Book Review: The Snow Queen

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Audible.com offers an end-of-year gift to its members in the way of a free short classic audiobook. Past offerings have been  A Christmas Carol,  The Wizard of Oz, and The Cricket on the Hearth: this past year it was The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen (as of right now it is still free for members – don’t know how long it will be).

Snow QueenYou probably know that Frozen, Disney’s blockbuster movie last year, was supposedly based on The Snow Queen, but there is little resemblance besides a woman who “was beautiful but all made of ice: cold, blindingly glittering ice; and yet she was alive, for her eyes stared at Kai like two stars, but neither rest nor peace was to be found in her gaze,” an ice palace, and a talking reindeer (among other talking animals and even flowers) and some of the themes. All of the main characters’ names are different. But it is a pleasant story nonetheless, though maybe a little weird in places.

The tale is told in seven shorter stories. It begins with a troll (or sprite or hobgoblin or demon – different translations tell it a little differently) who made a mirror which causes those who look into it to see to see only the bad and nothing good or beautiful. In fact, the bad was magnified and the real distorted. After terrorizing everyone they could with the mirror, the fellow creatures of this being decided to take this mirror to heaven to “mock the angels,”  but in the process it fell and broke into millions of small pieces and splinters.

The next story tells of two childhood friend, Gerda and Kai (or Kay, depending again on which book you read), and their innocent play and love for each other, until one day Kai gets one of these splinters in his eye and heart, which changes him and makes him quite disagreeable. Then one day he sees the Snow Queen, mentioned already, whom Kai’s grandmother had told them of. He is frightened of her and draws back. But another day when all the boys are hooking their sledges up to carts and carriages to pull them, Kai ends up unknowingly fastening his to the Snow Queen’s vehicle. Too late he realizes who she is: she won’t stop, and she takes him to her palace far away. Her kiss numbs him and makes his heart grow colder.

Everyone in the village thinks he has died, but Gerda is convinced he has not, so she goes to look for him. Several more of the intervening stories tell of the people and creatures she meets along the way, some who help and some who hinder her.

There are vivid contrasts – light vs. darkness, warmth vs. coldness, innocence and purity vs. evil. In one segment it is said,

“I can give her no greater power than she has already”, said the woman; “Don’t you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kai, we can do nothing to help her.”

I’ve wondered if the Snow Queen was inspiration for C. S. Lewis’s White Witch in Narnia. There are similarities, but the White Witch’s personality is much more developed – maybe because she spans several books whereas the Snow Queen is just in this one story – and she is more overtly evil. But the scene in which Edmund is taken into the White Witch’s sleigh and folded into her robes is very reminiscent of the Snow Queen doing the same with Kai.

There is also something of a religious element. I realized after reading this that I know very little about Andersen’s background, so I don’t know what he believed, but the children quote a fragment of a hymn which says, “Roses bloom and cease to be, But we shall the Christ-child see,” and later when Gerda is in trouble she prays the Lord’s Prayer, and angels come to help her. Near the end, “The grandmother sat in God’s bright sunshine, and she read aloud from the Bible, ‘Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God.’ And Kay and Gerda looked into each other’s eyes, and all at once understood the words of the old song, ‘Roses bloom and cease to be, But we shall the Christ-child see.'”

I found some of the intervening chapters, particularly one where Gerda is talking to flowers to see if they know anything about Kai, and they tell their stories, not only a little strange but also not really contributing much to the plot. But overall it is a sweet story of good triumphing over evil, of loyalty, of loving someone despite their flaws, of resilience when facing hardship and adversity. You can find the whole story online in various places with minor variations in the text (like the spelling of Kai/Kay’s name). Some day I’d like to read a nicely illustrated book version of the story.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Review: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

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Let Every HeartForgive me for spending the first week of the year catching up with Christmas reviews. As I said yesterday, I don’t usually have the computer time when I finish these to talk about them, and when I do I feel it’s probably too far past Christmas. But Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room: Daily Family Devotions for Advent by Nancy Guthrie is another that I’ve read several times now and want to share more about with you.

