Sorry, the Contest is now Closed.

Moody Publishing gave away  2 FREE books to the first 100 women who signed up to study Girls Gone Wise with a Girlfriend.

In any case, I want to give you a quick overview of the website resources that I’ve developed to accompany the Girls Gone Wise book.

• Personal Journal You can sign up to download a personal journal to help you personally apply what you are reading in the Girls Gone Wise book.  The Journal contains a cover page with graphics to match the Girls Gone Wise book, an introductory letter from me, a complete set of chapter questions, response pages, blank and lined pages. 49 pages in all! I suggest you print and hole punch the pages and keep them in a 1/2″ binder or duo-tang folder. Then, keep your GGW Personal Journal handy as you read.

• Chapter Questions You can also download questions one chapter at a time, or only for the specific chapters that interest you.

• Leader Guide I’ve developed a free 37-page Girls Gone Wise Leader’s Guide to help you study the book in a small group setting. It’s chock-full of ideas, YouTube video links, activities and group discussion questions to help you lead a small group study. It has questions that relate to the Personal Journal, but also many that are suited to group discussion. For those who want to study the book in a church setting, you can also download a Poster Announcement, a Powerpoint Announcement and a Bulletin Announcement

• There are several other miscellaneous pages for download:
  • The Wild or Wise Summary Chart provides a birds-eye overview of the 20 Points of Contrast
  • The Wild or Wise – 20 Questions, based on the Points of Contrast, will help a woman evaluate whether her heart is more wild or wise.
  • The Personal Hedges Worksheet is a worksheet to help a woman think through and establish personal boundaries.
  • The Conversation Peace Quiz is a quiz to help identify areas of a woman’s speech that need to be tamed.
  • The 25 Beauty Questions help evaluate whether we are pursuing those things the Lord regards as truly beautiful

• The 30-Day Media Reduction Challenge is a challenge to  TURN OFF…Unplug your TV, Cable, DVD, Video Games, Internet Surfing, and Radio. TRIM BACK…Curtail your Text Messaging, Emailing, and Social Networking, and TUNE IN…Nurture your Relationships with Family, Friends, and with the Lord — for 30 Days. If you sign up, I’ll send you several emails over the 30 days to help and encourage you, and to cheer you on.

• There’s a Video Book Blog Coming on May 18th and a great promo offer from Moody to get free books for you and a girlfriend. WATCH FOR MORE DETAILS early next week!

Help me get the word out about Girls Gone Wise. Tweet or Facebook your friends. Post reviews on Amazon. If you have a blog and would like to do an online review, send my office an email with your mailing address, and we’ll make sure the publisher sends you a complimentary review copy.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend celebrating the jaw-dropping wonder of the gospel of Jesus!

© Mary A. Kassian

Okay, by now you know that I’m way too tired from the weekend, and getting somewhat giddy and silly. But I really want to get some True Woman Twoughts blogged today –while the feelings and impressions of this past weekend’s Chattanooga conference are still fresh in my mind.

I don’t have the capacity in my present cotton-brained state to put together anything that’s particularly profound or earth-shattering, so here are some random, semi-unrelated (is that a new word too?) Twoughts to give you a taste of my True Woman experience:

