When a book’s cover shows a young man boxing a large bear and has a headline that promises you the ability to guard your heart, get the girl AND save the world, it makes a guy like me want to pick it up right away. This book is a fun, easy read; a non-fiction book with a lot of humor and great, practical advice for all young men. The author has created a coming-of-age book that helps a young man guide his life in the eyes of God. It tackles difficult issues in developing minds, in the midst of societal influences such as porn and drug use. There is no real plot to the story, as it’s not really a narrative storyline. It’s set out as a literal guidebook with specific topics, examples, and advice. Essentially the main theme of the book is how to stay pure and build a life of purpose. The guide leads you through topics such as how to be a gentleman. The book encourages the reader to actively talk to friends or family throughout its chapters, as a way to share experiences and challenges. Throughout the book, simple everyday mannerisms, habits, and activities are suggested for the reader to practice being open and honest with themselves. Finally, it offers examples of God’s purpose for your life, especially as it relates to helping others and creating a life of service. A simple example is shifting your attitude toward Christmas, where the value and pleasure change from receiving gifts to giving gifts and bringing joy to others. There’s a lot of discussion about God and how holy figures such as David made similar bad decisions to contemporary people. The author shares great examples of how biblical figures faced the same challenges as today, such as lust, greed, and hedonism. These references were kind of a surprise to me. It helped illustrate how the challenges of becoming a man in today’s society are often the same but how today’s consequences are much more dramatic. To me, the most important ideas of each section were as follows:
Sex and dating: Sex should be reserved for married people, not forced or premature, which is how God intended it to be used.
Pornography: Porn is damaging to both young men and their ability to have healthy, respectful intimate relationships.
Boredom and Screen Time: Idle time forces you to be too self-absorbed, creates anxiety, and wastes valuable time
Building a life of purpose and passion: Building a productive life requires time, planning, and connecting to a real passion. Wasting time with #1-3 above directly distracts from this goal.
I personally loved this book because I could relate to many of the situations and feelings described. It was also very engaging because it provided 25 quick videos to watch for each chapter or big idea, summarizing the main thoughts and actions the reader can take. That format provides a little bit of a “stop and let’s talk about it” rhythm to the book which made it a fun, easy read that was not monotonous. Ironically, these videos link the reader back to a cell phone. But the author is smart enough to recognize he’s got to use the tools already in the hands of young men to make his point.
Summary and Recommendation
To be honest, I struggle with reading long books with complicated plots. But, I sped through this book once I started to capture the main ideas and realized how similar my problems are to those being described by the author. I’ve never been one to rave about a book, but this is an exception. The honest dialog, open discussion of difficult topics, and interactive style made it very engaging. All in all, I loved this read and I would seriously recommend it to other young men like myself.
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