Renewing You
by Father Nick Louh and Dr. Roxanne Louh
I am very torn by my thoughts on this book. I think it would be easiest to divide my thoughts into a set of Pro’s and Con’s:
Pro’s
This book covers many different areas of personal life: Prayer, Thoughts, Vices, Trials, Self Care,
Marriage, Kids and Sharing your light.
Dr. Roxanne does a wonderful job explaining the psychology of our minds and actions.
I appreciate the amount of science she uses to explain how our minds work.
This is a great workbook format. There are a lot of thought provoking questions. This book
takes a good time commitment to be used correctly and beneficially.
I enjoyed reading and connecting with the anecdotal stories. They helped tie in the message.
It is very clear that Father Nick and Dr. Roxanne have many experiences to share. I could tell
that they had a personal understanding of many different situations. This made the book very
relatable.
I really like how the chapter on Self Care covered more in depth ways to take care of yourself
and quick fixes like getting your nails done or a bowl of ice cream.
There is so much supportive Scripture!
Several quotes were inspiring to me:
“Peace is not the absence of a storm, it’s the presence of God.” page 48
‘We can’t rely on ‘feeling like it’ in order to do the things our bodies require.” page 173
“Just keep remembering that choices lead, feelings follow.” page 175
Con’s
I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of Bible translations used. I counted 6 different
translations in the first chapter. This makes me leery and makes me feel like the Scripture is
being twisted to make a point.
I am unsure of the intended audience of this book. It is written in such a way that maybe
Protestants would be more likely to read.
In the chapter of Prayer there is no mention of using the Jesus Prayer or having an Orthodox
Prayer rule. While the First Fifteen plan is probably a very good idea, I was very disappointed
by the lack of Orthodox influence. We have daily scripture readings and daily Saints lives that
would be wonderful to include first thing in the morning, as well as the Trisagion prayers. Also
mentioning the importance of developing spiritual guidelines with your Spiritual Father would
have been a good suggestion.
The chapter of Vices covered a lot of interpersonal issues, but lacked focus on personal vices.
Many of my battles deal with my own issues. There was also a lack of discussion on the
importance of Confession. I feel like making the full cycle of repentance is lacking if there is no
form of confession. Planning for confession would have been a helpful addition to this chapter.
I don’t see the full flow of all of the chapter headings. While Marriage and Children are great
topics, not everyone reading the book will be married or have children (or even children of the
ages discussed). I feel like there are other life situations that should have been included. While
I appreciate the need to Shine Your Light, I did not feel like that chapter cohesively fit with the
rest of the book. It was more of a good remember for the reader, not a description of Renewal.
I personally would have preferred prayers from the Saints at the end of each chapter rather than
the ones written by the authors.
I do feel like I benefited from reading this book and would like to go back to some of the chapters
and take some more time thinking through my personal life. The book did not have a strong Orthodox
feel to me, so I am not likely to highly recommend this book to my Orthodox friends.
I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