This book is written in a much different style than her compilation of essays in Come Thou Long Expected Jesus that I discussed yesterday. It’s written for use as a family devotional, so the language is in a simper style that I think very young children could comprehend, but I enjoyed it even as an adult reading for myself. Each chapter ends with a prayer, some discussion questions, and a few more Scriptures on the topic of the chapter. There are 31 readings: I like that it doesn’t stop at Christmas but extends through the month. (I know I said I liked that Come Thou Long Expected Jesus only had 22 readings, but those in this book are short enough that I don’t think it would be a problem to keep up with all month). The sizing of the book, too, is small enough that I think children would be comfortable holding it and taking a turn at the family reading.

In addition, there are lined pages where you can jot down anything you want to remember about the discussions aroused from the readings and a few pages of Christmas songs with their history.

The readings cover several topics that you would expect, but also a few you might not have thought of, such as this quote:

When you look at something through a magnifying glass, it looks much bigger than it actually is. Is that what Mary meant when she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord”? Was she trying to make God look bigger than He actually is?

 We can never make God bigger or greater than He is. The truth is, we can never fully take in or understand God’s greatness. But we can magnify Him. We magnify God not by making Him bigger than He truly is, but by making Him greater in our thoughts, in our affections, in our memories, and in our expectations. We magnify Him by having higher, larger, and truer thoughts of Him. We magnify Him by praising Him and telling others about His greatness so they can have bigger thoughts about Him, too.

 Sometimes we wonder why we aren’t happy, why we make sinful choices, why we feel distant from God. Often it’s because we have small thoughts about God and magnified thoughts of ourselves, our wants, our rights, our accomplishments. Mary, the one God chose to be the mother of His Son, could have easily allowed thoughts of herself to become larger, even prideful. But instead of magnifying herself, she magnified the Lord (p. 29).

And this:

Sometimes we are given a gift that we think is not really useful to us, and therefore we never take it out of the box. We stash it away in a closet or on a shelf somewhere in case we need it someday. Sadly, that’s what some people do in regard to Jesus. They want to keep him handy for when something comes along that they can’t handle on their own, but for now they have no interest in making him part of their day-to-day lives, and so they put him on the shelf. They simply don’t believe he is as good as the Bible says he is, and so they have no real or lasting joy in having received this great gift (p. 79).

Day 17’s reading on “Glory Revealed” is one that especially stood out to me.

I appreciate Nancy’s thoughtfulness and depth in these devotionals, even couched as they are in simple language.

I’ve used this book several times, once with Jesse when he was younger and then on my own. It’s one I am sure I will use again, and I am happy to recommend it to you.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

 

Book Review: Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus

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Long Expected JesusI’ve read Come Thou Long Expected Jesus:Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas, compiled by Nancy Guthrie, many times, but somehow I have never reviewed it. Probably because, like this year, I’ve finished it right in the busiest of the Christmas season, and by the time I had time to go over it, felt it was too far past Christmas to review. But I am not letting that happen this year. 🙂

In Nancy’s preface, she tells of Christmases where all the activities had been accomplished, but her heart wasn’t truly prepared. Then she tried to find a book of Christmas readings, but the ones she found did not minister to her. She wanted to find a “book with short readings on Advent themes from a number of different writers I trust and respect; that reflected a high view of Scripture; and that put the incarnation in the context of God’s unfolding plan of redemption” (p. 10). When she couldn’t find such a book, she set out to create one, reading and editing multitudes of sermons and writings from well-known theologians and Bible teachers.

There are 22 selections on various aspects of Advent, from Mary to conception by the Holy Ghost to Joseph to the shepherds to Jesus’s humility and others, from such teachers and preachers as Charles Spurgeon, Augustine, Martyn Lloyd-Jones to Tim Keller, John MacArthur, J. I. Packer, and Ray Ortland. I don’t know all of the authors, so I wouldn’t endorse everyone 100%, but I don’t think I read anything in this particular volume that I had a problem with, at least not that I noted or can recall.

