14 Sep 2015

Blogtember: Top Five Books

by | posted in: Books | 0

Favorite Books

I don’t even know why I’m bothering to write this post, because there is no way that I can pinpoint 5 books – really?

  1.  The Bible.  That’s a given.  But, I need it daily for truth and encouragement in the Gospel.  Especially in this line of work called motherhood and marriage (and so much in the creative world), condemnation and competition can beat you down.  That’s why I need to read the Word every day.  This is the one place where I find total truth – with no question of doubting.
  2. The Fosters Market Cookbook.  This would probably be my favorite cookbook.  I got to meet its author when I was working in Durham at Williams-Sonoma, but also her market in Durham and Chapel Hill was my favorite cafe in the area.  She writes in such a warm style and uses local, fresh ingredients, and speaks of everything southern in my book.
  3. The Jesus Storybook Bible.  Hands down has taught me the most about how to read the entire Bible in light of Jesus.  I got this book from a sweet friend when we were doing a progressive dinner back when I was single and living in Louisville.
  4. The Shadow of the Almighty.  This storytelling of Jim Elliot’s life and mission and death by his now late wife, Elisabeth Elliot is one of the most gripping stories you will ever read.
  5. Found in Him by Elyse Fitzpatrick (really anything she writes).  Total transformation of how Christ is for you in light of the Gospel.

Honorable mentions: Cross-Centered Life, Loving the Way Jesus Loves, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing, The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook

 

Ask me tomorrow – this list might change.  Except for the first one.

5 Sep 2015

Citrus: a review

by | posted in: Books, food | 1

Citrus: a reviewI have a thing for cookbooks.  And food.  Yup, I do.  There, I admitted it.

I love cookbooks that tell me a story, that highlight real food, that makes me want to make every recipe.  This one is even better because it clearly reminds me of my childhood.  I loved going next door to my grandparents house and picking all the tangerines and oranges that I wanted.  I never remember buying citrus till I moved out of the state of Florida.  My parents had a kumquat tree that died.  They now grow pomelos.  I would love to grow a lemon and lime tree just because I hate purchasing them.

If you are a lover of citrus, you need to pick up this cookbook.  If you can’t get your hands on good produce to photograph – then rip out the pictures and put them on your wall in the kitchen to inspire you.  Love the tangy, tartness in these recipes.  Adore the many uses of the same fruit.  There are so many varieties.  Just go with it!

The first recipes I’ll be making is the lime curry chicken this weekend and grapefruit and avocado salad this week.  Can’t wait – and yes, there will be photos.

I received this book happily from Blogging for Books in exchange for my thoughts, all of which are my own.

5 Sep 2015

Book Review & Giveaway: God Made All of Me

by | posted in: Books, Kids r Readers 2 | 10

God Made All of Me

Unfortunately, this world hands us things that we must learn how to interact with, pray about, deal with, handle with truth and the gospel, and prepare our kids to face as they get older.  This is the sad reality in which we live.

Fortunately, Justin Holcomb and his wife, Lindsey, have written an incredible resource for children (toddlers through 8 years old) to instruct, inform, and prepare them for how they live in their bodies.  And how they respond to physical touch.

Child abuse, both physical and sexual and mental, is so rampant these days.  We must know how to prepare our children for what they (prayerfully won’t) might encounter.  The more our children are prepared the more we as parents can hopefully prevent harm to our children.

What I love about God Made All of Me is that is tells children that their bodies are good because God made them and it teaches them the importance of communication with trusted adults.  Inappropriate sexual touch can be totally embarrassing to children – they may not know how to tell their parents.  But, if you keep the communication lines open with your child, and teach them that God did make them in His image and it is wrong for others to touch them in a wrong way – you will be equipping your child!

This book comes out this week – and you (and your church library) need this book.  My Mom has been gracious enough to provide one for you to win.

