My small group has started reading “Lies Women Believe” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. So far it looks like it’s going to be a great book. One of the ways to combat the lies the world tells us is by “taking every thought captive.” God has been convicting me about the sins in my thought life, the lies that I tell myself. One of my friends recently pointed out that when God is having us learn something, we keep coming across the same lesson wherever we are. So this morning in my bible reading time, my Tabletalk magazine was talking about Romans 12:1-2 about presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. It says, “full devotion of ourselves to God is the logical response to all that He has done for us, for nothing less than our time, talents, desires, and possessions could even begin to show our appreciations for His willingness to purchase us from the wrath we deserve for sinning against Him (IThess. 1:9-10). Such devotion means that we think God’s thoughts after Him, refusing to be conformed to the patterns of this fallen world, for if we love what the world loves, we cannot love what our Father loves. And the chief way we learn to deny the world’s ways and embrace the Lord’s will is through the renewal of our minds, which occurs as we study and meditate upon God’s word.”

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” Hebrew 4:12-13.

I was updating my virtual bookshelf recently and noticed how little I’ve been reading. I’ve been in the middle of C.S. Lewis’s biography for weeks now, it seems like I get to read a page at a time. For those who don’t know, the virtual bookshelf is an app. on Facebook where you can list the books you have read or want to read and also give a review of them. I read a post on the GirlTalk blog (see link on the side) about having a list of books to be read in your lifetime. The books she had listed as examples were an awesome collection. I have an ongoing list of books I’ve seen reviewed or have come across that I want to read and check them off as I buy them. My list is like 40 long so I have a long ways to go. Our pastor has a list of books that he gives out of those that every Christian should read. I’ve listed my favorite parenting books in previous posts but I think I want to come up with my lifetime list. In reading C.S. Lewis’s biography, not only is it about his life but much of it includes books and how they shaped his life. I love the way he described books and felt that he put into words my thoughts about reading. My husband frequently teases me about the number of books that I have (though I remind him that I got rid of about 150 books so that we could fit the children in our house). I have a hard time letting go of books because they are like friends to me. I have an emotional attachment to them because each one has been with me at different times in my life and I can remember what I learned from each book and what I was going through at the time. I guess they are kind of like photos. We keep pictures because looking at them reminds us of experiences in our past so I guess my books are snapshots of places I have been intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally. What books stand out to you that would you list on your lifetime list?

Interesting title huh? I mentioned in a previous post that I had gotten “Respectable Sins” by Jerry Bridges for Christmas (thanks mom and dad:). Though I have done some book reviews on my blog this is not a review, just wanted to share what I am learning. God is really using this book to reveal to me a great deal about myself. God is so gracious that when a person first becomes a believer, He does not convict them of every sin in their life. Imagine if He did! Yikes! He reveals sins to us when we are ready. The book I’m reading is about the sins that Christians don’t really think about as being sins, we tolerate them. We look at the really “obvious” sins that other people commit and are proud of ourselves that we don’t do those (adultery, murder, theft, etc). But the author points out that all sin is wrong in God’s and that we need to pull the plank out of our own eyes. When most of us think about “respectable sins” we think of gossip. That certainly is included but there are many more. When I look at the list in the table of contents, I am convicted even before I read the chapters! Here’s an example of some of the sins covered: Anxiety, Discontentment, Unthankfulness, Selfishness, Lack of Self-Control, Impatience and Irritability, Anger, etc. It’s very well written and very practical. He gives ideas as to ways to pray for God’s help in conquering the sins and verses to focus on. I am guilty of every sin that he writes about but one of the ones that I have been praying for help with is my irritability and lack of patience. I’ve post on a number of occassions about my struggle with patience since having kids and the HS has pointed out to me one of the things I do quite frequently when irritated or impatient with the kids (and sometimes my husband) is that I sigh. It’s been kind of an unconscious act but the HS has been pointing it out to me more and more. I hate being woken up at night and one night recently when Ethan came in to get me in the middle of the night, I let out a big sigh of irritation that I had been woken up. From a psychological perspective I know the impact that a parent’s frequent irritability and impatience can have on the developing psyche of a child, but even more importantly, it is a sin against God. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Eph 4:2. I am still working my way through the book but just wanted to share what I am learning. And to my small group friends-I’m trusting that you all will keep me accountable:)

The girls and I in my small group have recently started reading “Shopping for Time.” It’s basically about how to accomplish everything called has called you to do each day. One of the suggestions is to wake up at 5am every morning and start your day with God before the kids get up. 5am seems so much like the middle of the night to me but I had been thinking about doing it at 6am instead. That would mean Ian would no longer be my alarm clock and I would have to set one. Anyway I’ve been thinking about it and praying about it and a funny thing happened this morning. I did not set my alarm (because I have another sinus infection and don’t feel that great) but I heard Ian making noise and I looked at my clock. It thought it said 6:50. So I jumped out of bed and took a quick shower. I come back out, Ian is back to sleep and my clock says 6:30. So I chuckle and sit down to read the word and pray. Funny thing how God works right? In addition to reading scripture I recently picked up a book from a favorite author of mine (Joni Eareckson Tada) called 31 Days Toward Passionate Faith and I wanted to share a couple of quotes that struck me: “Christ brings the heart to heaven first-and then He brings the person.” “Growing spiritually involves a gradual transger of our inner investments from earth to heaven.” Just something to think about.
“We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Cor 4:18.

Since I’ve come out of the fog I was in during pregnancy and early months of Ian’s life, I’ve been reading a lot. My new favorite book I just finished is Grace Based Parenting by Dr. Tim Kimmel. I’ve read way too many parenting and child behavior/development books for college/grad school and work that I’m usually sceptical that I’ll find anything with new information or approaches. I’ve had to teach parenting skills to so many parents and have written more behavior mod. plans than I can remember but despite all that, I didn’t buy into what I was doing 100%. I am more philosophical in nature and have always leaned more to parenting books that were written that way. Most client’s I had in the past wanted specific interventions like when x happens, do y and then the result with be z. As though interacting with a human being is anything like a math equation. But I would give them what they wanted and then they would get upset with me when it didn’t work every time. Sigh… All that to say, I keep searching for the books that fit my personality and this one does to a “T”. It’s like he listened to what my heart and mind has been thinking about for many years and wrote it down onto paper. Wow. I used this quote from the book last week in my quote of the week but I’ll give it again:”You’ve been handed a piece of history in advance-a gracious gift you send to a time you will not see-and you play the biggest role in how that history will ultimately be recorded.” I am adding Grace Based Parenting to my pile of go to favorites. Here are the others:
The Five Love Languages of Children (Chapman and Campbell)
How to really Love your child (Campbell)
How Children Raise Parents (Allendar)
The Mission of Motherhood (Clarkson)