In many ways it is hard to review a book like this, with so many authors and topics. But I’ll share just a few quotes that stood out to me:

Ligon Duncan III on Joseph: “God is calling Joseph to believe his word and to act in accordance with it. And Joseph does just that. He accepts God’s word and he trusts God’s word and he relies upon God’s word and he re-orients his life to conform to that word. What a tremendous act of faith on the part of Joseph and what an example of obedience to God’s word in spite of circumstance” (p. 53).

From “For Your Sakes He Became Poor” by J. I. Packer (originally from Knowing God): “We see now what it meant for the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, isolation, ill-treatment, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony–spiritual even more than physical–that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they ‘through his poverty might become rich.’ The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity–hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory–because at the Father’s will Jesus Christ became poor and was born in a stable so that thirty years later he might hang on a cross. It is the most wonderful message that the world has ever heard, or will hear.

We talk glibly of the ‘Christmas spirit,’ rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But what we have said makes it clear that the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sakes became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all the year round.

…The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor — spending and being spent — to enrich their fellow men, giving time, trouble, care, and concern, to do good to others — and not just their own friends — in whatever way there seems need (pp. 70-72).

From “Good News of Great Joy” by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr.: “God is terrifying to guilty sinners, even though he is in himself gloriously beauitful. But God is pursuing us, even though we avoid him. He himself has taken the initiative to break through our terror” (p. 99).

From the same chapter: “Our good intentions are not strong enough to control our evil impulses. We need a Savior to rescue us from ourselves” (p. 100).

From “The Lessons of the Wise Men” by J. C. Ryle: “Let us beware of resting satisfied with head knowledge. It is an excellent thing when rightly used. But a person may have much of it, and still perish everlastingly. What is the state of our hearts? This is the great question. A little grace is better than many gifts. Gifts alone save no one; but grace leads on to glory” (p. 111).

There are so many others I’d love to share. Packard’s and Ortlund’s chapters impacted me the most this time, I think. There was a lot that was deep and thought-provoking in both, especially Ortlund’s on God’s glory.

Our family doesn’t celebrate Advent liturgically or ceremonially, with different candles on different days and all that, but I do like to, as Nancy wrote at the beginning, spend some time preparing for Christmas with some kind of Advent reading. This book, so far, has been the best book I have found for that. I like that it is 22 essays rather than 24 or 25 or 31: it gives one some leeway to begin early in December but not fall behind if a day or two is missed. Though the chapters are longer than the average devotional booklet, they’re not too long to read in a sitting, and I have found I do better at this stage of life with sustained thought on topics like this rather than “grab and go” devotionals. But most of all I like the richness and the depth. I had used it for several years, laid it aside for a few years, and rejoiced to read it again this year. I’m sure I will read it again many times.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Review: Where Treetops Glisten

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Where-Treetops-GlistenI wanted to read Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Cara Putnam, Sarah Sundin, and Tricia Goyer since I first heard of it because I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Sarah Sundin‘s books. So far everything she has written has been set during WWII, and I enjoy the period backdrop as well as her well-drawn characters. I had never read Cara before and had read only one of Tricia’s books.

This book opens in the Turner home Lafayette, Indiana on Christmas Eve 1941. Abigail Turner’s boyfriend was killed in the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Meredith’s had broken her heart. For all of these reasons, no one was in much of a mood to celebrate Christmas. But Grandma Louise felt that celebrating Christ’s birth was especially necessary in such times, so she gets up early to start decorating.

The book then divides into three sections, each focusing on one of the Turner siblings during subsequent Christmas seasons and written by a different author. Each section is also headed by well known Christmas songs which debuted during the WWII era.

Almost a year after Pearl Harbor, Abigail is a college student and has decided that, for the duration of the war at least, her heart is closed to romance. There’s just no sense in getting involved with someone during uncertain times. She works part-time at the unique Glatz Candies (a real store, now known as McCord Candies), and on her way to catch the bus for work collides with a young man. He boards her bus as well, and she notices he has a limp plus seems to be under a heavy weight. She reaches out to see if she can be of help.

