A Review of Ordering Your Private World

It was easy to make the selection of Ordering Your Private World by Gordon MacDonald to take on as a review book. The title itself got my attention as something that would easily benefit me. While it did provide information on organizing and time management, it all started with an explanation of why your private world is so important.

Your private world is the foundation that everything is built on. We spend lots of time focusing on the outside world, the one that everyone sees and in some ways, judges us on. But if you don’t have your private world in order, the rest isn’t going to be worth much in the long run. MacDonald’s explanations are solid and practical. They make it easy to understand just why getting the private world in order is so critical no not just what you do but who you are.

I love the word pictures that MacDonald creates. My favorite being the idea of an unordered private world being like a sinkhole. You can build all kinds of things on top of it, but there’s a chance that one day, that emptiness is going to catch up with you and put everything that you’ve worked so hard on at risk. That’s a pretty vivid explanation for the importance of looking internally.

Some of the book is focused on a certain type of person, the driven individual that forfeits lots of other things in order to obtain what they want. I have to admit, I skimmed a lot of this as I didn’t feel like it pertained to me. While everyone has some of those characteristics, I didn’t feel like that was me. Otherwise, much of what he said was applicable.

This book is ideal for just about anyone. Who wouldn’t benefit from the reminder that you’re private world and private time needs to have a focus. Putting prayer, devotions, and even silence into practice can have amazing effects on how things go both inside and outside of a person. The study guide helps narrow down the focus for those that may not have the time to digest the book in one or two settings.

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Review of The Awakening of HK Derryberry

At first glance, The Awakening of HK Derryberry seems like another story you’ve read before with maybe a couple of variations. But in reality, the book reads with such honesty and insight into the special relationship between these two people that it’s hard to walk away from the book without your perspective slightly moved.

The book details the relationship between HK Derryberry, a boy with an unbelievable ability to remember everything and a man that made the seemingly random choice to turn into a different fast food restaurant to enjoy a cup of coffee. From there, tons of information comes out about HK, his past, his disabilities, but more importantly, his outlook on life.

One of my favorite features of the book is the fact that there are moments when mistakes are made. They aren’t covered up. This isn’t show to be a perfect relationship where everything happens the way it should. Bradford is candid, making it even more interesting to read. Within one chapter I’d find myself with a huge smile only to experience tears as the section came to an end.

I’m not quite sure how to explain this next feature that endeared the book to me, but I’ll try. It doesn’t sound like it’s written by someone that is a professional author. Instead, Bradford’s voice and explanations come through loud and clear. Sometimes sentences are choppy or an event is explained in a very stiff way. Instead of being put off by this, for me, it made the store all the more real.

I don’t know that this is a book I would have picked up had I walked by it in the bookstore. But after reading it, it would certainly be one that I would recommend to others. There’s a lot to learn about relationships and endurance, setbacks and successes. Read it and see if it doesn’t make you take a closer look at your life and the things that you may unknowingly pass by each and every day.

I received this book in exchange for my honest review.