A colleague at last month’s children’s ministry networking lunch suggested a book series for tween girls. Always looking for new books for the Saints Book Club, I ordered it, read it in a day, and made this book our month’s reading choice. I was not disappointed.

The book is laid out in six small chapters about BFFs and Mean Girls followed by 6 small chapters of My Best Friend, Jesus – Bible Study which includes a scripture passage to read with puzzles to apply it.  I love puzzles! Authors Dannah Gresh & Suzy Weibel invite the reader to be a meditator: ‘a meditator studies the bible and then asks God to help her understand it while she prays. A wise pastor once told me that meditation is what happens when studying and praying crash into each other!’

The chapters include easy reading for tweens to choose their team (Jesus didn’t wait to be chosen, but chose His team) and how we can follow Jesus’ example of how to deal with jealousy, wounds, how to be a good friend and not a mean girl, and what it means to be a fruitful friend of and to Jesus.

At Saints Book Club we were able to talk about being an extrovert/introvert, our closest friends, the friends we chose, the friends who chose us, when we were hurt by friends, when we forgave, and were challenged to pray regularly for our friends.  ‘Friends, by the way, were intended to make us better people’ was one of my favorite lines.

There are several other books in this series and we’ll choose another.  I found the book to be very relevant to my group of tween girls (3rd-5th grade) without going into situations that were more teen-appropriate.  Their Secret Keeper Girl’s website is amazing and promotes a Crazy Hair Tour for moms and daughters.  They are coming to our town, but I have a commitment that day, so I’ll have to wait until they come by again. The meditation part with Jesus as the model provided a best friend context for my girls.  It made for great conversation over a Wendy’s frosty. Yes, we will definitely read another.

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20