Pete Turner for years considered himself the black sheep of the family. His childhood bullying and prankish sense of humor hurt, angered, or aggravated every one subjected to it, until he finally gave his life to Christ. But old reputations are hard to escape, so he centers his life and work in a different town. On leave in Lafayette, he encounters a lost child and helps her home only to find that her widowed mother is the younger sister of a friend and the target of some of his worst bullying. She’s in need of some help, which he offers, but she has never forgiven him. Yet her daughter seems taken by him, and he seems to understand her daughter more than anyone else.

Meredith had met a young musician in college who was German born but seemed very Americanized. Just as their relationship was growing serious, she learns he has fled, and paraphernalia left behind indicates he was probably a spy. Hurt and betrayed, she joins the service as a nurse, and her unit is following the front lines to attend to the wounded. Christmas Day is also her birthday, and being so far from home weighs on her. But the last thing she expects is having to deal with her betrayal head on.

Grandma Louise’s influence is a running thread connecting all the stories, and an epilogue brings them all to a satisfying close.

At the end is a chat with the authors about their research and how they worked together on the project.

I very much enjoyed this book. The characters and situations were realistic and the element of faith was genuine. I enjoyed each character’s journey and what they learned along the way.

(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

 

Laudable Linkage

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It’s been a while since I’ve been able to share interesting links with you. Here are some I’ve come across the last couple of weeks.

Often I write about Bible reading plans at the beginning of the year. I didn’t this year, but have found some good ones at What Is Your Bible Reading Plan for 2015? and A 2-Year Bible Reading Plan.

Similarly, you can find a plethora of posts about New Year’s Resolutions and/or goals. A couple of the best I’ve seen are Ten Truths That Will Change Your Life in 2015 and 5 Ways You Need to Be Honest With Yourself.

This is an older one, and I’ve linked to it before, but I just rediscovered my friend Susan’s post about making plans or goals for the New Year in a number of areas: spiritual, physical, marriage, children, homemaking, and creativity, along which some suggested questions and reasons planning aids us.

A Christmas Present from the Mainstream Media: Newsweek Takes a Desperate Swipe at the Integrity of the Bible (Part 1) and Predictable Christmas Fare: Newsweek’s Tirade against the Bible are a couple recommended by Tim Challies in response to Newsweek’s article slamming the Bible and those who believe it. In all honesty, I have not read all of the original article or these responses, but I’ve read parts of them and saved the links for when I had more time to concentrate on them.

How to Change Your Mind.

The Unbreakable Laura Hillenbrand. Very interesting story about the author of Unbroken and how she deals with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Hope you have a great first weekend of 2015!

Friday’s Fave Five

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It’s Friday, time to look back over the blessings of the week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and other friends.

I didn’t think I was going to do a FFF today – it has been a busy week, and I wasn’t feeling well this afternoon. But everything has come to a stopping place, and I have half an hour before time to start dinner – so here I am. 🙂

1. Time with family. My oldest son was here until last Sunday, and my middle son and d-i-l and little grandson were here often (and of course my youngest son lives here), plus my husband has been off for two weeks. We had lots of great times together as a family.

2. Ibuprofen. I had to have a tooth pulled Wednesday – no fun at all. The doctor said the damage was worse than thought (one root was almost completely gone. He was amazed I hadn’t had any pain, but that tooth had had a root canal some years before. The only way I knew something was wrong was when is showed up on an x-ray at a routine dental cleaning). He said the surgery went “as good as it could go,” so I am thankful for that. It’s been sore ever since then, but ibuprofen is keeping it manageable.

3. Soup has been my mainstay this week. Pudding and cream of wheat helped, too, but soup was the best, especially potato soup.

4. A meal brought over. One day my son and daughter-in-law brought soup and sandwiches over and we watched How to Train Your Dragon 2. Cute movie!

5. Ecclesiastes is not usually one of my favorite books to read in the Bible. It’s written kind of from a different angle than the other books. But for my birthday last year I got a John MacArthur study Bible, and his introductory remarks sounded very reminiscent of some things C. S. Lewis said, particularly his famous quote, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” Since I had just finished his The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses a month or so ago, much of that was really fresh to me. I hadn’t read Ecclesiastes in that light before – there is much, Solomon said, to enjoy in this life, but ultimately nothing satisfies long-term because it isn’t meant to. Reading in that light has caused me to “get” what it is saying that much more, and I am really enjoying this reading, or rereading.

