Terribly Interesting

We buried our sweet cat in the back yard today. Each of us thanked God for how he loved us through some rough times this year. Watching your kids grieve is truly difficult. It's an ache multiplied. As I sit here and think back over the year, I realize how hard it's been and equally how lovely. God has grown us all. The thing is that when you get wounded or things don't go how you would like them to, you are afraid to trust and dream. I keep hearing this phrase in my head. You have permission to hope. By definition, you have authority, authorization, sanction, approval, blessing to hope. There's beauty in all of this. Through grief and hurt, God will come and meet with us. You can plan for good things in the year ahead with out fear. You can trust Jesus with the secret things you yearn for. Mark tonight a sacred new beginning. Start asking what you would like to do and give in the year ahead. May you find balance in your work, play, prayer, and rest. Enjoy tho...

I have sort of abandoned my post here. I think the last few years of children and homeschool have taken a toll on my brain. I also spent my year redoing most of our house because I love my husband and his dream has been to have a family reunion here. More than that, I have been dealing with some hurts. I completely opened up my heart to several people for friendship and came face to face with deep hurt. Another pastor cut me to the core and I watched as pain spread through a group of people. Oh, Jesus, not again. We constantly throw open our doors to love people only to have a huge hunk of our ministry budget stolen. So many personal things are gone. During all of this, we notice that we have an area of termites in our dining room floor. Several pest guys later and they all say they have never seen anything like this. It's a coastal termite. It must have been brought in via infected wood or furniture. They may have to tent our house and fill it with toxic chemicals to the tune...

This book was much different than what I expected. I believe in miracles and healing and many things that nature because I trust who God says he is and I have seen too much to deny it. That being said, any Reformed book reviewer would chew this up and spit it out. It's full of the miraculous that the  cessasionist  would refute. I believe in the miraculous. As I traveled through this book, I saw it as much more of a biography of this man's prayer life than anything else. I think it should be seen as such. God is different with each one of us. I don't really see a need to name personality traits anointings, but to each his own. I don't see a need for things like prayer cloths or other tools, but I also can't say God would refuse to partake in the symbolism. I think it's just important that we remember where our hope and our healing come from. Christ alone. That being said, I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with how our author preached the gospel rel...

I make jewelry and art to be able to provide free educational counseling, respite for pastors and those hurt by the church, as well as raise money for adoption. When you shop in my store, you support a community. You are helping fulfill scripture. Thank you for making the choice to pick up artisan handcrafted over mass produced. Here's a coupon code for $5 off in my Etsy store.  Coupon Code: YALLSHOP

If you have ever sat on my front porch where I read, you would see why this devotional gave me joy when I took it out of the package. The palm trees spoke peace to me. We can rest because the God who controls the wind and waves also controls our lives. He is utterly sovereign. I read through it's pages and was grateful and humble to be guided through these prayers. The pages have a wide range of topics to meditate on and ask the Lord to deal with. It goes from personal restraint to prayers for pastors, churches, and nations. This would be a great book to have on your bedside table or a coffee table. Pick one up for yourself. Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for graciously providing this book for review.

This has been my favorite little coloring book for meditation. I love being able to take the scripture and write a little prayer to Jesus about it. It's a bit smaller so you don't feel like you are coloring all day either. It's great to sit down with my girls and color. We can each share about our pages and what they mean to us. I'm including some of the pages below so you can get an idea of different things in the book.  Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for graciously supplying this book for review.

I have said before that I have come to believe that the church is a psychiatric hospital. We are often shocked to find out (via wounding) that the patients are running the place. Over and over we are struck and hurt and left writhing in pain. It takes us by surprise because we are in shock that these Christians could sin against us. The wound is much deeper than if we were hurt in an office job. We were there working for, serving, and trusting the Lord. That is why this book is so necessary.  I think we all just avoid or sweep things under the rug. Or we blow up or run off. No one is standing there like a sidewalk prophet reminding us to preach the gospel into the deepest, darkest pits of our hurts. This is what Lysa has done for us. She has reminded our hearts to heal, lavish love and grace, and never give up on setting the gospel in the hearts of our abuser (with wisdom and precaution). The words of scripture lavish the heart with hope and healing. The entire book reminds ...