So, all you have to do is tell me what truth you preach to yourself to keep you from worrying about all the evil that might affect your children as they grow.  Truth to guard against evil!  So important as we train our children up to love Jesus.

Litfuse provided me this book through New Growth Press to review.  All opinions are my own.

1 Sep 2015

September Reads

by | posted in: Books, Uncategorized | 0

September Reads

I think reading is one of the best ways to better yourself.  If you are reading the Bible – it is about learning the gospel of God to know God better.  If you are reading a cookbook, then you want to make your cooking better.  If you are reading a comic book, you want to laugh better.  Get it?

Before I get to the list of mine for this month, I want to encourage you to go read this post by Doug Wilson about how to read more.  It will be of benefit to you.  I know lots of seminary profs who are friends that read several books a week.  I don’t read that fast.  I would love to get through 2-3 a month.

So here are some I’m reading this month (mostly finishing up, because I’ve started all of these – and only have a few pages left in some, but I want to complete!!)

French Women Don’t Get Fat: I am so far loving this book.  I read it at night and it gets my mind reset to keep on my healthy journey.

A Woman’s Wisdom: This is a great book and helpful to women.  Lydia Brownback writes clearly to help women in any stage of life know how to apply the Proverbs to their lives.  This will be extremely helpful to me this month, especially in my parenting journey.

Peter Pan: I love any movie about Peter Pan – and I want to get to know more about Barrie in the future.  My mister and I are currently watching Hook which he has never seen, which I personally think is one of the late Robin Williams’ best roles.

Fierce Convictions: This is a biography that is about God, the gospel, justice, and women.  It is great – and I only have a little bit left to finish it.

What are you reading this month?

 

28 Aug 2015

Nightly Devotions with Preschoolers

by | posted in: Bible, Books, Shepherding Children | 8

Preschool Devotions

Something my husband and I are learning how to do (and we are talking about progression, not perfection) is having more time where we talk with our boys about Jesus and the Bible.

And if you have preschoolers, then you know that their attention spans for non-televised viewing is fairly short (one of the pitfalls of our media-driven culture).  So, unless you have creative animals, paid sound effect personnel,and a storyboard producer – your nightly devotions might not live up to Daniel Tiger or the Octonaughts.

But, getting the Bible into your children, teaching them about Jesus, and loving them the way Jesus would love them (by the Spirit’s help) is the most important thing you could ever do for your children.

So, currently, my older son is just about to turn three.  He loves books.  So each night, we put our younger to bed (we read Good Night North Carolina and Goodnight Moon and a Sandra Boynton book and pray with him) and then scoot over to our older son’s bedroom and read a book with him.  We are reading Read and Share 5 Minute Bible Stories (that I just got from Tommy Nelson – thank you).  Our son loves it.  It is short, great vibrant pictures just like in the Read and Share Bible which we also like, and its big (so even if he doesn’t have his glasses on, he can follow along.  I love how even now (we are in the Moses story) it focuses on the work of God throughout the Bible – and not the men on earth who fail and are sinners.  The whole Bible points to God and Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and the Spirit who indwells in believers.  I want that to be what our son gets from reading the Bible.

So, when you are just starting out:

  1.  Be simple and short.  Attention spans are short.  Keep your kids’ focus by reading something, asking questions, and praying.  It doesn’t have to be long – just consistent.
  2. Utilize good resources.  There are so many out there.  I recommend this bible story book, and catechisms for kids.  So many other tools out there, especially as your children get older.
  3. Be faithful.  God will reward even the smallest.  He wants your children to know Him too.
  4. Pray that God would capture your child’s heart!  You can’t do it yourself.  The greatest parents in the world can’t make their kids love Jesus.  Only He can!

If you want to win a copy of the Bible story book I talk about here, then all you have to do is answer the question: what is one way you are teaching your children about God?  I’ll pick a winner Sunday night!