Happy Friday – what’s left of it!

Happy New Year!

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I had to have a tooth pulled yesterday, so there were no big New Year’s Eve parties for us. 🙂 Actually, we usually have a quiet evening at home on that night anyway. I don’t like to be out when there are going to be even more drunk drivers than usual, and our church wasn’t having its usual Wednesday night services. I thought about rescheduling my oral surgery for another time, but figured this would actually work out for the best since Jim would be home anyway. I wasn’t sedated – just had local numbing. Of course I’ve been dealing with varying degrees of pain since the numbness wore off, but it is not as bad as it was yesterday afternoon.

I don’t usually do New Year’s Resolutions, but I do usually like to reflect a bit on the coming year and things I need to work on. So far I haven’t really had time to: maybe next week. But in last night’s Daily Light reading, I came across these verses, which will give me plenty to think about in the next year:

Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. I Peter 1:5-7

I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

And for my friends here, I saw this last year and was moved by it:

A New Year’s Prayer

May God make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you eager to be there to help.
God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

Anonymous

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(Graphic from crosscards.com)

At the Close of the Year

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Excerpts from “At the Close of the Year”

 ~ by John Newton

 Let hearts and tongues unite,
And loud thanksgivings raise:
‘Tis duty, mingled with delight,
To sing the Saviour’s praise.

 In childhood and in youth,
His eye was on us still:
Though strangers to his love and truth,
And prone to cross his will.

 And since his name we knew,
How gracious has he been:
What dangers has he led us through,
What mercies have we seen!

 Now through another year,
Supported by his care,
We raise our Ebenezer here,
“The Lord has help’d thus far.”

 Our lot in future years
We cannot now foresee,
He kindly, to prevent our fears,
Says, “Leave it all to me.”

 Yea, Lord, we wish to cast
Our cares upon thy breast!
Help us to praise thee for the past,
And trust thee for the rest.

 

What’s On Your Nightstand: December 2014

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 What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

I’m so glad the 5MFB folks decided to put this month’s Nightstand post on the last Tuesday rather than the fourth Tuesday of December, which, this year, would have been two days before Christmas. There is much less pressure and more time to enjoy it this week. In fact…I would love it if it were the last Tuesday of every month, or the last day of the month. 🙂

December is traditionally a busy month, but I was able to get some good reading and listening in.

Since last time I have completed:

The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis, reviewed here.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowrey for Carrie’s  Reading to Know Classics Book Club for November, reviewed here.

The Gift of the Magi and Other Christmas Stories by O. Henry, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Henry van Dyke, and Leo Tolstoy, reviewed here.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum, audiobook, reviewed here.

To Kill a Mockingbird for Carrie’s  Reading to Know Classics Book Club for December, mostly audiobook, reviewed here.

Merry Humbug Christmas by Sandra D. Bricker, reviewed here.

The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens, audiobook, reviewed here.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, audiobook. I didn’t review it this year, but my thoughts on it from a couple of years ago are here.

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas, essays compiled by Nancy Guthrie. I have read this several times and referred to it here before, but I have never reviewed it. I hope to soon.

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson, audiobook, just finished yesterday afternoon.

That may look like a lot, but many were audiobooks and a few of them were very short.

I didn’t read the Christmas books I had planned to, but then I did read some I hadn’t planned on. I do like to read something Christmasy this month, so I am glad I got a few titles in.

I’m currently reading:

The Pound a Day Diet by Rocco DiSpirito. This one got laid aside, literally. I am not even sure where it is. But I am about 2/3 of the way through it and plan to finish it.

Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Cara Putnam, Sarah Sundin, and Tricia Goyer.

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room:Daily Family Devotions for Advent by Nancy Guthrie

I haven’t mentioned them every month, but I’ve been reading daily devotionals Daily Light on the Daily Path and Traveling Toward Sunrise this year and will have those finished tomorrow.

