Self-help

Walk into any bookstore or library and you’ll find a wealth of self-help books. There’s a book out there to help you change just about any habit or personality trait you want. And if it isn’t some ingrained something in yourself that you want to change then there’s a book out there to teach you how to do just about anything you want to do. I’ve never seen them but I’ve heard there are even books to show you how to build bombs.

You name it, if you want to change it, there’s a book out there to help you do just that.

I’ve never been all that big on self-help books for the same reason I’ve never been all that big on devotionals…they all start with someone else’s ideas and then that person uses their ideas and beliefs to tell you what to do in your life.

I currently own two devotionals by reformed preachers…one a modern day preacher, one a popular preacher from the 1800’s…and I must say I’m no more impressed with either of those devotionals than I am with any other devotional I’ve ever picked up.

Why is it that men that can deliver an excellent reformed sermon can’t seem to deliver the same kind of message in a devotional? I suspect the devotional by the 19^th century preacher has been made by modern day men using the teachings of that preacher but to be honest I haven’t read enough of it to know. The one by the modern day preacher…a preacher that delivers hard truths in every sermon I’ve heard him preach…reads like he’s holding the hand of his reader and walking them through the simplest ideas of Christianity.

I had hoped to find the same kind of deep Scriptural truths in his devotional that I find in his sermons but that hasn’t been the case.

Recently a good friend suggested I read a certain parenting book. She highly recommended it. I happened to have had that very book several years ago and wasn’t impressed with it. It sat on my bookshelf for over a year. During that time I picked it up with the intention of reading it many times only to wind up unable to do more than skim through it. After trying to read it so many times and not liking what I was reading I sent the book on its way to another home where it might do more than gather dust and take up space as it was doing in my home.

When my friend suggested I read the book I did some research into the author. Turned out he holds to reformed beliefs. About the same time I found that book, quite by accident, at the thrift store. I bought it, brought it home, and began to read through it. Only to discover that I was no more impressed this time around than I had been the first time. It was of the same ilk as all other parenting books. The only thing I could see in it that made it better than most was that it did hold to Christian standards…mostly.

As with the devotionals I have that were written by the reformed preachers I wanted to find within the pages of that book the Scriptural beliefs I hold. What I found instead was something entirely different. But the biggest disappointment for me wasn’t in the truths that were or were not being taught within the pages of that parenting book…it was the fact that what I was reading was nothing more than a man trying to get me to raise my children based off his ideas and beliefs. In the beginning of the book there was even an endorsement by someone else who stated that the author of that parenting book understood both me and my children.

And that was where I ran into my first problem. How could this author…this man…possibly understand me or my children? He’s never met us, doesn’t know us, and will most likely never meet or know any of us.

            I did wind up skimming through the entire book, reading parts of it and skipping others, but I did it only for the friend that had suggested I read the book.

            I find myself in the same position with these reformed devotionals. I have skimmed through them, read bits and pieces, tried to see in these books what I hear in the sermons these men preached…and I can’t find it.

            As much as I’d like to enjoy a parenting book or a devotional book I have truly never found one that I enjoy. If I’m going to turn to a self-help book…the only one that’s ever helped me has been the one that contains all of Truth and nothing of man’s ideas. The only book I’ve ever found true help in has been the Bible.

That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy reading a book that may teach a certain topic. I have and do enjoy certain books of that kind. But I simply can’t manage to enjoy or like books that are designed to