What do you do before you open the Bible? What do you think to yourself? In this short book, Matt Smethurst challenges us to ask those questions of ourselves. And in doing so, he gives 9 reminders and correctives to help us approach God’s word. Each one packs a weighty punch, and does not take long to read. I found the author’s chapter on prayer particularly useful. As Smethurst mentions, even he did not think to add this chapter till the end. Prayer is so important to rightly handling God’s word, and something we regularly forget to do. I used this book for 9 days consecutively and found it a…

Rosie and the family is the new series of books published by 10ofThose, written by Nicola Fairbairn and illustrated by Ruth Hearson. Currently there are three books in the series: Mummy’s New Baby, The Bad Dream, and Sports Day (that’s the order I placed them in – there is a very subtle story progression, see if you can spot it!). The Stories Each book is around 24 pages long, and speaks into the lives of children. I really like the formula that the stories follow. The issue for the child (Rosie in two of them, and her brother Joshua in the other) is shown, and the parents start to deal…