Reading Rainbow

I have a few hobbies. I love being a wife and mother, I love watching TV, I love being crafty, and I love to read! This summer I was so pumped to join our churches book club. I was not as excited when I found out that we would be reading biographies. BLEH! Until this year I thought I could only read fiction, boy was I wrong.

Our book club is the brain child of a wonderful friend, Anne Marie. She has a similar passion to mine and I was overjoyed to find out that she loved reading the Shopaholic books just like I do! Since we both enjoyed similar silly fiction I figured I could trust her choices in nonfiction and dove into the selections.

The first book we read was "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. I will never grow weary of reading this book (this was my second time). This is an amazing story of God's sovereignty even in the midst of Nazi occupied Holland. I will be brief in my synopsis but "The Hiding Place" chronicles the Ten Boom family as they hide Jews in their home and then as they go to concentration camps for their "crimes". Their faith in the Lord in the midst of their trials and their willingness to forgive is amazing. My favorite part in the book is when Corrie and her father see German soldiers herding Dutch Jews into a truck:

"Father! Those poor people!" I cried...
"Those poor people," Father echoed. But to my surprise I saw that he was looking at the soldiers now forming into ranks to march away. "I pity the poor Germans, Corrie. They have touched the apple of God's eye"...


It gives me goosebumps just typing it. What an amazing book. I can't wait to share it with my boys.

The book we read for July was "A Thousand Resurrections" by Maria Garriott. This book was about a white husband and wife who move to inner city Baltimore to be missionaries and to raise their family. The book goes through the last two decades of their lives, through poverty, through jobs, through racism and scares. Many people in our club felt the book was unpolished and not well written but I actually enjoyed the rawness of it. Maria and her husband have a passion for bringing Jesus to places in America where most people don't want to go, I applaud them for that. This book really opened my eyes to the despair that goes on in our country mere miles from our doorsteps!

Our final book this summer was "Elizabeth Prentiss: More Love to Thee" by Sharon James. I thought for sure this book was going to get me. Not only was I not a huge fan of non-fiction books I was really opposed to reading non-fiction about people a century or two ago. This book totally changed my mind. Elizabeth Prentiss (1818-1878) was a Presbyterian pastor's wife, mother, and author, well known for her hymn "More Love to Thee, O Christ" and the didactic story "Stepping Heavenward" (1869)(more on that book to come). The first couple chapters of this book were great, I will admit the middle dragged, but the end picked back up again. Am I the only one who feels as though their trials are brand new to mankind or to God? This book slapped me in the face with the truth that people have been suffering the same problems due to the fall of man since the beginning of time. As soon as I finished her biography I picked up her book "Stepping Heavenward", I haven't finished it yet (I have a bad habit of reading about 5 books at once) but when I do you will hear about it!

{yes that is Elizabeth on the cover, not her hubby...I too was shocked}
[information about Elizabeth taken from Wikipedia]

On the last day of book club Anne Marie challenged us with a few other books from her repertoire. One of those books was "Shopping for Time: How to Do It All and Not Be Overwhelmed" by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw.
I think a lot of people look at me and think "how does she do it all", well let me tell you A LOT DOESN'T GET DONE! That's why I needed this book. I have a confession to make...my house is not spotless in fact it is often rather cluttered. I struggle with getting it ALL done and having time for my family. Here is what I took away from this book:

• Time management is like shopping. Women shop for the best deals in clothing, food, etc. Why not shop for the best deals on our time. Ephesians 5:15-16 says "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil". I want to be a better time shopper but I want to do it the way the Lord wants me to. I'm weary from not discovering and doing God's purpose in my day to day life.
• The first tip in the book is Rising Early. WHAT?! I can't get up early...yes you can. If I can anyone can. I've joined the 6AM club...which often becomes the 6:15-6:30AM club but I'm working at it and it's working. I get up early, I shower and get dressed and make-uped. I make the bed, surf the Internet briefly and then have a quiet time with the Lord. If your not a Christian maybe you can use this time to make a to-do list and read something inspirational. For me having a quiet time means reading my Bible and a short devotion and then typing my prayers. I kept trying to pray just by closing my eyes but kept falling back asleep, so typing works well.
• Another tip in the book is Sitting and Planning. This tip is going to take awhile for me to institute. They suggest taking a personal retreat and planning out your year and which of their seven suggested priorities need to take precedence during the particular season in your life. I do know that right now for me that "Loving my family" is huge in my life. With a lot of young children at home it has to be one of my top priorities. I'm okay with that and know their will be other seasons where they won't need me as much and I will be able to focus on other priorities.
  
• I was also encouraged by this book to make more friends. I have a tendency to hide out in my house and clean and do laundry and not work on friendships. I need to do better in this area.
  
• Lastly I was encouraged by a quote in the book by C.J. Mahaney: "Only God gets his to-do list done each day. We are not God. We are finite creatures with serious limitations." "Only God accomplishes everything he needs to do in exactly the way he intends, in precisely the right amount of time. Only God!" That's comforting!
• Along with this book I have been failling miserably at doing "Fly Lady". Does anyone else use this system of housekeeping? I know it can work!
  

Well, I hope you have enjoyed today's version of Reading Rainbow. I have really wanted to share what I have been reading and hope you will be encouraged to pick up some of these books as well!  What's your favorite book?