This is a book about a special little boy with down syndrome. My girls and I sat down a few weeks ago and read this book together. It facilitated great discussion about how we treat people differently when they are not like us. It is a great adventure tale for tiny minds to grasp how we should include others and learn and grow together. All of the children are separated for school on different ships. Girls on one ship. Boys on one. Some who learn differently on another. There were many boats for many needs until one day when they were all kidnapped by pirates! The children had to all band together to escape. It's great. Take the time to read it and learn with your children. My three girls (4, 5, and 9) all loved it. This book was graciously provided by Plough Publishing for review.

Sometimes I have thought that the church looks more like a psychiatric ward than a place of restoration. I am not trying to be a cynic. There is simply a lot of pain there and that makes sense. It should be a place we come to for healing. It can sometimes be hard when the people we are looking to for help bring us more harm. Sometimes we tend to look more like bridezilla than the bride of a gentle and loving God. That's what this book is about. It is about how the church can hurt you and the people you make yourself most vulnerable to can maim you. There were many great truths in these pages. It spoke of how the overflow of an ungrateful heart is consumerism. That leads congregations to dispose of staff like a commodity. Entitlement creates division. The struggles of ownership in the Corinthian church still continue today. Entitlement obscures our vision and our mission. One sentence reminded the reader that the only thing we are entitled to is wrath.  There was quite a ...

Sometimes I have thought that the church looks more like a psychiatric ward than a place of restoration. I am not trying to be a cynic. There is simply a lot of pain there and that makes sense. It should be a place we come to for healing. It can sometimes be hard when the people we are looking to for help bring us more harm. Sometimes we tend to look more like bridezilla than the bride of a gentle and loving God. That's what this book is about. It is about how the church can hurt you and the people you make yourself most vulnerable to can maim you. There were many great truths in these pages. It spoke of how the overflow of an ungrateful heart is consumerism. That leads congregations to dispose of staff like a commodity. Entitlement creates division. The struggles of ownership in the Corinthian church still continue today. Entitlement obscures our vision and our mission. One sentence reminded the reader that the only thing we are entitled to is wrath.  There was quite a ...

In the South there is a saying about being taken to the woodshed.  The woodshed is where you go to get a whipping and sort out your issues. I've been spending so much time in the woodshed spiritually speaking that I could take up residence. In the truest sense, I have been sorting out some deep hurts and some desperate hopes with Jesus. As I followed this book through the Beatitudes, I was more and more desperate to be like Jesus. Humility is my buzzword. Every time I hear it, it is like an auditory prayer. Simply the word coming in changes into a cry of my heart. Pride is an easy thing for us to muster. Especially for those of us who have been abandoned and wounded. We all want to cover our scars with anything that will conceal our hurts. It is an easy trap. Of course we want others to think well of us. We want them to think we are smart, educated, beautiful, and possessing a perfectly timed wit. Pride doesn't heal others though. It doesn't even look at them. That...

I did not know what I was getting myself into when I selected this book for review. It's hard to tell which direction people are going these days with the adulteration of the church. Thankfully, Bob presented a simple, honest plan for spreading the gospel. It's the plan I would say is closest to my heart. Bob shares stories from around the globe, not about major marketing plans for our churches, but how people were reaching thousands by loving their neighbors and encouraging others to do the same. It's authentic and relational. The words are a call to self-abandonment. It's counter-culture. It sounds radical. So many of the ways that he is engaging different cultures would be terrifying to us. We are comfortable and have a hard time veering from our routine. We never engage these people except with disdain or pity. What if we were their friend? What if we really listened? What if we were there when people needed us? What if we respected people and allowed God to ...

When I saw the cover of this book, I knew I had to read it. Whoever designed this cover did an amazing job. It made me feel peaceful and drawn to it. Once in the pages, I felt no different. I felt like Becky was simply talking to me the entire time I read her book. It was as if I was sitting across the table from a dear friend. There are so many things we can identify with in her narrative.  In case you need reminding today. #mom #mama #mamabear #motherhood #momlife #Jesus #forgiveness #grace #peace #mercy #hope #kids #children #girlmom #wildflower #nature A photo posted by The Gospel Mom (@thegospelmom) on May 25, 2016 at 11:31pm PDT She had plans to marry a pastor and have a certain type of life for herself. God directed her another way and her life seemed to unfold much differently than she expected. She ended up in the middle of nowhere a bit disheveled and depressed until God started to spark a fire in her heart for blogging. From there on we follow he...

