From the publisher: Loving Like Jesus Just Got Doable
In this inspiring, utterly practical new book, #1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Les Parrott writes a viable prescription for becoming more loving with family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers. In his trademark approachable style, Dr. Parrott takes the latest findings from psychology and sociology and blends them with biblical teaching to reveal five transformative ways of relating to people demonstrated by Jesus himself: being mindful, approachable, grace-filled, bold, and self-giving. With questions to ponder, self-assessments, and insightful quotations, Love Like That will revolutionize every relationship in your life—especially the ones that matter most.
Dr. Les Parrott’s Love Like That: 5 Relationship Secrets from Jesus is a short but deep, book about how to love others better. In it, Dr. Parrott looks at the life and words of Jesus to present five different ways (Mindful, Approachable, Grace-full, Bold, and Self-Giving) we can love like Jesus.
First, the structure of each of the five chapters follows a similar pattern. Each chapter begins with a paraphrase of a Bible verse and an anecdote from Dr. Parrott based on the characteristic to be discussed. This is followed by examining how Jesus lived each characteristic. Next is a definition of the characteristic, and a look at what keeps us from living each characteristic. There is a short personal survey helping the reader to be more aware of how close they are to living the characteristic (there is an online version as well, with the website given). The survey is followed by a look at how Jesus lived out the characteristic, and ideas about how we can live more like that. Each chapter ends with a To Ponder section that provides thought-provoking questions for the reader to think about. Sprinkled throughout the chapters are quotes and verses that pertain to each characteristic being discussed.
As for the content, I liked Love Like That. Dr. Parrott has the ability to take tough or complicated subjects and ideas and turn them into something that is easy to understand and digest. And while the basic ideas behind Love Like That aren’t that hard to grasp, seeing how they work in Jesus’s life and how to practically apply them in our lives can be hard to work through. Dr. Parrott has also taken five fairly simple ideas and done a deep dive into what they really mean. For example, in the chapter about being Bold, Dr. Parrott talks about pluralistic ignorance, a social phenomenon wherein “a group of people go along with something because they incorrectly assume everyone else understands and accepts it”. Jesus, on the other hand, would speak the truth in love boldly, even when it meant making people uncomfortable. Dr. Parrott goes on to explain how fear of rejection can prevent us from being bold, and then uses Jesus as an example of how to act and speak boldly. This seems like a very simple idea, and it is. But the practical application of this is challenging if we are honest with ourselves. Dr. Parrott is very transparent and open about himself, as well, and he calls himself as well as the readers to love more like Jesus.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that Love Like That is a very good book with some simple but challenging ideas. Dr. Les Parrott has done a superb job in creating a blueprint to help us demonstrate love like Jesus in a country, and world, that could desperately use it.
I received a review copy of this book from the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.
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