Next up:

Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay

To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner

Carrie hosts a Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge in January, so I will be reading something of hers. I’ve read all the Anne books multiple times, so I’ll probably continue in the Emily series I started last year.

Other than that I haven’t decided. I am still pondering whether to participate in any reading challenges this year or just map out my own plan, but I do have some things I want to tackle this year. In audiobooks, I want to finish the Sherlock Holmes series, and I’m thinking I’d like to try War and Peace.

I also compiled a list of the books I’ve read this year and then my top ten favorite books of the year.

For those who like to plan ahead, I will be sponsoring the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge again in February, where participants read anything by or about Laura. I don’t know how many years I’ll do this, but I’m definitely planning on it this year.

Happy Reading!

 

My favorite posts of the year

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There is something about the end of the year that invites reflection. One aspect of that for me is that I like to look back through my posts of the previous year and remind myself what I have been thinking about. I don’t necessarily look back through book reviews (other than listing the books I’ve read this year and then my top ten favorite books of the year) or Friday Fave Fives (though the top ones of those would probably be when Timothy was born and then when he came home from the NICU 10 1/2 weeks later) or Laudable Linkage or anything like that. Rather, I like to look back over the posts when I’ve been thinking through an issue or wrote about something that affected me or something I felt God was teaching me. So from those posts, here are some of my favorites (favorites not in the sense that I necessarily enjoyed them the most, but they are the ones that impacted me the most):

January:

Christian Fans. “How sad that people will defend at all costs a media personage, even a Christian one, who will never know them or care about them, at the expense of a relationship with someone they know and are supposed to love in their very own church and community.”

February:

Be Still? Or Fight? “Sometimes God will supernaturally win the battle for me while I only watch, but sometimes He gives me victory by handing me a sword.”

The Spiritual Value of a Secular Job.

The Value of Homemakers.

March:

Can We Let God Down?

Strong Women.

YA Censorship. A question about censorship in YA lit led to a further discussion about objectionable elements in any literature.

April:

Trusting God in the Dark.

Helping Parents As They Age, part of the Adventures in Elder Care series.

May:

None. I was spending a lot of time at the NICU that month. 🙂

June:

Eternal Glories Gleam, written after our pastor’s announcement of his terminal cancer diagnosis.

July:

But If Not….Another that grew out of my pastor’s illness: thoughts on the reality that God does not always answer prayer the way we’d like.

When People Say the Wrong Thing.

A Plea to Caregivers, another in the Adventures in Elder Care series.

August:

It was a busy month, so there is nothing in the way of “deep thoughts” except for some book reviews, but I did finally get all of my favorite cookie recipes into one post. 🙂

September:

Absent From the Body, Present With the Lord, on my pastor’s death.

My Ebenezers.

Irritating vs. Irritate-able. My biggest problem is not what irritates me, but my ability to be irritated.

October:

31 Days of Inspirational Biography. This was a series of posts through the whole month: this post contains a list with a link to each one. It did me good to look back over the lives of saints who have gone before and to learn from them.

Why Read Biographies?

November:

No Mere Mortals.

Why Read Fiction and Christian Fiction? I discussed why read at all, then why read fiction, then why read Christian fiction. This was a post that had been in the back of my mind off and on for years, so I was glad to finally get it written down. And, it’s funny, after thinking this would be my magnum opus, I don’t think it made a splash in the blog world much at all. 🙂

A revival of what?

December:

Grieving at Christmas is one I have reposted a number of times under different titles. Each year, sadly, I seem to know someone grieving the passing of a loved one this time of year.

Looking at my WordPress stats for the year, none of the current year’s posts is near the top of the number of viewed posts. The highest of them is 31 Days of Inspirational Biography at #15. The post viewed most this year (almost four times as many views as any other post) is Coping When a Husband Is Away from 2011. I’m amazed but thankful that God is using it to help women dealing with that issue.

Only a few days left of this year! Except for the monthly What’s On Your Nightstand post tomorrow and a book review or two to finish out this year, I am ready to look ahead to 2015.