Five-Star Links

Each Friday, we share links we found especially interesting or inspiring during the previous week. 

Persis:

God Does Not Need You... And That's Good News! by Matthew Barrett

If God were a needy God, he would need our help just as much as we need his. What good news it is, then, that the gospel depends on a God who does not depend on us.

Rebecca:

I married young, and if I had it to do over again, I'd do exactly the same thing. So I heartily endorse this message: The Case For Getting Married Young. [Update: Someone pointed out that the Atlantic chose a photo of two male hands to accompany this article. I hadn't noticed this when I shared the link. It is a very unfortunate choice, because Karen Swallow Prior definitely has marriage between a man and a woman—her own marriage in particular—in mind in this piece. I am going to leave the link up, because I hate it when people just delete things and act as if they never happened in the first place. The article itself is  good,  but the photo—which Karen probably had no control over—is not. I am sorry I didn't see it before I shared the link in the first place.]

Kim:

When I purged my books in January, I came across quite a few that were merely "trends," I realized I needed to be more careful about my book buying.

Old Books, New Books, and Trends That Fade Away.