BOOK REVIEW: Priceless by Jen Barrick

Title & Author: Priceless, Jen Barrick

Publication Date & Publisher: October 2, 2018, Moody Publishers

Genre(s): Christian, Religion & Spirituality

My Rating: 3.5/5.0

Description (from Goodreads):

What if your daughter’s propensity for “feeling all the feels” is actually a good thing?

Teens and tweens have a reputation for letting their emotions get the best of them, so much so that we often wonder if our families (and the world) wouldn’t be better off if these young women we love could feel just a little less. But as Linda Barrick discovered, these emotions play an important role in the spiritual lives of young women, and, when they learn to direct them rightly, their feelings can be a powerful force for good in their lives, homes, and schools.

That’s why Linda and her daughter Jen wrote this devotional for teen girls. After Linda’s daughter, Jen, was in a traumatic car accident, Jen was in many ways “frozen” at age fifteen and completely uninhibited. That means Jen still says what she’s thinking and feeling almost all the time. Because of this Jen’s mom, Linda, got a unique glimpse into the inner world of young women, and she realized that the emotions young teen girls feel are a beautiful gift. It gives them the ability, like Jen, to have an unhindered, best-friend relationship with their Heavenly Father.

In this 30-day devotional for young teen girls, author Linda Barrick combines her daughter Jen’s real-life prayers with passages from Psalms in order to speak directly to the heart of young women. It will teach these teens and tweens how to cultivate a deep, emotional relationship with the God who loves them. Each day will:

address a different feeling and examine it in light of God’s truth from a short passage of Psalms
affirm young women’s feelings as a gift of God
demonstrate how their emotions are meant to lead them closer to God
show them how to make their faith stronger when they use God’s Word to navigate their emotions

My review:

My hopes were set pretty high for this title. Overall, this was a good devotional for teen girls. I went through the first part with my 13 year old daughter and she really enjoyed it. It’s definitely written to a much younger audience than my 38 year old self and it does a good job at talking at their level.

However, I feel that I need to get my biggest concern with this title out of the way before I go on:

At the end of Day 1, Priceless has something very similar to the much recognized “sinner’s prayer.” I really think I would’ve enjoyed this book much more if this part wasn’t in there, since I personally don’t believe in the sinner’s prayer. It takes more than simply saying a prayer to be transformed in Christ and to live your life as His disciple. There’s a lot more I could say here, but it’s not appropriate in this review as it’s not about the book. (Please feel free to Contact Me to discuss further.)

I liked the layout of Priceless and how it addresses so much of what every teenage girl goes through and feels. It lets them know that those feelings are normal, but feelings aren’t necessarily true. And then it shows them the truth in God’s word and helps them to shift their thinking into more positivity.

I loved that it had so many activities to do! My daughter and I wrote prayers together, and it really opened up a lot of discussions about how she feels and the best ways to deal with those feelings. I definitely recommend going through this book with your daughter! It was pretty eye opening.

Overall, I would recommend this book with the one concern noted above. Let me know you’re thoughts in the comments section below!