22 Aug 2015

Learning Photography: Capture The Moment

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Capture the Moment

Life: it has a lot to do with savoring every moment.  Sometimes those moments are the best of times.  Sometimes those moments are bittersweet.  Sometimes those moments are just bitter.  There are moments you’d rather not capture or every remember.  But, mostly, even the bad ones, find their ever lasting way into your mind – etched there forever for you to press play and pause whenever you want.

That’s what I love about photography. It gives you the ability to not only press play and pause on the camera of your mind – but also hang up those captured moments for the rest of the world to see (or at least people who visit your home).

And with photography – you have to be ever learning.  Thanks to Blogging for Books, I have been thrilled at looking through the new book by Sarah Wilkerson, CEO of Clickin Moms (they know how to capture life).  The pictures are of course fabulous – different styles for every photographer.  Also, it helps you learn by giving you the camera and lens and settings so you can practice.

I am a learner by doing, and love having photographers in my life who will let me ask them tons of questions when I’m with them, but I do love this book so I can see exactly how the photo should turn out.  Learning is half the battle, right.

20 Aug 2015

My Toddler’s Favorite Word (and Giveaway)

by | posted in: Books, flowers, Kids r Readers 2, Shepherding Children | 6

Teaching Children Gratitude

One of the big trends in birthday photos or memory books is to talk about the child’s favorite foods, words, people, toys, books, etc at each time they have a birthday.  I wish I had the chalk-lettering skills to do one for my boys’ birthdays coming up, but I will leave that to the experts.

But, if I were to do a chalkboard letter sign for my younger toddler, his favorite word would be “mine.”  And seriously, we didn’t teach him that word.  Its not like my husband and I go around saying mine mine mine in the house.  But, knowing we as his parents are sinners,I’m sure he did pick it up from us at some point along the way.

Mine is not a word we want said a lot in our home.  I usually answer him back with something like that: “Bubs, nothing is yours.  God gave us all things and all the things that we have are from him.  He gave them to us to use and share.  We need to be kind and share the gifts that we’ve been given.”  I want him to learn a few things from this conversation (that happens at least 10 times a day):

1.  God is the giver of all good gifts.  James chapter 1 says that and many times in the Psalms it says that everything in the world is the Lord’s.  We may have been given a gift from our parents, grandparents, friends, etc but ultimately all good things come from God.

2.  God does want hearts full of gratitude.  God desires our hearts to be overflowing with praise for all that He has done for us. And out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks!  So, if we can train our children to be thankful, then as they get older, maybe a heart of thankfulness with take root in them by the power of the Holy Spirit and their little mouths will bubble forth with praise!

3.  God does want us to be kind.  Kindness is fruit of the Spirit, so that makes it something that God desires in us.  Kindness is not something we naturally gravitate towards.  No, we all naturally gravitate toward taking care of ourselves first.  Kindness is showing special care and grace for someone else.  Even in toddler world, that may mean sharing the last cookie or giving up a special toy because another friend wants to play with it.

There is a new book by Tommy Nelson that helps preschoolers not only learn a crucial life skill of counting, but also, more importantly, how to express their thankfulness.  Count My Blessings 1-2-3 is a perfect little shapes book that is durable and fun and rhyme-y.  My boys have loved this book series.  When we read it together I can help them think of specific cases of each blessing (like friends).

If you would like to win a copy of this book for your toddler, all you have to do is tell me one thing that you are thankful for in being their mommy or daddy.  That shouldn’t be that hard – and it will help continue to grow a spirit of thankfulness in you as their parent.

 

13 Aug 2015

The Biggest Story is Coming

by | posted in: Bible, Books, Shepherding Children | 0

The Biggest Story

When I was in college I served with Young Life, a great inter-denominational ministry that worked with middle school and high school students to build relationships with them and show them the glorious gospel.  One of the main truths of Young Life that I still completely believe and affirm and try to practice today is “It is a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.”  Jesus is not boring.  Why should we bore a kid, a teenager, or an adult with the wonderful news of Jesus?

