The authors compare the fragrance of the home to the atmosphere that is created by the parents. It revolves around the acrostic "A-R-O-M-A" which stands for Affection, Respect, Order, Merriment, and Affirmation. The foundation for each word in the acrostic is first set up in the chapter, then practical guidelines are suggested and each chapter ends with a plethora of practical tips.

Many family books come across judgmental. This book does not. It points out some errors found in every home, and helps the reader find solutions.

It is one book in the line of many books produced by Heritage Builders Association, a network of families intent on passing a healthy legacy to the next generation.

I first read about Mercy Otis Warren in a biography of John Adams. The sister of James Otis, one of the first American patriots unfortunately silenced due to illness caused by a severe beating over politics, Mercy married James Warren and had six sons. She was involved with the politics of her time and spent much time with John and Abigail Adams. She also was a political writer and during the American Revolution penned many pamphlets crusading for the cause of freedom. Her relationship with Adams was temporarily disrupted during the dispute over the Constitution and her epic history of the American Revolution further served to facilitate this break.

This story is particularly interesting because Mercy and her husband James were relatively minor characters during the war and the reader gets a well presented viewpoint of what it was like to gamble so much on the new government. Neither Mercy nor James were personally rewarded for their efforts and yet their strength of character and perserverance helped shaped our country. Mercy was able to function as a beloved mother and wife and yet maintain a role in the intellectual life of the new country. I would strongly recommend this biography. Yet I would also hope that someone current author would undertake the project of a new biography on this interesting woman and her times.

WHAT A GREAT BOOK! VERY ENLIGHTEN TO PROMOTE THE LIBERATION AND SERVANT THEOLOGIES OF CHRIST. TO BRING ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT INTO THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY. HE SPEAKS ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL,SOCIAL,ECONOMIC,EDUCATIONAL,AND HEALTH NEEDS IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY. REBUILDING THE BLACK COMMUNITY AND ADVOCATING ECONOMIC SELF-HELP.HE SPEAKS ABOUT THE ECONOMIC INJUSTICES.I AM HAPPY THAT THERE ARE CHURCHES ADDRESSING THESE PROBLEMS.DR.WALTER MALONE,JR.ALSO GIVES A CASE STUDIES:RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS WITH MINISTRIES OF ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT.THIS BOOK IS A MUST!READ.VERY INFORMATIVE!

George Otis Jr. is the founder and president of The Sentinel Group, a Seattle-based Christian research and information agency promoting prayer-based strategies for global evangelism and community transformation. In God's Trademarks: How To Determine Whether A Message, Ministry Or Strategy Is Truly From God is written specifically to enable the reader to effectively recognize religious phonies, false prophets, counterfeit ministers, and their destructive distortions of Christianity's message, activities, churches, and ministries. Christians today are all to often vulnerable and confused by discordant messages from religious authors, preachers, and musicians emphasizing materialistic measures of spiritual success such as financial worth or church attendance. Otis notes the several qualities for an authentic Christian ministry or leadership, as well as the critical importance of accountability and character for assessing what is genuine and what is contaminated with respect to works done in God's name or person's purporting to act under God's inspiration. Highly recommended reading for today's Christian communities regardless of denominational affiliation or background.

Through the use of illustrations of actual case studies, the author draws you into an urgency of building a good heritage for your children and the generations to come. He points out that we are passing a heritage. . .good or bad. So since we are affecting the next generation with our actions and value systems, why not be intentional about doing it right.

He points out that we are passing an emotional, social, and spiritual legacy. Each legacy is defined. After each legacy chapter, an evaluation is available for the reader to determine what he or she was given from his ancestors.

The author then produced a "Tool Chest" containing four tools that help in passing a healthy legacy to the next generation.

It's a "must read" for those interested in this subject.

For those interested in the American Revolution, this work is a must. Mercy Otis Warren, a witnesss to the Revolution from start to finish, offers here an eloquent, inspired, profound, and even reliable contemporary account of the epochal events that occured in the crucial period of American history beginning with the Stamp act and terminating with the adoption of the Constitution. However, unlike modern scholarly accounts of the Revolution, Warren makes no effort to remain unbiased. Throughout the work, she firmly and passionately upholds the cause and values of liberty and republicanism. Despite this, she still makes a concerted effort to portray accurately and impartially the events that took place. And while she is at all times staunchly supportive of the cause of the revolutionists, she is quick to condemn cruelty, inhumanity, dishonesty, immorality, and barbarity wherever she finds it.

With these principles firmly in mind, she relates the key figures and events beginning with the reaction to the Stamp Act in the mid-1760s. From this point, she provides an able and suprisingly veracious account of the principal political, military, and diplomatic occurences, as well as the ideological status of both the American and British people. In addition to this, she also makes a point to illuminate several important yet neglected individual and the part that they played in the struggle. The historical significance of such accounts are further augmented by the fact that Warren herself was personally acquanted, either in person or through correspondance. Her relationships, fortunately enough, were not restricted to obscure figures, but rather extended to many figures of enduring stature, such as John Adams.