• Getting bumped off the oversold flight on my way to my Girls Gone Wise release was ironic, since the passengers that didn’t get bumped were Spring-Breakers on their way to being Girls Gone Wild. Hmmm.
• 28 hours of travel for me, and 34 hours of travel for my bags. I bet my trip to Abu Dhabi at the end of the month will be quicker.
• All was forgotten when the presence of God palpably fell on the women at the pre-conference leader’s session. I can’t even remember what I said… I think it was something about how true womanhood pertains to revival…
• The Gettys rock! I SO miss my band days…
• Voddie Bauchan tells the amazing story of his 17-year-old Buddist mom who bore him out of wedlock and farmed him out to her brother to help Voddie learn to be a man. Tears stream down his cheeks as he encourages women to believe in the ideal, even if their own lives are broken and far from it.  I like him.
• One introductory point, 12 main points and 3 closing points for my talk on the Genesis of Gender. I break every homiletic speaking rule there is, trying to build an understanding of some basic, basic, foundational truths.
• Several Radio & TV interviews today. I wonder if they have a women’s version of that dark circle and puffiness under-eye-ugliness-eraser they’ve been advertising on TV for men.
• There are a dozen or so “True Men” praying in a back room non-stop behind the scenes. How good is that!!!
• I LOVED the light-bulb “aha” moment in the teen track when we talked about their cultural brainwashing at the hands of the Power Puff Girls et. al. The gasp and look on the one girl’s face was priceless!
• The Gettys rock! The unique sounds of violin & pipe make me want to dance a jig. Did I say how much I miss my band days?
• I can’t even begin to describe how fun it was to meet Hannah, Lindsay, Delta, Nicole, and the dozens and dozens of other new generation True Women. I wanted to pack you all up and take you home!
• My feet hurt from walkin and my jaw hurts from talkin, but I fall into bed one happy camper.
• The BUZZ intensifies with Rothchild, MacDonald, and Arthur. Lots of women are getting down to some serious business with God. Everywhere you look they are kneeling and praying. “Kicking holes in the darkness till it bleeds daylight” is the lyric that comes to mind.
• God is on the move. This is a momentum, movement-building moment. TW manifesto has 12,000 signatures and growing. We’re drawing a line in the sand that will cause the tide to turn.
• The panel discussed the daily challenge of living out true womanhood. I wonder what Dannah’s husband looked liked covered in meatloaf?
• Girls Gone Wise books sell out. They have to truck more in.
• Nancy DeMoss NAILED her talk on Deborah! RISE UP MOTHERS OF ISRAEL to reclaim spiritual ground for our families and future!
• If only a small percentage of the women in the room grab hold of the challenge and run with it, we will change the world!
• And it’s over just like that…. but it’s not over… it’s just beginning. And 2 more True Woman events to come in the fall. Amazing Amazing conference!
• I wonder how it’s possible for the airlines to lose my bags both going and coming… They keep getting lost and found– It’s definitely not John Calvin luggage. (That’s an inside joke for you theological types)

Enough twoughts.  Check out some pictures on the Girls Gone Wise Facebook page. For those of you who aren’t into twoghts, or tweets, or Facebook, here are just a few photos for you. AND… if you were at True Woman in Chattanooga, and have some of your own Twoughts to share, post them in the box below.

I’d love to hear from you!

© Mary A. Kassian

Those were the words my husband quoted yesterday when I sliced open the box that landed on my doorstep, and extracted a freshly printed copy of my new book, Girls Gone Wise… “So it begins!”

The months of writing, and the many recent preparations of study questions, leader’s guide, charts, quizzes, resources, website programming (Oh how I wish I were not my own I.T. department!!!)… the sleepless nights, early mornings, sacrifices, prayers, and labor are all for this moment—for this battle. I’ve written and published several books and Bible studies, but I have a sense that this particular one is deeply significant, and will be the Helm’s Deep of great battle and victory.

The book must have already trickled into some stores, because my day began with an email from a woman who was deeply impacted by the Girls Gone Wise message. This afternoon, I had my first live Girls Gone Wise radio interview. The lines were jammed with women who wanted to get advice and offer testimonies about being wise and not wild. Early tomorrow everything begins in earnest, with a trip to the True Woman Conference in Chattanooga, where the book will be launched.

Now that the heavy preparation is finished, I hope to get back to blogging regularly—a task that I’ve set aside of late. Make sure to have a look around the website to see all the new Girls Gone Wise resources. I’ve put together a lot of great downloadable helps for people who want to study the book. There’s a personal journal, chapter questions, quizzes, challenges, leader’s guide, and a Girls Gone Wise forum – everything you’ll need to help you study the book with a friend or small group of friends.

In May, I’ll be launching a video book blog, for online viewing. Moody will be sponsoring a special promotion, so make sure and keep posted.
If you are a blogger, and interested in doing a book review, send me an email with your address, and I’ll make sure to get a review copy out to you.

For those of you near Chattanooga, it’s not to late to register for the True Woman conference next weekend. Hope to see you there!