I’ve been hearing about a new book that Crossway was putting out by one of my favorite authors, Kevin DeYoung entitled The Biggest Story.  I opened up my mailbox today and there was a brown package from Crossway and I definitely knew it was going to be a great mail day.  I read three chapters of it sitting in the parking lot of Wendy’s while the boys were eating their junior frostys and I read the rest of it in the gym locker room before working out.  Yes, it was that good.

It was witty.

It was full of adventure – cliffhangers mind you.

It was truth.

It was concise.

It was displaying the gloriousness of the gospel.

The pictures are so well done and fit in well with what is in the secular market right now (journals, etc).

It is not a Bible – but tells the beautiful story of the Bible to school-aged kids in a way that won’t bore them.

This is not a Bible. Its not even a The Message type Bible.  It is a story.  A true story.  It shapes the readers mind around one single figure: Jesus.  Just like in the Jesus Storybook Bible where Jesus is the hero of every story – and the whole Bible points to Him.  Same way here.  Kevin, in his masterful, comical, somewhat sarcastic, pastoral, daddy way – he skillfully weaves the truth of Jesus, the reality of sin, the fallenness of the human race, and the relationship that God will remedy one day – all into a lovely books that you need to get when it comes out the end of this month.

Here is just one example of how you can use this (if you are a parent):

One of my greatest hopes for you (if you have a family) is that you will figure out what family devotions looks like for you.  Right now, for us, we read part of a Bible book for toddlers and pray with our older son before going to bed.  It literally takes 2 minutes.  But, that will change as both of boys get older.  If you have grade-school kids I think this would be a perfect book to read with them and talk about the implications and truth that it shares.  I would also pair it with a Bible story, from the actual Bible.  Crossway has a great children’s Bible that I just did a review on.  I would take the time to read the chapter that you are covering that day in The Biggest Story and pick just one of the stories that it talks about and read that story out of the Bible. Then just ask your kids questions about that.  Pray with them. Turn their hearts to their need of Jesus and the great gospel.

Two disclaimers about this book as I was reading it.

1.  DeYoung says that Adam ate from the only tree.  Well, of course he did.  It caught me off guard that he didn’t say Eve ate it (which she did).  I know he knows that.  My only thought it that either he is stressing male leadership and that Adam sinned or the Adam being the head of the human race side of things.  Either way, no biggie, just wanted to share.

2.  Also, most books you’ll read, especially around Christmas time is that Jesus is the greatest gift.  In The Biggest Story, DeYoung says that the Holy Spirit is best present of all time.  He so strongly talks about the Trinity (yay!) and having read J D Greear’s book Jesus Continued I can see why he would say this.

All together, I would give this book to absolutely anyone.  I can’t wait to read it with my children more and have them understand it.  I want to get another copy of the book just to cut out the pictures and frame them.  I want my home to be filled with more books like this – the books that point to the magnificent gospel!

 

12 Aug 2015

the psalms and our emotions

by | posted in: Bible, Books, illustrated faith | 0

The psalms and our emotions

As a wife and a mom (and basically as a human being), I experience many different emotions every single day.

Love.

Joy.

Irritability.

Fear.

Impatience.

Sadness.

Anger.

Bitterness.

Things are out of control.

Competitiveness.

And the list could go on, but you get the picture.

God created us as whole beings, therefore emotions themselves aren’t evil.  But, they have been affected by the fall – when sin entered the picture long ago we have a different bent on emotions.  But, the good news is we have been given something to help with our emotions.

Psalter by Crossway

We have been given the Bible, especially the book of Psalms.  The Psalms to me is probably the most helpful book in the entire world when knowing how to deal with my emotions.  One of my friends told me early this year that one of the best disciplines I could would be to journal through the psalms, praying through them, crying out to God using his very word to direct my thoughts.  This practice has been so helpful in turning my thoughts and emotions back to God. This practice doesn’t necessarily have to go with hard times when our hearts are torn.  But, it can help us specifically praise the One who deserves all the credit when things are going well in our lives.

