Encouragement
Trading Self-Help for True Hope
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
Drop the Self-Help and Look to God Who Speaks a Better Word
Women thrive on encouragement, connection, and support. And yet, this desire leads many to be culturally catechized by a multibillion dollar self-help industry. Because foolish motivational messages flow freely from the world like a dripping faucet and are repeated by the person in the mirror, women remain discouraged, disconnected, and alone. If women believe happiness and success are their responsibility, they will assume discouragement must be too.
Women need better news. In this hope-filled ebook, Lindsey Carlson leads weak and weary women to the well to find better refreshment in the living water of Christ, who speaks a better word of encouragement than the world. As women are connected to God's promises and God's people, they will be better encouraged to endure with their hope fixed on Christ.
Hope for Women Bruised by Self-Help: Written for discouraged Christian women who need better encouragement they can't provide themselves, but who are hesitant to trust good encouragement exists Practical and Approachable: Offers relatable stories and counsel to teach women how to biblically discern truth from worldly philosophy in messages of encouragement and to provide confident assurance in God's promises of power, strength, comfort, and hopeFor the Building Up of the Church: Challenges Christians to become better encouragers within their family, the local church, and their communitiesPublished in Partnership with the Gospel Coalition
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This upbeat if impractical outing by Carlson (Growing in Godliness), a pastor's wife, urges readers to lean on God in times of need. "Better encouragement provides God's promises to God's people in order to help us endure with our hope set on Christ," Carlson writes, critiquing secular self-help volumes and describing how Christians can find fortitude in God and Christ. The author suggests that many self-help books suffer from "an overemphasis on self-esteem, self-sufficiency, and self-empowerment" that prompts looking inward when readers should instead be looking to God. A more substantive source of encouragement, Carlson contends, comes from steadfast faith in Jesus's coming Resurrection, which "fills the Christian's life... with the promise of his abundant riches." She urges readers to pray to God for spiritual sustenance and to offer affirmation and inspiration to others. The emphasis on social support systems brings a welcome community focus to the self-help genre ("You are a member of the body of Christ; every other Christian in the body is a fellow team member"), but the lack of actionable advice will likely leave readers without a clear idea of how to implement the principles laid out here. This has a lot of heart, even if the recommendations are undercooked.
