​Most people in our world struggle to understand why they are here on this earth. While the world continues to offer ways of identifying ourselves and finding fulfillment, it usually doesn’t satisfy us. As a result, we struggle to know who are and what we are supposed to do with our lives. This is especially true when it comes to pre-teen girls. It makes them ask the question: what is my purpose and how can I live it out?

​In her tween girl Bible study Esther: Becoming a Girl of Purpose, author Dannah Gresh teaches girls how to understand and live out your purpose by looking to the example of Queen Esther. Through this 6-week study on the story of Esther, girls learn how to find their purpose by discovering the plan God has for their life. It clear to see through the story of Esther that God was at work behind the scenes to save His people, and that Esther was a significant part of that plan. Through all the difficulties that Esther experienced, she realized that she came to her position for a purpose and when she realized how important it was, she was willing to risk everything to fulfill it. It wasn’t easy and required her to do some uncomfortable and risky things, but God used her boldness and her wisdom to save His people. Through this study, pre-teen girls are reminded that even when they are discouraged and face things they don’t want to do, God has a good plan and can use them to fulfill it if they trust Him. All these powerful truths and more are shared in the context of a Bible study that is geared to tween girls (between 7-12 years old). This study specifically does an excellent of simplifying and explaining some of the more mature aspects of the story (such as harems and eunuchs) in an age-appropriate way.
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Including fill-in-the-blanks, places to highlight Scripture, and interactive puzzles and prompts, this book will be engaging and impactful to any tween girl that reads it. It would also be a great resource for the moms of tween girls or youth leaders looking for a Bible study for this unique age group. Get your copy today! 

​* I received a copy of this book for the purpose of this review

​In her book What Are You Waiting For, author Dannah Gresh addresses many of the difficult questions that teen girls and young adults have about sexuality, including the most significant question: Why should we wait until we are married to have sex? This question is addressed by exploring the meaning of the word that the Old Testament uses to talk about sex – yada. This word describes a deep and intimate knowing that not only is used to a married couple having sex, but also the deep knowing and trust that God wants to have with us. Seeing sexuality through this lens helps us to see God’s plan in a new light and illustrates the problem with doing things our own way. She then dives deep into the questions that many want answers to but most are afraid to ask when it comes to what is appropriate with our sexuality and how to repent and start over if you recognize that you have fallen short of God’s plan for your sexuality. It goes deeper and is intentional about addressing many girls’ questions about sexuality while remaining grounded in Scripture. It even gives biblical guidelines for qualities you can look for in a man who honors Him. 

However, this book does have a few minor problems. This book was released toward the end of the purity movement and it does share a few of the same problems as many of the books that were part of that movement. In Dannah’s attempts to be honest and blunt, her wording and methods for resolution have the potential to cause guilt or shame for anyone who has struggled with sexual sin. Even the title indicates that you should be a virgin when you get married, which was one of the purity movement’s most faulty goals. As she has done in several of her books, she defines sin as “to miss the mark” and uses an archer’s target to illustrate that anything that doesn’t hit the bullseye on the target is sin. While I agree with the premise of this definition, it can come across as legalistic when you start pairing it with man-made methods of how to walk away from sin, which can lead to guilt and shame. As Christians, we have to be careful about the way that we define sin and make sure that we carefully explain God’s ability to redeem our sins for His glory so they can feel free to come into the light.
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Secondly, this book encourages young women to find a godly older woman to confess their sins to and hold them accountable so that they can overcome their sins. This method was a common remedy of the purity movement and is largely based on common misconceptions about confessing our sins to others as it’s encouraged in James 5:16. That verses says that we should confess to one another and pray for each other, not to confess and then rely on them to help you get out of your sin. In my opinion, seeking an accountability mentor should not be a catch-all solution to overcoming sin, especially sexual sin.

Please understand that I am not saying that younger women shouldn’t learn and be taught by older godly women. Titus 2 encourages older women to teach younger women and I am not trying to discredit that. I also understand that when sin becomes any sort of addiction, a person probably will need outside help to overcome it, such as programs, support groups, or counseling. What I’m trying to communicate is that the Bible doesn’t talk about mentorship the way it is described in most Christian circles today (when a younger and older person meet for coffee once a week while the mentor does a colonoscopy on the young person’s personal life). Asking another sinner to hold you accountable in many cases diminishes the power of self-discipline (or self-control) God had already given to each one of us (2 Timothy 1:7). If you want to stop any sin, you have to be fully convinced in your own mind that it is a sin that you want to leave behind and never return. Once you have determined to walk away from your sins, then you can confess your sins to someone you trust, not to tattle tale on yourself out of guilt, but to give you other Christians in your corner praying with you through the battle.
Lastly, there were some assumptions made about a few of the specific sins addressed that were clearly assumptions that could not have been backed by readers, especially in Chapter 10 (which I am avoiding mentioning by name for the sake of younger readers).

Aside from these issues, this is a good book that could be a good tool for helping teen girls and young adults develop a biblically grounded view of sexuality. If this appeals to you, it’s worth checking out.

​I was excited to hear that Dannah Gresh was going to be releasing another True Girl Bible Study. But when I found out that it was going to be about Mary’s faithfulness, I was all the more interested in reading it. When I finally did, I was not disappointed. This Bible study is an incredible resource for tween girls as they learn how to study God’s word and what it means to live in faithfulness to God. This is one I highly recommend for tween girls, their moms, or their youth leaders ~ Bethel

Faithfulness is a virtue that we struggle to find in our culture today. While we want to have it in our lives and relationships, we struggle to find it and often struggle even more with practicing it. We want to trust and be trusted, but we also want to do things our own way or have felt the string of betrayal or rejection, which makes us unable to trust others fully. This is especially true when it comes to pre-teen girls. It makes them ask the question: how can I live a life of faithfulness?