© Mary A. Kassian

If you are a blogger, or in the media, and want to do a pre-publication review, you can now view a  copy of the book on-line. All you have to do is go to http://netgalley.com, search for Girls Gone Wise, and register.  When Moody receives your request, the publicist will approve it. (She’s assured me that ALL bloggers -big and small- are welcome!!!!)

I’m still waiting for a few more endorsements, but I thought you might like to have a peek at the ones that have come in so far:

So much of life is broken because our standards come from the world rather than from the Precepts of God’s Word.  Our young people are living in the rubble of destruction and need rescuing from the earthquake of the consequences of not building their lives on Truth. Mary’s book Girls Gone Wise . . . in a World Gone Wild is a needed book for our times.  May it grab our attention and drive us to His Word where Mary will take us.
- Kay Arthur, CEO and Co-founder Precept Ministries International, Author of The Truth About Sex: What the World Won’t Tell You and What God Wants You To Know, and Return to the Garden: Embracing God’s Design for Sexuality

Mary Kassian speaks with rare insight, clarity, directness, and grace as she challenges the prevailing winds of our culture. She paints portraits of two contrasting kinds of women and sets forth a vision that calls women out of their dysfunction, pain, and deception, to walk in the light of God’s redeeming truth and grace.
This book is extremely important, timely, and needed—I cannot think of any category of women (or men, for that matter) who could not benefit greatly from reading it and grappling with these critical issues. A “must-read” for women who desire to honor God with their lives and to influence others to do the same.
–Nancy Leigh DeMoss, author, host of Revive Our Hearts radio

Girls today are growing up in a culture where “bad” has become the new “good.” The glamorization of bad behavior among young women has become the new norm and left in its wake a tremendous amount of fall-out and misery. Mary has penned a handbook for reversing the tide of the girls-gone-wild trend and replacing it with a new rank of girls-gone-wise. I can’t wait to recommend this book!
–Vicki Courtney, Best-selling author of Your Girl and 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter

Many women today are eager for mentors. While a book is never a substitute for a real, live mentor, this one does connect women everywhere to the wise counsel of Mary Kassian. And we should heed her winsome, culturally relevant, and biblically sound words in Girls Gone Wise. This book provides an accurate gauge of the current feminine perspective in western culture and contrasts it with the eternal wisdom found in Scripture. Easy-to-read, humble, humorous, and thoroughly sound, Girls Gone Wise is a book both long-time believers and new converts will benefit from reading. Highly recommended!
–Carolyn McCulley, Author, Radical Womanhood: Feminine Faith in a Feminist World

This book sounds a clear and much-needed message regarding the ethics of biblical womanhood. Mary Kassian’s energy and passion make it a readable book. Her eye-opening contrast between the wise and the wild make it a convicting book. Her faithfulness to Scripture makes it a compelling book.
–Susan Hunt, Author, Consultant for Women’s Ministries for the Presbyterian Church in America

*Girls Gone Wise is a crucial message for such a time as this.  In a culture where true femininity is in danger of extinction, young women desperately to catch a vision for God’s pattern.  Mary Kassian’s relevant, practical, and Biblically based insights give today’s young women a clear, inspiring blueprint for the only version of womanhood that truly fulfills – God’s version.
–Eric and Leslie Ludy, bestselling authors of When God Writes Your Love Story

Mary Kassian will help you navigate the over-exposure we experience everyday to messages that call us to be anything but what God created us to be as women. Her message will make you wise to that, and hungry to be what God intended. I think this would be a great book for moms to read with their teen girls. Though Mary navigates critical world view issues and strong theology, she does it with a conversational and contemporary note in her writing voice. You’ll never realize how hard you’re thinking. It’ll be too much fun!
–Dannah Gresh, Co-author Lies Young Women Believe, Founder, Pure Freedom

I’m getting excited about the release of the book. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be working on downloadable small group questions, a leader’s guide, and several other website resources. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but more than 600 people have already joined the Girls Gone Wise Facebook page, with more joining daily. I started a new Girls Gone Wise Twitter feed yesterday – 15 people have signed on. If you are the twittering tweeting type, check out @GirlsGoneWise.