In turbulent times, King David united a nation–and his hard-earned wisdom can bring us together today. This new 30 Days With book offers a month of readings plus ideas for small-group discussion. David ranks among the world’s greatest heroes for defeating Goliath and best-selling authors for writing Psalms. He is honored by Jews, Christians and Muslims. In this book, pastor, educator and leadership coach Larry Buxton shows us how David embodies 14 crucial values shared by effective leaders to this day.

Just as the first volume in this series invites readers to spend 30 Days With Abraham Lincoln, one of the greatest unifying figures in American history, Buxton’s book is a call for all of us to remember values that unite us. Buxton dedicates this book to everyone who believes that the character of any leader is of critical importance to our nation, our institutions, our congregations and our homes; and to all those who seek to let God shape their character as more virtuous human beings, that their influence may spread to heal our world.

Answering that call in the opening pages are two nationally known political leaders–one a Democrat and one a Republican, who came together in these pages to urge all of us to read these 30 short stories drawn from David’s often tragically learned lessons about life.

In his Foreword, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine writes: From the blockbuster arc of David’s life, Larry Buxton assembles 30 short chapters on key leadership traits–patience, vision, humility, integrity, openness, tenderness, forgiveness, courage, gratitude, self-control, surrender, perseverance, calmness, justice. Buxton helps us see how David either exhibited these values or catastrophically failed to achieve them. The chapters are probing and conversational–with references from the worlds of literature, sports, politics and entertainment to illustrate how to apply these lessons to our everyday challenges.

In his Preface, Andrew H. Card, who served in Washington D.C. during two Bush administrations, writes: No matter what your faith or tradition of worship–and, no matter your role in business, management, philanthropy, sports, politics, government or family–you will find the adventures in these 30 daily readings extremely relevant and highly motivating. We need to meet David again through Larry Buxton’s wise retelling of these stories–so that we all can lift up the best values in leadership in our institutions, our nation and our world.