ABOUT THE BOOK:
In previous generations women lived in close-knit communities and
encouraged one another in all areas of life, including marriage,
parenting, homemaking, service, and spirituality. But in today’s
society, we often live far away from extended family, making it ever
more difficult for women to establish those same levels of
relationships. Dr. Kirby show how to develop connected relationships
with other women, glean wisdom through their experiences, and gain a
sense of emotional intimacy and wholeness from being heard, known, and
supported by women who truly care about them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Joneal Kirby is probably best known as the founding leader of
Heart to Home, a multi-generational mentoring program, now known as
Heartfelt Friends. This organization has seen blessings of unprecedented
growth over its dozen years of service is now known as Heartfelt
Ministries.
She was crazy enough to go back to school at the “old” age of fifty
to earn a PhD in marriage and family therapy and now looks back over her
shoulder in wonder – “How did I do that?”, because she now has trouble
remembering her own phone number. Much less Analytical Statistics.
She started a private counseling practice and then opened up a
counseling center to partner with God to help bring healing to many
broken hearts and families. Her passion for her faith in Jesus and her
love of all things family wakes her up every day ready to do God’s work.
Although sometimes she’d like to crawl back under the covers, after a
couple of cups of coffee, she is ready to shake up the evil one’s plans.
Joneal is also a
talker
– a “SPEAKER”. For those who will ask her, she speaks to audiences
throughout the country on topics ranging from Biblical womanhood to
marriage and family issues and whatever else God puts on her heart. She
will travel anywhere to do this. However, her schedule fills up very
quickly. There is a speaking schedule available somewhere on this
website. And a request form if you want to see if she is available to do
your event.
Her unique speaking style combines practical advice and humor - she
hopes - along with Biblical wisdom – she prays. Everything she does is
rooted in her passion for strengthening families and honoring God’s
name. She is humbled her Heart to Home Bible Studies have been used by
thousands since the founding of the Heart to Home Ministry in 2003.
Joneal has written some books. Her oldest is a parenting devotional book,
Heart of a Family for Mom. And her newest is
Heartfelt, A Woman’s Guide to Creating Meaningful Friendships,
with Worthy Publishing. She’s excited about this book telling all
about Heart to Home. It is full of stories of the women who have been
blessed by this mentoring program, and
Miss Kay Robertson and
Missy Robertson are two of the most wonderfully fun testimonies in the book.
She has been producing a radio show for a gazillion years.
Heartfelt Radio
is heard daily by her amazing group of listener/fans in her home state
of Louisiana. This has been going on since 2005. She has done some
television too. It was a great surprise to her that she really didn’t
like it. But she and her girlfriends created and produced a Bible study
for Legacy Network for about three years called “GIRLFRIENDS”. Dr. Kirby
loves radio. Enough said.
It would be silly not to mention this about her. She is related to the family of
Duck Dynasty fame. Her sister is
Korie Robertson’s
mom. They lived and raised their kids in houses right next door to each
other. This little known fact about Dr. Kirby is told here only
because she is so proud of what
Korie and Willie have
done in bridging the gulf between the Christian community and the
culture by their willingness to be courageous and not only entertain,
but to engage the world, in a conversation about Jesus Christ.
Joneal and her husband, Randy live on 130 acres they share with
deer and ducks, a few gobbly turkeys, some loud-mouthed owls, some
pot-bellied pigs and alligators, and a couple of normal, good dogs.
Their daughter and son-in-love live next door with two of their
grandsons on this family land in West Monroe, Louisiana. Three of their
children and two grandkids live in the next door state of Texas. They
love being a part of their church and this Forever Family partners with
them to help lots of families and marriages grow stronger. The Kirbys
will talk to anyone who will listen about building a courageous family
living boldly for the Lord. After four decades of marriage and a full
life of blessings and many fun family times, they consider their
greatest joy to be doing life now with their four amazing grandsons.
MY REVIEW:
This book is so timely for me, as I'm sure it will be for you. We women long for deep relationships with other women where we can share our heart. In this day of social media, it's not always easy to really make the effort to have those relationships. We find ourselves clicking the "like" button on Facebook and calling that person our friend. Really, though, these relationships are not the deep friendships we long for.
This book gives us the tools to create our own small group and draw wisdom from this book as well as the Bible. Heartfelt gives us stories from women who participated in the group and how it changed things for them in a positive way. I really liked the stories because I could relate to so many of these women's thoughts and feelings.
We are also given questions to answer and reflect on as well as prayers and Scripture to meditate on. Dr. Kirby's book is so inspiring and I am now so excited about starting my own Titus 2 group. I love that this book shows us how to be a better friend/mentor and how to enjoy the friendship we find with other women. In the back of the book, she shares how to set up our own small group and gives ideas of what we can do together as a group. I really enjoyed this as sometimes it's hard to know exactly what we need to do to set up a small group.
This is a book that every woman really should read.It will bless you so much and give us the tools to create deeper, more meaningful relationships with other women. I really got a lot out of this book and I highly recommend it. I give it 5 out of 5 stars!
*This book was provided to me for my honest review by Worthy Publishing
Blessings - Julie
