This is a devotional-style book, with one entry per day. (Obviously I didn't follow that, because I am reviewing it for Thomas Nelson.)

I think this would definitely work very well if you read it that way, because reading it all at once means that I got a little tired by the end and so certain passages didn't affect me the way they normally would have. But the short passages would be a fantastic beginning to any day.

Each entry is written by a missionary and it deals with their day-to-day life. There are also Bible verses and a short prayer. Some stories are sad and some are inspiring. (One story tells of a man who burned his sister's Bible. In a dream that night, though, he saw shining hands take the Bible out of the fire and turn it from ashes back into the book. The next morning, he found the Bible completely intact, sitting on top of the ashes.)

Each month deals with a common theme. November's, for example, is "Be Encouraged." My personal favorite entry is from November (specifically November 21):

"Through it all, God was my constant companion. Even when it felt like He wasn't there, I knew He was. I knew that when my pain was so great that I couldn't even form thoughts, the Holy Spirit was crying out on my behalf. Sometimes just `hanging on' is standing. Crying out to God is standing. Trusting God to be in charge is standing. I did not do these things myself. God made me stand by helping me to hang on, to cry out, and to trust.

"There are some struggles in which we can feel God stiffening our spine, making us stand. There are many struggles that require spiritual hindsight in order to see how God's hand was at work. Even though we feel we are weak, if we are hanging on to God, we are still standing."

If you like devotional-style books about God, you'll like this one. The stories, as I said, are tragic or funny or inspiring, but they'll all make you feel something.