Let Your Life Count: Make a Difference Right Where You Are

Donna comes thru with another power and uplifting book for women. Her writing style is once again fun and down-to-earth, yet it delivers a dramatic punch not to be missed! Each chapter ends with 3 sections: Remember, Reflect and Reach. Remember summarizes the main part of the chapter, Reflect asks thought provoking questions and Reach tells the reader how they can apply the concepts of the chapter to the world around them. I have yet to find a Donna Partow book I do not like, but this book is one of my favorites! I highly recommend this book to any woman who needs a spiritual uplifting in mind and spirit.

Donna Partow, author of several bestselling books for women and previous speaker on the Women of Faith tour, has an uncommon gift of sharing truth with a gentle one-two punch. She lives her Christian life with a transparent ease many would love to emulate, yet she is quick to dismiss any "successes" as deriving from personal power. Rather, Partow repeatedly reminds her readers that she lives day to day on God's strength alone. On the foundation of these honest admissions, she tells women that they can make a significant difference right now, beginning today. Partow, whose own pre-conversion past included drugs and promiscuity, exhorts women to look beyond their previous failings, disappointments and limitations to fully embrace today as an unopened gift ripe with possibility. With God as the infuser of hope, purpose and enabling strength, every woman's life can count for today and for eternity, and the author shows readers how it's done. In her 21-mini-chapter text, she opens her study by explaining the difference between "letting" one's life count and "making" it count. Says Partow: "'to make' is all about driving ourselves and everyone around us bonkers." Whereas "'to let' is to yield and give way and to let God have it his way." Following this distinctive premise, Partow invites readers to store away each chapter's message via a three-step process designated the three "R's": remember (sums up the takeaway truth), reflect (an introspective question or two) and reach (a proactive choice or action to make life count for today). Closing out each segment is a brief yet powerful prayer that zeros in on the specific subject. Just a few of the pithy yet comprehensively presented topics include: developing a God-directed prayer discipline, living as a sign to an unbelieving world that God indeed cares, recognizing opportunities God places before women to serve effectively, making a difference even when feeling like a "church outsider," summoning up the strength to do the very thing one dreads, relying on God's courage to "do it afraid" rather than sit back paralyzed, recognizing problems as the perfect school for learning and growth, and focusing on the long-range vision of living out life for Christ. Situated in the middle of Partow's text could be possibly the most pivotal admonition that will directly and indirectly affect all the others. She does a stunning job of detailing how essential it is to understand the inner motivation of the heart. Partow says that the love for Christ (and in response to what He has done) must compel Christians to live for God. Otherwise, women's lives become "duty-driven" not love-inspired. Nothing, the author states with conviction, will see Christian women through the tough times unless they develop a vibrant "love" relationship with God alone. --- Reviewed by Michele Howe