The People Factor by Van Moody

Approaching relationships in an objective fashion is not something most people consider. Van Moody does an exceptional job of presenting the case for building strong, healthy friendships by giving critical consideration to everyone we encounter. As the vast majority of people will become close to, and therefore heavily influenced by, at least a few, the author makes the case for the importance of choosing friends wisely. Van Moody systematically considers what he calls the ten Critical Laws of Relationships, among which are mutual benefit, agreement, selectivity, sacrifice, and loyalty. He discusses how to evaluate ourselves and others based on these and other criteria. When relationships are unhealthy, guidelines are given to help decide where to go from there. The author is a pastor, and he effectively weaves biblical examples and references into each chapter, which ends with a summary and then questions to help the reader evaluate past and current relationships. This was a very good book, one to pick up again and again, with a goal of evaluating relationships. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.