Hermie: A Common Caterpillar; book review

Hermie is a common caterpillar. He has no spots or stripes, he is just plain green with a few freckles. Wormie, his friend, is also common and plain. Every day, these two friends talk to God about the characteristics that they wish they had such as spots, strength, or a cool house like their friend the snail and God says to them each time, “Don’t worry, I love you both just the way you are and I’m not finished with you yet.” In the end, they discover that though it seemed that everyone else had gifts and they’d been left out, God really did have something beautiful in store for them.

In this story, Hermie: a Common Caterpillar Max Lucado writes a simple children’s story that simply illustrates truth about who we are in Christ. Through Hermie and Wormie’s example he encourages his young audience to accept who they are and to be content with whom God has made them. He also urges them to trust that God has amazing plans in store for them if they only just wait and lean on him.

I loved this story! It was beautifully and brightly illustrated and very well written. The theme was something that people young and old can easily relate to and it was well presented and easy to understand. I’m eager to read more of Max Lucado’s Hermie series based on how adorable this little book is! I highly recommend this book to anyone with small children who like to listen to stories, or grade schoolers just learning how to love reading for themselves. 

I was given this book for free by Thomas Nelson publishers in return for my review.  The opinions presented here are my own. 

Thomas Nelson Book Review

Have you ever found yourself in an argument with your spouse and you don’t even know how you got there? Then, what’s worse, you can’t seem to come to an agreement over whatever menial thing it was that started the argument? And do you find that sometimes you don’t even remember what that menial thing was?

Yeah. Me too. 

These types of fights happen far too often in marriages, and without the tools to decode each other, spouses who find themselves in these situations often find themselves riding what Emerson Eggerichs calls “The Crazy Cycle.” The thing about it is, that most of the time they don’t even realize that this is what’s going on! They just think their spouse is being ridiculous, insensitive, disrespectful, horrible… and thus the lines of communication are broken and marriages fail.

In The Language of Love and respect: Cracking the Communication Code with Your Mate, Eggerichs confronts this very problem. He spent years of his life as a marriage counselor listening to these types of complaints from couples day in and day out. Being married himself, he also had first hand experience of “The Crazy Cycle” in his own marriage. As he prayed and searched the Bible for God’s perspective on the matter, the answers he found were incredible, and surprisingly simple! In this book, he gives well-meaning couples who ride "The Crazy Cycle" day in and day out (or even just once in a while), the communication tools they need to decode the reasons behind their spouse’s behavior. He likens male/female communication to pink and blue earphones. A man and woman can hear exactly the same thing and draw different conclusions from it and react to it differently because men hear it through “blue earphones” and women hear it through “pink earphones.” Neither is wrong, “just different.” The sooner couples learn that, and the communication tools to work through it, the sooner they will find themselves getting off “The Crazy Cycle” of ridiculous fights and lack of communication, and they will find themselves on “The Rewarded Cycle” where each is looking out for the best interest of the other and working hard to fill each other’s “love tanks.”

I have to say I LOVE this book! As I was reading it I found myself able to daily apply the principles discussed here to my marriage. I saw one after another possible argument between my wonderful husband and I being diffused because I was able to recognize the fact that my husband was wearing blue earphones and I could  react accordingly. When I applied Eggerich’s principles to our relationship, I found that our marriage flourished even more than usually.

I think that every married couple should have this book. It’s such a powerful tool that I feel that if couples across this country were to read it, the divorce rate would drop significantly. It’s amazing and in the future I plan on giving it as a present to every couple whose marriage I attend!