365 Mornings with Jesus

365 Mornings with Jesus, a daily devotional book for 2012, is written especially for women by a team of inspirtational Christian women.  This book contains one short themed daily devotional based on a different bible verse for each day.  Each devotion is written by one of the team of inspritional writers who draw upon their experiences of motherhood and marriage and apply them to eternal biblical principles.  It will bring inspiration to many young moms, stressed out from the pressures of motherhood and homemaking to see how their experiences can actually apply to the bible.  For a typical carefree mother who faces the ordinary challanges presented by motherhood, this book is certain to provide relevant inspiration.

 For those women readers who are not young moms, it may be difficult to relate to the number of motherhood related anecdotes and themes. There is an overwhelming number of children themed anecdotes that women who are either not mothers whether by choice or circumstance, will find difficult to relate to.  Unless they are young married mothers, I believe that many readers will feel that this book is simply not relevant to their season in life.   This lighthearted devotional may not provide the relief and comfort that so many readers may need when going through serious life challanges such as terminal or chronic illness, loss & grief, unemployment or depression.  Rather, this devotional may even further the grief, isolation and dissatisfaction that women may harbor in less than ideal life circumstances. Furthermore, the teachings are relatively passive, as indicate in one of the early January devotionals explaining that sins will happen in a passive manner using an analogy of a leaf passively floating in a river, following the current.  It seems to imply that faith consists of passively letting life happen, regardless of our duty to make difficult choices, and then simply to persevere, accept forgiveness and move on.  There is very little focus on the biblical concepts of guilt which lead to repentance.

There is certainly nothing wrong with drawing from personal experiences of motherhood and marriage when writing a devotional- it can be quite effective as an outreach method for a target audience- namely young moms.  In fact, Jesus used personalized circumstances tailored to his audience when he taugh in parables- using analogies with fishing, farming, finance and even parenthood.  Yet, the parables were varied and intended for a wide audience, while these devotions are best suited to a targeted readership. This devotional is best described as a good  introduction to Christian devotionals for the young mother in that it introduces biblical concepts in an easily digestible, non threatening manner to new believers.  Personally I feel this book should have a sub-title  such as "Daily Inspiration for Mothers", for the sake of full disclosure.  As a blogger for Litfuse publicity group I recieved this book by Guidepost publishers for the purpose of writing this review.  The opinions expressed are my own.