S Club Mama

I have to be honest that I wanted to read this book because I'm a fan of Alistair Begg. I've listened to him on podcasts and LOVE his accent (you guys, I'm a sucker for accents). I do realize you cannot listen to a paperback but I knew of Begg enough to realize this content was going to be GOOD! "Made for His Pleasure: Ten Benchmarks of a Vital Faith" by Alistair Begg is a fantastic book! image via AmazonSmile Even the two forewords were great, written by John MacArthur and R.C. Sproul - admonishing us as readers to "rejoice in the treasure you are holding in your hands, because it's richness will provide a clear path to follow...to that monumental face-to-face meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ." "Made for His Pleasure" itself was a joy to read. A humble urging to help us align our lives with Christ. I want to share some of the takeaways I wrote as I read: In regards to spiritual fitness, Begg says that "our commitment to o...

Which came first in my life: Jennie Allen of IF:gathering? Hmmm... I'm not sure it matters because she is the visionary behind IF. Both have helped me grow with God these past five years or so. I read Allen's book, "Anything," a few years ago. I'll be honest, it wasn't as life-changing as I thought it would be. The premise is surrendering your life to God, giving Him "anything." For Allen and her husband, anything included adopting their son and starting the IF:gathering (among other things, I'm sure). But I'm not sure my anything prayer had quite the same trajectory. However, my life had a few detours- my son's seizures and brain surgeries and two more children. I do think praying "anything" opened my eyes to follow God through these hardships (babies may not be traditional hardships but I have difficult pregnancies and I think the baby stage is quite difficult). Regardless, I was thrilled to hear Allen was coming out with a ...

I can't remember if I first read or heard Annie Downs. I know she is a frequent speaker at the annual IF:gathering (ifgathering.com) but I've also read Let's All Be Brave (perhaps a devotional based on that?) and Looking for Lovely (which I enjoyed). That to say that I enjoy her. I haven't listened to her podcast but I know that we would be fast friends. I knew right away I wanted to read "Remember God" by Annie F. Downs because I've been through some things in the past few years that make me wonder "if He is really kind - really deeply always kind" as she writes on the back cover. Watching my son have seizures and brain surgeries that affect our whole family (another son dealt with anxiety and still does to some extent...just today my daughter who is three was pretending she was having a seizure...oh dear...it affects us), makes you not doubt but just wonder about God and His character and what you know to be true and how it doesn't seem to...

Since my surrender to Christ in 2014, I have changed in many ways - I don't talk the way I used to (I try really hard to not use bad words and to be thoughtful in my speech), I don't spend time with the kinds of people I used to (who weren't good influences), I don't see life the way I used to (for myself). In other ways, I KNOW I have changed but it's hard to see - I'm still impatient, get angry, and am selfish...but I have grown MORE patient, LESS irritable and offendable, and LESS selfish. Some days it's so hard to see. In those times that it's so difficult to see the change, the growth, the sanctification, I question myself. I question my salvation. As Christians we are promised a re-birth, to become a new creation. So how should we feel when we can't see the change? We can question ourselves, our salvation or faith, or even God. Instead we should ask questions. "Sacred Questions" by Kellye Fabian allows room for such questions. In th...

My nine-year-old son has started to read The Prince Warriors trilogy by Priscilla Shirer. He's working his way through the second in the series. I loved when he came to me while reading the first series, saying, "Mom, there's a Bible verse in here!" He sure couldn't say that when reading "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." I love the faith infused in this Prince Warriors series. It's been fun to hear him tell his friends and older brother about this series (and it's worth 9 AR points!). So I had to read "The Winter War" by Priscilla Shrier, the first in the sequel series to The Prince Warriors. Image via Amazon.com "The Winter War" is basically an allegorical story, much like The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings series. There is a Christ figure (Ruwech), a God-the-Father figure (the Source), and even the Holy Spirit (The Sparks). There's an enemy (Ponèros) and his henchmen (Thayne and Lava Forgers). It took me a l...

I love celebrating the 4th of July - always have. I remember so many years of going to the local Independence Day parade, their firework show, and fireworks at my Grandma's house. Tonight the firework show brought tears to my eyes as I remembered the past. I miss my Grandma (not because she's passed away but I just don't see her often). I am so thankful for technology that allows me to talk to her whenever I want (which is never often enough) and that in a few weeks I will get to see her. image via   The same cannot be said of God. I do not have the technology to physically see Him. I do long to see Him and will some day. But for now, I am learning to practice the presence of God. That sounds kind of hokey, doesn't it? How does one practice that practically? For me, it's very simple. It comes down to being conscience of God every second of every day. I'll be the first to tell you that I'm very bad at this! I am just learning to do this, though. Lear...

"Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so..." Many of us are familiar with these lyrics. Yet, does the Bible tell us this is true? It does! Jennifer Rothschild's "66 Ways God Loves Me" is a wonderful book that goes through each book of the Bible (hence the 66 ways) and tells us how each book shows God's love for us. Each chapter has a title page that says something like "In Genesis God Fashions Me with His Hands" or "In Micah God Invites Me to Walk Humbly with Him." This title page is followed by 2-3 pages explaining His love. It's not hard to understand but it is deep, just as His love is. image via Amazon.com I read an article recently about how Jesus is not our cheerleader and this is not a book like that. This book is not telling you how you are loved so go dream big and make your dreams come true! It's building a foundation for you like the Bible says in Ephesians 3:16-19, " I pray that out of his g...

I read a whole lot of books of varying genres. My favorite non-fiction books are the ones that read like fiction, like you're actually talking with the author. That is what it's like to read a book by Annie F. Downs. She's like your best friend, mentor, and big sister rolled into one. You laugh with her and cry and go "oh" at deep thoughts. Her new book, "Looking for Lovely" has not disappointed me in this aspect. I've enjoyed every second of reading through. image via Amazon There were many times in the book when I starred a paragraph or dog-eared a page or underlined a sentence or two. And not only things that resonated with me, but things I think may resonate with my loved ones. When she wrote "I grew up with a lot of shame...Satan started early with me, whispering into my ear that things were my fault, that I should be so embarrassed when I made a mistake, that I wasn't good enough or strong enough to be who everyone else thought I...

I first heard of Jennie Allen a few years ago through Jen Hatmaker's blog. A friend and I co-hosted an if:gathering in our local church (Allen is the founder of if:gathering) and it was amazing. Then I borrowed Allen's book, "Restless," and wanted to mark it up so badly (worst part of borrowing books) because it just spoke a lot to me. Restless. I feel restless in my journey with God, like I don't know my exact place. image via jennieallen.com When I had the opportunity to read " Anything " by Jennie Allen, with a new Bible study included, I jumped on board. Years ago, she and her husband prayed to the Lord to do anything in their lives. Jennie said she felt numb in her walk with the Lord and in life and wanted not this mediocre life she was truly living (aren't we all???). I want that. I want big things out of my life but not for my glory but His. Through reading this and Oswald Chambers' "My Utmost for His Highest" I am more ...

Just the title of Dikkon Eberhart's book is enthralling: " The Time Mom Met Hitler, Frost Came to Dinner, and I Heard the Greatest Story Ever Told ." Right? Who wouldn't be curious to hear these stories? I was and so I read. Dikkon Eberhart is the son of a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Dick Eberhart. I have honestly never heard the name until I read this book. I'm not huge into poetry, though. Like, at all. I did recognize many of the names thrown around in this book: Frost, Ginsberg, Woolf, Hemingway, etc. Truly this Eberhart (the younger, the author of this book) grew up knowing many artists and walking alongside giants, it seems. image via Amazon While the stories in the book, about his family's past and his mother's meeting with Hitler and his and his wife's conversion to Christ, were very interesting, I just couldn't fall in love with the book. I don't know if it was just too slow in most parts or too wordy. I'm not quite sure w...

When I was pregnant with Moose in 2006, I was taking education classes and we discussed autism. I remember thinking, "oh Lord, anything but that." My husband remembers me praying about it, too. It wasn't until 2010 his autism was diagnosed. It was hard and full of emotional questions: was this my fault for past transgressions, was this my fault physically, why, now what. In those 5 years since, I've learned SO much about being a mom, a wife, a human being, a Christian that I otherwise would not have learned if I'd had a "normal" kid my firstborn (Squirt does not have autism). I have learned to pray that God be glorified in these really hard moments (when our firstborn had his first seizure this year and subsequent epilepsy diagnosis). Whether He is glorified in how we handle the situations presented, in our parenting, in our struggles, in our lives. We want Him glorified and so I say "anything" as we await this third child this summer. ...

My family first fell in love with Dandi Daley Mackall when we read "God Loves Me More Than That." A great book to really emphasize Ephesians 3:17b-19. I was excited to see that she was the author of "The Legend of St. Nicholas: A story of Christmas giving." My family has also read "The Story of the Candy Cane" which is not by Mackall but illustrated by Richard Cowdrey (who also illustrates "St. Nicholas"). image via Amazon.com This story of St. Nicholas portrays him as a young man who was at the store to buy his siblings Christmas gifts but was really thinking of buying himself a gift. He happened upon a Santa Claus telling a group of children the story about a boy named Nicholas. As told by this Santa Claus, Nicholas traveled the world with his rich parents and saw many children without toys or coats. When they visited the Holy Land his parents taught him about the gifts brought to Jesus by the wise men "to honor and celebrate God...

Today I was hanging out with a couple of my girl friends when J told us about a Proverbs 31 devotional she'd read about a month after school started about pre-deciding. She said she has taken the devotional farther by creating questions based on what if situations her kids may encounter at school (or other places). They pick one at dinner and then discuss what they would do. She and her husband are helping their children pre-decide their actions. She said one of their situations was "what would you do if kids were using bad language at school?" They went through and answered and when one reaction (pre-reaction?) was not appropriate, they were there to address it. I LOVE THIS IDEA! We do a TON of pre-teaching around here but mostly for things we know are going to happen: what to do if something upsets us at school, what to do at baseball practice, what to do in the bathroom. But I love the idea of taking situations that aren't predetermined and talking about them op...

