This is the second part of my series of reviews about Andy Stanley’s new book The Principle Of The Path. If you haven’t read the previous parts of this series, check them out here:

Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers Review

This book review started out at a simple review for the Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers program. This is an excellent opportunity. They give you free books, and you read and review them on major retail websites. Check them out here.

However, they prefer that you keep your reviews to around two hundred words. That’s simply not enough room to say what I really think about this book.

And so, the brief review above gets posted to Amazon. And I continue to write a more detailed review beginning here. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s dig a little deeper into this book.

Maybe no one will ever read my reviews. If not, oh well. That really doesn’t bother me. The process of reading and writing a review helps me to better assimilate what I’ve read. And the writing helps me to articulate better what I want to think and say about what I’ve read.

So here it is. Part 1 of my extended review if Andy Stanley’s The Principle Of The Path.

And before I go any further, you can purchase The Principle Of The Path here (amazon link).

Andy Stanley has knocked it out of the park with this book. The Principle Of The Path is quite simply one of the best books I’ve read all year; maybe even longer.

The Principle Of The Path starts out with a simple premise: we are all on a path. And the destination we are headed towards is determined by the choices we make on the path. And the example used is the obvious one: If you are driving across the country in a vehicle, you make turns and course corrections to keep you headed toward your goal, your destination. If the road sign says that your destination is to the right, you wouldn’t make a left turn and head the opposite direction. You make the right turn and you head in the right direction.

The same is true of our lives. We all have an idea of where we want to be in our lives. We know where we want to be in our marriages, in our careers, in our finances, in our friendships. And yet we don’t make intentional decisions about those things in order to keep us on the path that will eventually reach our desired destination.

Stated another way, often we end up in situations in our lives where we do not want to be: marriage troubles, mounting debt, strained relationships with family and friends; and we wonder, “How did I get here?” If we were to go back and re-examine our decisions, we would be able to identify just how we arrived at the destination we are at.

That’s called the Principle of the Path. Our direction determines our destination.

So how do we get to where we really want to be? By making decisions that reflect our focus on our intended destination. Our goal is to pay attention to the things in life that matter most, and keep our focus unswervingly directed upon those things.

Do I want my kids to have a solid relationship with both God and my wife and I? Of course I do. But are the decisions I’m making, and the example I’m setting, and the priorities I’m keeping help keep me on the course of raising godly children? If not, what do I need to change to make sure that I’m making every effort to arrive at that destination?

The trouble is this: in order to make the best decisions to lead me to the desired destination, I have to invest a lot of time and effort now. My focus and attention have to stay on the goal of raising my children to be godly people. If I decide that my friends need more of my time, or I find a new hobby that consumes me, I’ve taken a wrong turn. I need a course correction before I end up where I do not want to be.

The Principle Of The Path is a book that I will undoubtedly take off the shelf and reread frequently. As I stated in the shorter review for Thomas Nelson, Andy Stanley really didn’t surprise me with any earth-shattering new ideas. Everything he said was already something I knew, much of it even very obvious to see. But often, we need our attention directed to the obvious, because we’ve overlooked it. That’s what this book did for me.

There were a few chapters that really spoke to me. These chapters will be the focus of the next few posts in this series and will be posted soon.

If you are interested in reading The Principle Of The Path, by Andy Stanley, you can purchase it at Amazon.com.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”