I downloaded this little baby on to my phone a month or so ago to read when I didn't have a book or woke up in the night. I like to have something funny going in the background of reading things that are supposed to make me smarter or wiser. It seems to take the edge off and helps me see life through the scope of normalcy. It's easy to lose our humility in our quest for knowledge. Then we just run around trying to one up one another spiritually. That is lame. Enter Melanie Shankle who just talks like a normal human being. She tells true to life stories and is more honest than most people I know. I think most of us want to share the truth of our struggles, but we have all fallen pray to some sort of fake stepford wife syndrome in the church. We need a good laugh. We need to say it like it is and be seen for who we truly are so that we can all love one another. I realize that some people don't let us do that. Every time we say something real, they retort that it is als...

I loved this book. If you follow me on The Gospel Mom (on Facebook and Instagram), you will have seen some of the things that impacted me from it's pages. I did not pay attention to what the book was about when I selected it to review. You can read about how it hit me and took me back in time when I started reading it on Instagram. I review books for publishers. Often I will click on a book in the queue and select it to review without diving into what it's about. I saw this new book by Matt and Beth Redman and selected it. The book is called Finding God In the Hard Times. It's largely about the testimony of Matt's song Blessed Be Your Name. You probably know these lines from it. "You give and You take away. Blessed be Your name." I wasn't expecting it, but reading this book set me straight back in time to a time of miscarriage for me and my husband. We have lost six babies (one set of twins). We just kind of quietly move forward after the...

Here is all the honesty. I have not been a big fan of Jen Hatmaker. I don't mean to say I don't like her. I just never jumped on the bandwagon. I heard her speak and could have taken it or left it. I thought Seven sounded gimmicky. I just never connected. I am only telling you this because I was given a copy of her latest book For the Love at a conference and I liked it.  I have read some of Jen's blogs over the years and thought of how brave she is to tackle some serious topics of our day. You know people have to write her some major hate mail. This book is really no exception. It's full of good old fashioned wisdom. Much of what she said I can hear myself saying. In an age where so many Christian mom sites are about "stuff you need to do right or you don't love Jesus," this is a breath of fresh air. I can boil the whole thing down to two phrases. Simmer down. Be kind. Well, Jen, I cooked the food and had the neighbor over. I made Ina G...

It was fascinating to me to see a historical fiction account of Exodus from Egypt written from an Egyptian slave's perspective. There were many aspects that I had read but did not truly understand the gravity or impact of. The terror and length of each plague, losing generations of men, and the impact of darkness. Connilyn gives some brilliant and well thought out ideas of how a foreign people who worshipped many gods may have seen the plagues. They had gods that governed each of the things dealt with in the plagues and those gods were failing them. It makes you imagine the rumors that were flying about Moses. What sort of sorcerer was he? Could their gods overcome him?  Thought the book we journey through the every day, the release, the Egyptians that escaped with the Hebrews, and the treacherous journey through the desert. The imaginative account gave much more to the story for me. I was able to put myself in the shoes of the Egyptians and Hebrews. Of course, there's s...

I recently read a book entitled Surprised by the Healer that was sent to me. It is about God stepping into our broken stories and offering hope. The testimonies in the book are profound. Each one refutes the idea that there is anyone beyond healing and forgiveness. One of the women spoke about Mary and Martha as she faced some deep hurt she was going through. She stated that she realized that it was not what the women were doing that was of great concern, but what they were offering. One was offering Jesus worship and the other bitterness and focus on another. That realization helped her forgive and put God on the throne as Healer in her life. Jesus, heal our bitter hearts. I pray we are found worshipping. 💗💕 I highly recommend this book. The words are especially potent if you have endured any trauma or abuse in your life. 💗 Photographer—Vanessa Houk #vanessahouk #forgive #forgiveness #hope #beach #surf #grace #healing #pray #mom #mother #letitgo #beauty A photo posted by...