"In vain you rise early      and stay up late, toiling for food to eat --     for he grants sleep to those he loves." -Psalm 127:2 I read these words as I was laying in bed late, going over something important I needed to go over. So I'm flipping through "What Your Heart Needs for the Hard Days" by Holley Gerth because I thought I could work in some of the verses she used in these devotionals.  image via Amazon And God calls out to my heart. My weary, overbooked heart. I heard Him telling me that my list could wait and I needed to give myself grace for the day-to-day stuff that just can't all get checked off my to-do list. There are so many hours in the day and I am just one person, so there's only so much I can do. The rest will have to wait and I need to be okay with that waiting. I love hearing God talk to me and I was so thankful He spoke to me using Gerth's devotional. It's been a treasured little book for the...week...

 I didn't take many pictures at our church's family camp the weekend before Labor Day, but I was just hanging out with my family - church and biological. It was really fun and convicting. The sermons/talks were over Luke 14:25-33 : Squirt using Moose as a footstool - oh brothers! The Cost of Being a Disciple 25  A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them,   26  “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple.   27  And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. 28  “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?   29  Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and t...

Summer is generally seen as a time of rest, but I feel like I've gotten very little rest on a day-to-day basis this summer. I think having the kids home and up from 7am (or before) until 8-9-10+pm with hardly any break during the day (no regular naps here!) has been taxing on me (and Moose from the sudden bouts of tears over any little thing these days). As the kids continue to butt heads and I find myself on the losing end of sleep, God has really shown me the importance of rest. Rest. Does that word make you crave it or fight against it? Rest is so important to us and I think we try to stay away from it and act like we don't need it. Sleep is for the weak! Wrong! God, the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth, our constant companion and protector, rested. He rested. My friend Stacey wrote a few weeks ago about "Sabbath daily" - oh how I needed to hear that. I am reading "Twirl" by Patsy Clairmont & there's a whole chapter on rest in there. A...

Promise I have some fun posts coming up, but I need to write a few of these book reviews first. Up first is " The God-First Life " by Stovall Weems. I was thinking this was going to be a more in-depth, practical book of how to put God first in our lives. It was more like a beginner's book of "ok I trust Jesus, now what?" which is terrific. There needs to be more books like this because when I first trusted in Jesus/became saved, I had no idea what that kind of life should look like. Now, don't get me wrong, there isn't a one-size-fits-all lifestyle for being a Christian. But there are a few things Christians should be doing and that's growing in fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness. I think that Weems laid out his book well to explain how we go about growing these things. Through having new priorities, a new family (God's church), a new life, and new freedom. image v...

I had a hard time getting into this book, " Finding Spiritual Whitespace " by Bonnie Gray. I liked the writing; she has a beautiful, laid-back style. I just couldn't relate. Gray has come from a hard childhood - parents divorced when she was young, her dad left and never tried to communicate with her or her sister, her mom was verbally abusive and seems like a really tough woman. picture via Amazon " Finding Spiritual Whitespace " is kind of set up like a study. There are questions at the end of each chapter and usually they pertain to your past. Examples: When have you felt cut up? What is your earliest memory of being happy? Sad? What kind of music did you enjoy listening to as a child? Oh goodness, I just don't have that many memories. Honestly. Gray found that she had memories stored in her that were causing post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks. I just don't remember much. It's kind of a joke in my family. And especially vivid ...

Another tale from Women's Encounter and what God told me there. Read Parts 1 and 2 if you missed them. My legalism lead to self-righteous judgmental hypocrisy. Well, that lead to pride (perhaps pride lead to all of those but it circled back around). One thing we were told before we left was to share our testimonies (not necessarily our conversion stories but what God has told us recently). A testimony is a witness of God - of His work. I have known for a looooooong time that I have troubles sharing with others about the Good News of Jesus Christ. I have prayed about it. I have read books on evangelism (which is fancy terms for telling that Christ died for your sins - and mine - upon a cross, paying our debt of sin so that we can reunite with God in Spirit and later in heaven). I do a great job in my head of playing out conversations. They get insane in there; things people would NEVER say to me come out in my head. I am my own worst condemner. Well, this affects my sharing t...

Bear with me as I share with you all that God showed me at Encounter . I don't know how many posts this will take! God also showed me that, spiraling from my legalism, I have become self-righteous and judgmental. I have become a hypocrite. Again, a Pharisee (so thankful for spell-check because I can never seem to get this right on the first typing). Those that the Lord and John the Baptist had some pretty strong words about. *sigh* I have looked down on those who have less. Romans 11:9-10 says, "Likewise, David said,    'Let their bountiful table become a snare,     a trap that makes them think all is well.   Let their blessings cause them to stumble,     and let them get what they deserve.'" I'm not even rich (in worldly standards), so imagine if I had more physical blessings how blinded I'd have been. Maybe you are rich and you are intimate with Christ, but beware your comforts. Sometimes in America we are so rich, we are blind to our ri...