Review: The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge by Tony Dungy

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I'm no football or sports fan. The only parts of the Super Bowl I like are the commercials. But coach Tony Dungy, who has led a winning team at the Super Bowl, finally gave me something more to enjoy about sports: spiritual and practical daily applications. No, I'm not running around with a ball all day every day. Rather, Dungy's "The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge" (co-written with Nathan Whitaker) uses principles and stories from the sports world (and from outside the sports world, as well) to help readers understand basic Scriptural principles, values and morals for living life for Christ.

Dungy's sports stories and metaphors will appeal to a male audience — there are a lot of devotionals out there for women, but not enough for men — but it's also easy to read and manages to keep away from anything that might scare away female readers. Each daily devotional includes a Scripture passage, a few paragraphs on a topic, and a one or two sentence "Uncommon Key" that sums up the day's message. Each day is dedicated to one of seven general topics, which include Core, Family, Friends, Potential, Mission, Influence, and Faith. Each devotional also takes up a full page. Personally, I get more out of short devotionals that are easy to recall throughout the day, but longer devotions like those Dungy writes can be just as effective when properly used.

As the book's introduction says, you must really settle down with each devotional and dedicate a good amount of time to thinking about what it says in order to get something out of it. Such is the case with any devotional, and although Dungy's devotionals are sometimes repetitious and don't always line up whatever of the seven topics they've been assigned, "Uncommon" presents some real gems for readers.

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More information on "Uncommon Life"
www.CoachDungy.com
www.Tyndale.com

List Price:

15.99 

ISBN:

978-1-4143-4828-5 

Trim Size:

6 x 9 

Binding:

Softcover 

Release:

October 2011 

Strengthen the core of your life and faith on a year-long journey with beloved Super Bowl–winning former head coach Tony Dungy! The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge contains 365 reflections from the #1 New York Times bestselling author on living an “uncommon life” of integrity, honoring your family and friends, creating a life of real significance and impact, and walking with the Lord. This year, step up to the challenge—and dare to be uncommon every day.

* I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review of it.

Review: Abundant Life Book

"The Abundant Day Book" surprised me. I'm not normally a devotional sort of person, but this small, beautifully laid out and designed (and good smelling - I know, I'm weird) made me think with each of its daily devotions. The book included a year's worth of daily devotions. Each devotion includes a Scripture, the beginning of a prayer and a short note "from God"written by Nancy Guthrie and based on the Scripture of the day.

According to her bio, Guthrie teaches at her church. I'm not sure in what capacity that is, so I'm a bit uncomfortable with her as the author. I also do not like that she chooses to use the New Living Testament version of the Bible, which is more of an interpretation than a translation. Still, the translation does not appear to affect the effectiveness or accuracy of the devotions presented, and the devotions are very thought provoking. Despite my reservations, I enjoyed this devotional and would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Tyndale House in exchange for my honest review.