Couples Who Pray

As Valentine's Day approaches, many people think about what can they do to improve their love life. The husband and wife team of Squire Rusnell and Louise DuArt take the approach that praying just five minutes a day for forty days can dramatically improve your relationship with your spouse. Their tagline states that prayer is the most intimate act between a husband and wife. In their book, they state that these five minutes a day can improve your communication, increase your satisfaction in lovemaking, and raise a greater respect for one another. Marketed as a how to, step by step book, I was excited to jump in and apply it my marriage.

Positive things about the book: It is an easy and quick read. The authors make the content interesting and engaging by mixing statistics with short antidotes from famous actors, athletes, and musicians. I also liked how they included a marriage satisfaction survey for each spouse in the appendix. These surveys are meant to be taken before and after the 40 day challenge for you to see how your marriage has changed. Overall though I was disappointed in the book as a whole. There was no real step by step guide; it was just a book of antidotes on how prayer changed all the stars' lives. While I love how to see the amazing ways the Lord works in people's lives, I didn't feel like it was showed you how to pray with your spouse. The pages were filled with great statistics on how people's satisfaction in their relationship increased after praying together, but lacked practical ways to implement the challenge. While prayer is simply talking to God, it's not always easy for everyone especially new believers. The authors should have included a more step by step process for those who needed it. I feel like the book was a great read but they should change their marketing angle.

Though I was disappointed in the book, I love the concept of it. Jeremy and I have committed to pray together every night before going to bed. We are purposefully taking the time before we close our eyes each night to sit at the feet of the Lord together. I'm excited to see what is going to do our marriage. :)

Unto These Hills

No one is more iconic to the modern day Christian faith than the Rev. Billy Graham. For almost a half century, this man has preached the word of God to millions of people. This year his daily devotional, Unto These Hills, has been republished for another generation to enjoy. Twenty five years after its first publication, this 365 day devotional still offers peace, comfort, and inspiration to the masses. Each day Dr. Graham offers you a verse of Scripture followed by a mediation/story, then a prayer. While the book follows the calendar year, you can jump in anywhere. What I also love is that the book is now be offered in paperback, making it cheaper and more accessible than the previous hardback addition.

Normally, I am not a devotional type person. Most of them offer little, if any, meat and seem to be just a feel good message. However, Dr. Graham's book is different. I feel like daily he points you to Christ and the power of the Gospel. While this should not replace daily time in the Bible, this devotional would be a great way to start the day. If you are in need of a little inspiration, this book would be a great resource to include as part of your day.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson Publishers and the Book Sneeze program for my complimentary copy.

Celebrating 2010

Oliver should be here in about 50 days or less...crazy, uh? Because he is due so close to Christmas, I am trying to get all my ducks in a row for Christmas. This includes Christmas shopping and preparing Christmas cards. I have been playing around with the idea of just sending a Christmasy birth announcement so it will serve a double purpose but can't decide. To help, I have been perusing Shutterfly's card and stationary section, especially their Christmas card selection to see what was available. They have over 747 different selections of photo Christmas cards which makes it hard to make a decision.

One card I really love is this one.Not only do I love the colors, but I love how you can put the top 10 events of this year. Growing up my mom always included a family letter with her cards to tell what our family had been doing that year. While I love the idea, who has time to write that letter right now? Plus we have a blog that everyone should be reading anyways. :) This card makes it easy to give a glimpse into our year and helps me to see how many great things the Lord has blessed us with this year. Another thing I really like about this card is that it actually says Merry Christmas...not Happy Holidays, etc. We are celebrating Christ's birth and I want our card to acknowledge the real reason for the season.

Now the real question is will Oliver be here in time to order these while they are still available? :)

(In full disclosure: In exchange for this review, I received 50 free cards from Shutterfly!)

Captivating

A couple of months ago, Thomas Nelson Publishers sent me the book Captivating (Revised and Expanded): Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge to review. I had given my mom the first version of this book as a birthday present a while back, but I had never gotten around to borrowing and reading it. Many of the men in my life have read John’s book Wild at Heart and gave it rave reviews, so I was excited to read this female version.

While the title may be Captivating, I did not find the book to be. It was an extremely slow read and took many months to finish. The premise of the book is to reveal the inner desires of a woman’s heart. According to the Eldredges, a woman desires to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. They go through each of these points in great detail showing us how all women have these desires deep down even if they don’t realize it. In their opinion, we have misconstrued ideas of beauty and romance because of some hurt we had in our past. They stated that they wrote this book to let you know that healing of your feminine heart is available and to let you know that it is available.

