Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

women living well {book review}

Women Living Well: Finding Your Joy in God, Your Man, Your Kids, and Your Home
By Courtney Joseph

imagine how ridiculously excited i was when i received an email saying i was chosen to be part of a book-launch team. i know, right? and to make it even more exciting, it was for Courtney Joseph’s new book. Courtney is part of Good Morning Girls and she also had the Women Living Well blog. i’ve been reading both for quite some time now. yeah, crazy over-the-moon excited!!!

want to know what made me even more excited?!?! they are giving me a book to GIVEAWAY! oh yeah 🙂 in a few weeks, when i do my final book review, i will also be doing a giveaway. so. so. excited.  and the giveaway is for a signed copy.

i was blessed to have been given an advance copy of this book to help get the work out, read and review it. i’m about halfway through it and let me tell you, WOW, you will be blown away. it has four parts that are based on Your Walk with the KING, Your Marriage, Your Parenting, and Your Homemaking. i have to tell you though, even if you aren’t married or you don’t have any littles yet, you will still be blessed by this book. there is something in this book for every single one of us women. this book will challenge you, take you a little out of your comfort zone and help you grow in your walk with Him.


below is a trailer announcing the book.  if the very first line of the trailer catches your attention, as it did mine, then you’ll want to get this book to see what else Courtney has to say!

if you are super duper excited to get your hands on this book and you can’t wait for the giveaway, you can pre-order your copy now.  also, Courtney is offering a 10 e-book bundle as a free gift.  there are also several other cool gifts if you order more.  click here to pre-order and for more information on the free gifts click here.

i can’t wait to share the rest of this book with y’all.

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embarrass your kids.

kids love seeing their parents get affectionate, whether they admit it or not. sure, you might hear shouts of “gross”, “ewwwwww” or “get a room”…but deep down they don’t hate it nearly as much as they let on. normally, the shouts are said with a smile on their face.

i think it’s great for kids to see Mom and Dad putting their relationship first. most of the time, especially in todays society, the opposite happens. parents are making their kids a priority and at the end of the day, they just don’t have any time left for each other.

it’s really important that our kids can watch us giving our spouse love and respect. that they can see we are still pursuing our spouses heart. the byproduct is that my kids see their parents dating. when children see their parents giving each other time, affection, and respect it is a reassurance of our love and makes them feel secure.

our kids are watching us. they are learning to be comfortable with affection and to be affectionate with their own partner in the long run. kiss your husband, dance with him and hold his hand. pursue his heart. show them your romance. what an absolutely perfect place for them to learn about love!

here is one of my fav stories…
a few years ago the kids and i went to visit my grandma in the nursing home. we were there during lunch and sat in the dining room with her. there were many tables in the room with people scattered around them. one table in particular caught my attention. the entire table was empty except for an elderly man and woman, sitting right beside each other on one side. i thought it was totally cute and figured they were married. grandma told me they weren’t married, they were just “dating”. which made it even cuter.

on the drive home, the kids and i were talking about that couple and how cute it is that they are “dating” when they are probably in their 80’s or older. and jade made a statement that not only made me laugh but also made me stop and think that maybe, just maybe, her dad and i ARE showing them what marriage should look like.

jade said…”when i’m old, i hope my husband still slaps my butt when i walk past him”

now i’m not saying by any means that joe and i are inappropriate BUT we are a very affectionate family. “i love you” is a daily statement in our household between all of us. hugs and kisses are never ever spared. and yes, there might be an occasional butt slap when i walk past.

we are not only telling our kids what a happy, healthy marriage looks like, we are showing them.  go ahead, embarrass your littles.  show them you’re healthy marriage.  pursue your husbands heart and plant a big ole’ smootch on him today.   
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be unique.

i am unique.
you are too.
there isn’t anyone in the world like me, or you.
there never has been.
and there never will be.
He made us unique so we would know how special we are to Him.

embrace your uniqueness. own it. be thankful you are an original. how boring the world would be if we were all the same.

you are His perfectly perfect creation, handcrafted by the same hands that made the stars. there are billions of us here on earth, but does that make any of us less valuable? absolutely not! if you found billions of diamonds would they be less valuable because there were so many? Jesus skillfully crafted the body, mind and soul of each and every human being in his/her mother’s womb.

i love being different, unique and not like everyone else. i don’t go with the “latest trend” or the popular thing at the time. i own my uniqueness. that’s why it’s so hard for me to understand others who want to copy me. my wardrobe, speech, actions, traits and words. you don’t have to be an exact replica of someone to be friends with them. just be you. and be the best YOU that you can be. remember, an original is always worth more than a copy.

the next time your self-esteem is lacking or you feel not as pretty, thin, popular, etc. as the next person, just smile and thank the God who made you, died for you, and wants the best for you.


For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

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