Amish Values for Your Family, Suzanne Woods Fisher

This is by far one of the neatest books on Amish values and beliefs. Although I have no desire to travel north and join an Amish community I do see the benefits of many of their beliefs regarding family structure. This book explores this through personal stories of the Amish. It is truly an insight to a people that are truly set apart from this world.

If you are seeking to simplify your life - to return to a seemingly easier and maybe old-fashioned lifestyle this is a great book. The Amish have managed through the years to keep their life simple by focusing on the important things in life. I appreciated the reminders to value family above earthly things. From cover to cover this story is filled with encouraging ways to embrace a simple life in this hectic world.

I especially enjoyed the Amish Proverbs at the top of each new chapter. One I particularly like is "We Pass on our convictions to our children by the things we tolerate." (page 69). In fact this was posted on my FaceBook wall. I don't think people think about how what we tolerate effects our children. I have adopted this as one of our Proverbs to counter the inevitable "Everyone else is doing it" or "So and So's mom doesn't care". I want my children to understand that we must be different and must stand for what the bible says - tolerating no iniquities in our life but being quick to repent and turn.

At the end of each chapter is a section called Road Map: Getting There From Here. This section tells more in depth why the Amish believe what they do and how we can adapt this into our own lives. There is then a section called In their Words that has quotes from different scribes from different Amish Communities. I thought these were often funny and extremely personal. One that made me giggle was I have learned to be careful how I write Oleo when I send my husband to the store or he comes back with Oreos.

I would recommend this book for anyone needing some encouragement that the simple life can be attained even in this hectic world.

I received this book from Revell as a review copy.

Available August 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group