Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by R. Kent Hughes and W. Carey Hughes

Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by the Hughes father-and-son team is organized very nicely and is easy to follow through. The book introduces discipline as a necessity for success and growth and then expounds on different areas of discipline such as purity, friendship, the mind, devotion, prayer, the tongue, work, perseverance, church, giving, witness, and ministry. Each of these disciplines heads up a chapter in which the authors give examples of what discipline in that area is, how to grow in your personal discipline in that specific area, and they lead you in questioning your own level of discipline and encourage you in how to improve on it. The final chapter, the grace of discipline is an encouragement for those who have understood that in their own power they are not able to be as disciplined as they ought to or wish to be. A quote from this last chapter reminds, "It is God's grace that energizes us to live out the disciplines of a godly young man. There is always more grace."

This book appears to be written for an audience of already Christian young men, not one who is searching. There is not a lot of emphasis upon what exactly it means by a "godly young man." I wished that it did include more of this.

This book is not exactly a book which a "young man" might just pick up and breeze through. I think it is written for late high school/college/young adults -- and is written in sort of a mentoring style. I think that the best application of this book would be in a mentoring situation -- an older guy going through it bit by bit (Bible study type setting) with a younger guy or guys. I think my own son would benefit from it when he is older. Not that he shouldn't be learning these disciplines at an earlier age, I just doin't think the book is geared toward younger ones.

I would recommend this book for fathers/sons or mentors/young men or Bible study leaders/young men. The topics covered apply to us all, and men of all ages could benefit from these teachings.

I received a free copy of this book from Crossway publishers for the purposes of this review. I was not required to write a positive review.