Review: Doorpost: Bible Study for Young Men

I have always heard such great things about Doorposts and always seek them out at our homeschool conference to drool over all of their character building products. When I was offered the opportunity to review Because You Are Strong: A Study of Godly Strength for Young Men, by Daniel Forster, I jumped on it for Captain C. This is written for boys ages 12- adult (or mature 10-11 year olds).

When it arrived, I was thrilled with the layout and that I could just hand it to him and he could do it. He is at the age where he can do most things on his own, and resists a lot of  Mom over his shoulder. It is written FOR young men, and acknowledges that young men have an abundance of strength and energy and focuses on how they can use that to glorify God. The skills taught in the book are also very beneficial to young women so don't let that scare you away. Keep reading.

The book is broken into 10 Studies, each divided into 5 days of lessons. Captain C has a good study Bible with a built in concordance. Otherwise, you might want to pick up a concordance if you only have a simple Bible. This Bible study uses actual scripture to learn from instead of filling you up with the author's interpretation of the scripture. I like that. A lot! I want Captain C to be able to open his Bible and dissect it on his own and not have to look for others to explain it to him.

I had C start each school day with this. The lessons say they will take from 5-20 minutes but it usually took him longer. Each study (or chapter) lists the items you will need for the chapter. Most days, the Bible and concordance covered it, but sometimes he needed colored pencils or a second translation of the Bible too. It wasn't anything we had to go out and buy. All could be found in the house or online. He then did the lessons on his own, but when I looked back, he wasn't doing all the writing. I talked with him about it and he didn't like how much there was to write, which there really is a lot. After all, you are forming YOUR conclusions on the scriptures instead of reading other people's so it makes sense you would write more than you read. I'm just happy he is doing it, but gently encouraged him to get his thoughts and responses down too.

I loved how the book was laid out. It teaches HOW to study the Bible. It starts out teaching how to do a devotion (like starting and ending with prayer, reading and stopping to meditate, etc), then taught a new skill each chapter (like how to do a topical study, character study, cross referencing, and on and on). There are so many skills taught in this Bible study that after finishing it, he should be able to use his Bible and a notebook and study anything he is interested in. I love the skills taught, just as much as the content taught. The content was all over the place in the Word, ranging from Samson to 1 John. All of them tied in strength: Strength for the Race, Strength and Temptation, Strength to be Valiant to name a few. All great lessons for young men.

At the end of the book, there are questions you can substitute if you wanted young ladies to complete the study. There is also a separate study for girls called Beauty in the Heart that some of the Crew reviewed. I will be interested in getting that one when P is older!


I love that Because you are Strong doesn't try to feminize the boys, but works with their natural bend to make them Godly young men. I love how it teaches HOW to study. In a lot of studies, we just learn the authors interpretation, because it is easy, honestly, to just read what someone else wrote. It takes more thought to listen to the Holy Spirit and draw your own conclusions, and I appreciated that about this book.

Captain C is almost 1/2 way through the book and will finish it before the year is over. I'm excited about all the skills he is learning and can't wait until Terrific T is older so I can purchase this for him too. It is only $12 right now, and also available in a PDF format. I would recommend this book to anyone with boys this age. There is a free sample on their site so you can check it out.

Also, click on the banner below to see what other Crew mates had to say about these books.