Crossway recently came out with a Psalter that is amazing.  My sweet husband just gifted it to me.  He placed an order with random other household goods from amazon that he knew I would open.  I found the psalter.  I called him hoping I hadn’t ruined a surprise – he said no, just thought it would be a happy.  It so was!  I’d been wanting it forever!  It is the perfect compact size to carry with me everywhere.  It has thick pages perfect for people like me who like to write in their Bibles.  And it is only the Psalms – which is perfect for reading and re-reading.

Another book has recently come out that has been helpful as I’ve started reading it.  And this post has also been encouraging.  IF you want a prayer journal that a wife can pray for her husband through certain books of the Bible, you can find one here on the blog for free that I wrote for the book of Nehemiah or the one I wrote for Ephesians.

One of the best parts about the psalms and the most instructive is how the writers deal with their emotions.  They aren’t afraid to tell us what they are really feeling: doubt, fear, worry, anxiety, questioning, joy, praise, adoration, etc.  But, even when they are struggling in their faith – they always come back to the understanding that God is in control.  He is most glorious.  He is in charge of all things.  And that is why they praise.  They know that every situation will be handled by the Great BIG GOD who is gently leading and guiding them through all things.

I never want to shy away from my emotions.  I do want to run to my God who knows me and knows how all of it is going to turn out.  And you don’t have to not share your emotions with others.  Christians should not be a stoic people.  (I mean, clearly, the Psalms is anything but stoic.)  But, with our sharing, let us always return to the hope of Christ. May we always take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

10 Aug 2015

Why Should You Read?

by | posted in: Books | 0

There is a new type of book on the market now: an adult coloring book.  I’m not talking about a rated R coloring book – I’m talking about a coloring book that will appeal to adults.  Hobbies are so good and with the influx of binge watching tv shows on Netflix it makes us feel better if we are doing something as we watch them.  Like we aren’t really being lazy.  A friend of mine is putting together a coloring book that I can’t wait to get my hands on.  Any time I can be creative – it is a good day.

That’s not the type of book I’m talking about.  I’m talking about books with lots of words in them – books that will change your life? Your job? Your hobby?  Your mind?  Books that will enlighten you and make you laugh.  Books that will challenge you and cause you to cry.  These are the books that you need to be reading.

One such book is Packer on the Christian Life by Sam Storms – the latest in the series put out by Crossway Books.  Not intended to be biographical mainly, these books only share a snippet on the persons actual life – but it is still informative, especially if you like biographies.  But, more importantly this book, and this series, allows us to know where we’ve come from.  Packer is one of the top 5 most influential evangelical theologians in the last 100 years.  His books like Knowing God and Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God would probably be his two most famous books.  These two books have influenced thousands of readers and have influenced pastors that lead thousands every Sunday.

I love how Storms doesn’t shy away from any controversial theology that may have come across the mind of Packer or how he had to deal with heresy.  Packer has always (yes, even now, as he is still alive) come back to the Word. I love how he stands firmly on Scripture.  Yes, we will always differ with people on some theology, none of us are perfect.  As a friend said yesterday, when we get to heaven all of it will be right according to God.

So why should we read books?

1.  To engage our hearts, minds, and souls.  If the books you are reading don’t do this in some way – pick a new book.

2. To learn from the past.  This is why I love biographies so much, or series like this one by Crossway.  I want to learn from people who have lived before me.  I want to see the God they knew.  I want to experience their world.

3.  To impact the future. I think one of the greatest disciplines any leader can have is to read.  One of the things I love about my pastor is that each Sunday night he gives away books.  Maybe only one or two, but he wants to put good books in the hands of the people of his congregation, so they can do all three of these things I’ve just listed.

What are you reading?