In her tween girl Bible study Mary: Becoming a Girl of Faithfulness, author Dannah Gresh teaches girls how to live a life of faithfulness by looking to the example of Mary, mother of Jesus. Through this 6 week study on the story of Mary, girls learn how faithfulness begins with trusting God’s plan, no matter what happens. Through all the difficulties, uncertainties, and even pain Mary experienced, she trusted God and obeyed what he asked her to do. Even in the moments when her life was ordinary, she continued to trust God, which allowed her to rely on Him when difficult times came her way. This knowledge is what gave her the ability to worship when things were uncertain and believe that God could provide when natural resources had been exhausted. And it was by this incredible faithfulness to Him that God used Mary to fulfill his plan to save us from our sins through His son, Jesus. All these powerful truths and more are shared in the context of a Bible study that is geared to tween girls (between 7-12 years old).
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Including fill-in-the-blanks, places to highlight Scripture, and interactive puzzles and prompts, this book will be engaging and impactful to any tween girl that reads it. It would also be a great resource for the moms of tween girls or youth leaders looking for a Bible study for this unique age group. Get your copy today! 

* I received an copy of this book for the purpose of this review

​In her book And the Bride Wore White, Dannah Gresh helps teen girls break down lies that many of us believe about sexuality and reveals seven “secrets” for living a life of sexuality purity. Through understanding these lies and presenting these keys to pursuing purity, Gresh is able to offer foundation truths about the way that God designed sex. The updated edition includes additional information on understanding purity, “celebration stories” of young women successes or redeemed failures in their pursuit of purity, and some letters directly at readers with specific struggles. While this book does have some great content and biblical truth, it falls into some of the pit falls of many of the teachings of the purity movement of the 90’s/2000’s. This book does a great job of helping readers understand that sex is a beautiful gift from God that we should wait until the right time and place to use. It also does a great job at addressing lies many of us believe about sex and offering practical tips to help readers live in purity. One of my favorite parts is its emphasis on purity embracing the wise guidance of parents, grandparents, and mentors, since that is something that many young people struggle to do. Overall, it has some great insights to help young women pursue sexual purity.

However, this book does have some issues. One of the “secrets” she suggest to achieve purity is to envision a godly husband, even suggesting that you should write down in a journal a description of your future husband. While I believe a young woman should figure out the qualities he wants in a future husband, the way that she suggests doing the exercise implies that you should even write down exactly how you expect him to look. Doing this exercise as a teen fueled different lies than addressed in the book. First, God often surprises us by doing things in His time and His way. It often doesn’t match up with what we picture for ourselves, especially when we get caught up in trivial details like his eye color or favorite movie. We aren’t even guaranteed a husband. We should instead be teaching young women to look at young men for their godly characteristics, like how responsible they are with money or how they treat their family.

This book also tends to struggle with leaving those who have failed in their pursuit of purity feeling like unforgivable because of the high emphasis on virginity. We need to make sure that young women understand that premarital sex, other types of sexual immorality, and abortion are not unforgiveable sins that make you “damaged goods.” Instead, if you do the work of repentance in those areas, they can can become scars that God can redeem for His glory and even turn into your greatest ministry to help others. One of the reasons young women struggle with confessing sexual sin is because there is so much shame associated with other people know their struggles. They will be more likely to open up about their struggles if we help them understand that redemption is their sexual past is possible.

I am grateful for what I learned from this book as a teen, and believe that even though some of the content has flaws, it could still have value for teens today, especially as a way to introduce purity to older pre-teen girls. Get your copy today.

​After reviewing Ruth, I was so excited to hear that Dannah was continuing this series. Her Bible studies are always well done, and this was no exception. I appreciate all the work that her ministry True Girl does to help tween girls navigate their journey to adulthood in a God-honoring way. While I do have one disagreement with one of the teachings in the book, I do still feel that this book is a great Bible study resource for tween girls ~ Bethel

Courage is a word that we say often but many of us struggle to understand. While many of us want it, we also are unsure of exactly what it is and how we obtain it. This can be especially true for pre-teen girls on the road to becoming young women. They often find themselves facing fears they don’t know how to overcome and feel they can never face them head-on. It makes them ask the question: how can I learn to be a courageous girl?

In the Bible study Miriam: Becoming a Girl of Courage, author Dannah Gresh breaks down and walks through the life of Miriam and her brother Moses to help tween girls see how they can become courageous young women in our world today. Through this five-week study, pre-teen girls will take a look at how stories from the life of Miriam illustrate aspects of courage. Within the content of the clever use of graphics, fill-in-the-blanks, space for underlining Scripture, puzzles, and relevant illustrations, girls will be drawn into the story of Miriam, since it is presented in a way that is palatable to their age. Through it all, they will learn that the true mark for courage is not the absence of fear, but instead is choosing to do the right thing even when it’s hard.

However, there was one minor biblical discrepancy. When discussing Hebrews 11:25, which states that Moses “chose to be mistreated with the people of God,” (NIV), Dannah concluded that Moses must have chosen to give up his royalty to become a slave, and that it was while he was a slave himself that he killed the Egyptian. But there is nothing in either the Old or New Testament that supports this interpretation. In fact, Exodus 2:11 states that it was while Moses was watching his people in their hard labor that he noticed the Egyptian beating on the Hebrew. While I can see how someone could jump to the same conclusion as Dannah by reading that verse out of context, a simple examination of the original narrative in Exodus quickly disproves this interpretation.

Aside from this biblical discrepancy, I still think that this is a great Bible study for pre-teen girls. Get your copy today

* I received a copy of this book from the publisher for the purpose of this review