Overall, the book made some great points but they just took a long time to getting to their points by using lots of movie quotes and antidotes. I felt like they could have made their point much faster and clearer if they had made their chapters more concise. I believe the book reassured me of things I already felt about my heart, but I don’t believe it was necessary to read this whole book to figure it out. In my opinion, this book did not need to be expanded as it was wordy enough as it was!

How Should a Christian Live?

As a young believer, many Christians struggle with what should their life look now that Christ is Lord over my life. Thomas Nelson Publishers sent me this new devotional & journal called How Should a Christian Live? It is part of a four part devotional series that walks a student through the entire New Testament. The book includes a CD with famous actors reading the Scripture that are used in the lessons.

After reading through the book, I would definitely recommend it for middle and high schoolers who are just beginning their Christian walk. While it can be done as a personal devotional, I believe it would be a great discussion start in a Bible study or large group setting. The book is great for giving you basic Biblical truths along with history lessons of the Bible and its characters. I admire the authors for not just giving readers a checklist of do’s and don’ts for the Christian walk but rather points them to character of Christ and how we should emulate him. I also liked how they defined churchy words instead of assuming the reader automatically knows them. Things that that I thought that could have been left out were the word games and puzzles. While they may be fun to do, I’m not really sure they add to the points the authors are trying to make. Overall, I think it’s a great resource and I look forward to sharing my copy with a special youth in my life.

The Gospel According to Lost

With the 6th and final season of LOST quickly approaching, there is a lot of anticipation as to how the writers will end the show. My husband and I have been big fans of the show since the very beginning, so I jumped at the chance to review The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay for Thomas Nelson Publishers. As many Christians will tell you, there are obvious allusions to the Gospel in the show; therefore, I was interested to see what Seay, a pastor, would pick out and how he would relate the two.

Seay states in the first few pages that his purpose in writing was not to erase the mystery and answer all of our questions (because goodness, there are always more questions). His purpose was to point out what we do know and “embrace the mystery of things that are yet to unfold.” To do this, he walks you through a character study of each of the main characters while pointing out how their life or actions relate to Biblical characters or truths.

I believe he did a good job of seeing the Biblical correlations and pointing out new ones I hadn’t thought of before. I like how he gave an insider’s look into the little things that the writers of the show put in. Everything in the show is so thought out and purposeful. I wish Seay would have written the book the same way. I felt like his book lacked organization and he skipped around making random points as he thought of them. I also believe he came up short on pointing non-believers to the Truth. I think the book is a fun read for the die-hard fans, but I didn’t really see how he always related it to the Gospel as you would assume from the title. I felt like the book was a good recap of the last 5 seasons and really got me excited to see how the writers will conclude this awesome and thought-provoking show.

Book Recommendation

One thing I love about summer is that I have time to actually read fiction. Early in the summer I was busy reading baby books, but that got old real fast. I finally moved over to fiction a week or two ago and I've been on a roll. My friend Monica recommended the Redemption series by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley.

Because Monica already owned them, I took her up on it and I have to say that I'm hooked. I've read the first two in a week's time. The series is based around the Baxter family and the struggles of life that each of its members goes through. There are love stories, heartaches, and suspense...all which make for a great story line. I don't want to give any of it away but I highly recommend them if you are looking for an easy read. Sadly Monica is out of town and I need book #3. I'm hoping that I can finish them before Owen comes because I doubt I will really have time to read at that point. Come home Monica! :)

Book Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

Over the summer, I read Khaled Hosseini's first novel The Kite Runner and I wrote a review. Because I enjoyed the first one so much, I was very anxious to read his 2nd novel. Evidentally I wasn't the only one and due to popular demand, I was 645 on the Wake County library's waitlist. Two weeks ago, I finally got my chance and it did not disappoint!

In looking for a picture of the cover, I found this review from the NY Times which I thought better explained the novel that I ever could. If you click on this post title you can read the whole review but I will quote a few things here.