Ultimately, the main value of the work is that it presents a contemporary scholarly exposition of the events of the American Revolution through the eyes of an individual who clearly embodied the libertarian and republican tendencies of the era. In the same vein, the work garners further importance as an example of the Anti-Federalist tradition. Warren, as many may know, was an outspoken opponent of the Constitution, writing as the reknowned "Columbian Patriot." The final chapter of this work offers further insight into this aspect of her though, so much so that Herbert J. Storing included it in his 7 volume collection of Anti-Federalist material.

Although the value of this work is immense, it goes without saying that one should not engage it as the definitive account of the Revolution. One should, of course, consult the works of modern scholars to gain a more comprehensive account of era. Still, Warren's volumes stand as perhaps the finest contemporary account of the Revolution, and they certainly deserve more attention than they have received in the nearly two centuries that they have been available.

Sarah's father has left to seek gold in California: as his favored daughter, Sarah feels his absence keenly and chafes against the strictness of a mother who shows her little love or fun. The family's struggles to keep the farm running in their father's absence makes for a realistic story, and Sarah's ultimate realization of her beloved father's shortcomings makes In Plain Sight an inviting, warm story of changing family relationships.

This book contains a cluster of excitements. It talks about transformation of cities, blessings upon cities, wonderful conversions, compelling evidences and then leading to more meaty materials on strategic research.

By and large, the weight of Otis message touches on a very much controversial issue, which is spiritual mapping. Some have called this exercise mystical. Others have challenged and call it unbiblical. Otis need not justify. He is in the business of finding out and reinforcing the truth. Many of us read line upon line but Otis reads a deeper meaning in between the lines, and that creates a drive in him to demystify the riddle behind our earthly dimension.

This is why the author is willing to paddle sacred mountains, interview a host of spiritual practitioners, identify topology of cities and various locations just to find out a truth to one pivotal question, "Why does spiritual darkness linger where it does? ". This book articulates his dedication.

But the fruits of Otis research per se is not an end to itself as he has to assembly them into ready-to-use tools. Knowing that spiritual rookies can be raw in this subject, Otis has also prepared simple materials in the form of questionnaires and wise guidelines that can help them to explore new ground using spiritual mapping.

The final product of spiritual mapping contains revolutionary methods that can give us understanding to our natural dimension from a spiritual perspective. Therefore with this kind of first class data, we are more acutely aware of the dark corners of our living dimension. The insightful information found in this book have also brought me to another mileage of realization. That is happenstance is a foolish answer to the ignorant. The happenings in our dimension are the visible products engineered by "invisible hands" of the spiritual realm.

Regardless of what critics have to offer, the end results of spiritual mapping speaks for itself. I am sure intercessors all over have already a deep appreciation towards the painstaking journey of Otis research and quest for truth. Many of them already found it extremely useful. Spiritual giants can now be subdued with intelligent utterances towards heaven. No wonder Otis stands out as a favorite consultant among prayer partners.

To put it succinctly, this book is both educational and enjoyable. The wisdom and integrity revealed here is certainly a product of its own class, that can now be applied by many who wants to see their own cities transform. Intercessors, make sure this book is included in your prayer class !

To Otis and Sentinel group thanks a million !

I found Mr. Smith's memoirs insightful and interesting. A true icon among those who mastered life in both the public and private sectors, Mr. Smith left a legacy of character, pragmatic behavior and reconciliation with the apparent facts surrounding race relations in our country. Had I to attempt what he did at the time it was done, I am not certain that I could have performed as admirably as he did. It is a story that many should know.

Sarah Bernhardt was the Madonna and the Meryl Streep of her day. She was a brilliant actress who broke from the traditions of the Comedie Francaise to create her own theatrical milieu. She inspired the intellectuals and the fans alike in fin-de-siecle Paris and she acted her way around the world. Her scandalous life style inspired plenty of press and numerous imitations.

Author Cornelia Otis Skinner provides a direct link to this era: her father, a noted stage actor, remembers seeing The Divine Sarah on the stage, and Cornelia herself became an actress. Cornelia was also a devotee of the French theatre--her most famous book, "Our Hearts Were Young and Gay", recounts her early studies with the stars of the Comedie Francaise in the 1920s.

Reading the witty "Madame Sarah" you have the feeling that you are hearing from someone who was there, someone who actually saw the Left Bank students unhitch the horses of Sarah's carriage and pull it through the streets themselves. The book is well-informed and admiring of its complex subject, but it is not fawning, as it frankly documents the less-appealing sides of a talented woman.

I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the history of the theatre, the French theatre, the Paris of the era, or the very intriguing actress herself...