"Whereas “The Kite Runner” focused on fathers and sons, and friendships between men, his latest novel, “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” focuses on mothers and daughters, and friendships between women. Whereas “Kite Runner” got off to a gripping start and stumbled into contrivance and sentimentality in its second half, “Splendid Suns” starts off programmatically and gains speed and emotional power as it slowly unfurls." I agree with the reviewer in that the book got off to a slower start and did not seem to be quite the page-turner like the first novel. Again though as I read this book, I couldn't help but praise the Lord for the freedoms that I have as a US citizen. I praise the Lord that I am able to choose my husband, walk out in public without being covered, and to attend school. I am also thankful for my relationship with the Lord and my heart feels burden for the people of Afghanstian who believe the lies of the Koran.

Good books needed...

Ok blog world out there, it's summer time and that means I get to read what I want to and it doesn't have to be a children's book. Therefore I need your help! I'm taking suggestions as to good things you've read recently that you think I should read.

Thanks!

The Brevity of Life

This past weekend I have been thinking a lot about the brevity of life. First on Friday night, Jeremy and I watched the The End of the Spear. It is a movie about the Saint family whose goal in life was to bring the Word of God to the Waodani tribe in the Amazon. This family knew how fierce and violent these people were yet they never gave up their fight. In the movie, Nick Saint, a pilot, and his 4 friends (Jim Elliot to just name one) traveled into their village so they could meet the people and form a relationship with them. In the end, the end up getting killed because of a miscommunication in language and a lying man. Nick was a young guy and he had 2 young kids when he died. He died doing the Lord's work but still his life was cut short.

Then all weekend I was reading a book called P.S. I love you by Ceceila Ahern. In the book, Holly's husband Gerry dies at the age 30 of a brain tumor. The whole book is Holly's struggle to go on with her life. She is stuck with his memory and their dreams that will never come true. Gerry knowing that he was going to die writes her list of 10 things she is to do. She gets an envelope each month containing a task that he wrote her. As I was reading this book, I couldn't help but think of Jeremy and I and our future. So many times we think we have all the time in the world and we'll live to an old age together. Too often we get stuck in our day to day activities and take each other for granted. We don't live like tomorrow could be our last day. We have these dreams of a family and a future but we are in no way guaranteed these things. Many times as I was reading I was brought to tears thinking about what if this were me. (Great book, you really should read it!)

I think these two mediums have really helped me to reexamine where I am right now and what my priorities are. Remember to never take your time on Earth here for granted. Live each day like it is your last. On that note, make sure also that we spread the Gospel like people do not have another day. I know I don't live that way so I'm challenging myself...what about yoU?

Almost there...

EOGs are over. Praise the Lord! I had a little motivational song for my kids inspired by a little train from our childhood we all know and love. "I know I can, I know I can..." was what I kept telling my kids about the test and now I'm telling myself the same thing about school. "I know I can, I know I can" get through the rest of this year and mountains of paperwork. For those of you not in the education world, teachers have a lot of paper work to fill out at the end of the year. Due to Bush's No Child Left Behind we as teachers have to document and redocument everything we do. Therefore as the year rounds out, I have approximately 5 documents to fill out for each kid. Multiply that by 23 kids and I have approximately 115 pieces of a paper to fill out. I have to say that I like Bush and his idea was good in theory but in reality there are a lot of things about it I don't agree with. This being one of them!

Other than that, things are trucking along. Jeff and Lauren moved yesterday and it was a lot harder than I thought it was. I had become attached to them very quickly and will miss seeing them across the parking lot everyday. We'll have to go through the same thing 2 weekends from now when Josh and Brooke leave. That's what hard about seminary...you become involved in the lives of these people and they are only here for short time. I know the Lord has amazing plans for each of them, but in some ways I just wished they were the same for us all. (I know I'm selfish)

By the way, I read a great book this weekend and if you haven't read it you really should. It's called The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers and it's about a girl who gets raped her freshman year in college and becomes pregant. It goes through her internal struggles with the ordeal as well the struggles those around her go through. It's crazy to see it through the eyes of the person who it happened to. I am definitely pro-life but it really made you stop and think what would I have done if I had been in that situation. Any way, its a must read! This book also proved to me why I don't read books for pleasure during the school year. I became so involved in the book that I couldn't put it down therefore getting less sleep and introverted the whole weekend. It's funny how I get so involved in the plot and the character's life that I feel like I'm in the story and cannot separate myself from what is written to my real life. It affects my emotions and the way I treat others around me. I'm also so attached that when I'm finished I feel a sense of lost as my time with those characters are over. I want to know how their story continues, what became of them. I know I'm weird...it's ok...I admit it. :)

Ok enough for now...have a terrific Memorial day!