Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

This will be one of those weeks where it is hard to narrow it down to five. Here goes:

1. Baby-back ribs. This has become my entree of choice at a few restaurants, and that and an excellent salad made for a scrumptious meal out last Friday night at a local place. The only bad thing about the meal was that the noise level inside the restaurant was insanely loud to me.

2. Voyage of the Dawn-Treader. We finally saw this DVD and loved it. It’s been too long since I’ve read the book to remember whether it followed it as closely as I like for films to do, but the film itself was a feast.

3. Mother-daughter luncheon at our church last Saturday. Nicely done. It was a little strange not to have a hand in this one! I did think about calling to see if they needed help, but as it turned out it was best I didn’t this time.

4. Visit from a dear friend. My friend Valorie, one of my oldest (in terms of how long we’ve known each other, not age. 🙂 ) and dearest friends, came up with her dad for just a quick visit. He was visiting her in SC and had friends about an hour from us here in TN, so they came up Sunday in time for dinner and then stayed overnight before going on to see her dad’s friends Monday, and even took me out for breakfast before they got on the road. We met way back in early married days and had kids around the same time (with her having all girls and me having all boys, you’d think there would have been one romance in there somewhere…). Val hosted my baby shower, and then when we had our first kids we lived down the street from one another and shared many walks with babies in strollers and lunches and visits to the park and breakfasts where the buffet was $2.99 and kids ate free. 🙂 It was so good to see each other and catch up a bit.

5. Unsolicited help. This past was weekend unexpectedly busy — it hadn’t clicked in my mind that with Jesse’s Junior-Senior banquet and everything involved there Friday night and then the Mother-Daughter Luncheon Saturday, time for cleaning was going to be tight. Val and I have seen each other’s houses at their worst over the years, but, still, you want to get the basics done before anyone comes over! But you can only clean so much early on without having to do it all over again before company comes. I had to head to the store after the luncheon and naively thought I’d finish my cleaning after that. While I was out my husband saw my list and got most of the tasks done on it for me. I’m not opposed to men helping around the house, but when he works 60+ hours a week and has his own lists of things he needs to do on the weekend, I figure cleaning the house on my own is the least I can do, so I don’t generally ask for help unless I’m in a bind. It was such a blessing that he pitched in and took care of those things for me.

So after a super-busy weekend, the rest of this week has been a lighter, thankfully. We have a few things coming up this next week, and then school’s out and our schedule immediately slows down! Though I miss my alone time in the summers, I do like not having to set the alarm clock and having a generally more relaxed schedule.

Hot off the press bonus: I mentioned a couple of weeks ago a serendipitous encounter that might lead to a job for Jason….I just found out that he did get the job!!! He had gone to one place to submit a resume only to find that the business he was looking for was no longer in that office. But as he talked with the man who was there, this man said he had been considering hiring someone: he had been handling his business alone and wanted to expand at some point. They talked, he had Jason do a couple of assignments to check out what he could do, he looked into what he would have to do as an employer to hire someone — and Jason just got the call this morning that the job was his. Praise the Lord!

Have a great weekend!

Book Review: A Novel Idea

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Those of you who read here regularly know I’ve been working on reading A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction a bit at a time in-between other books. I felt I’d get more out of it that way than reading it all at once. I finally finished it this week!

This book is a treasure trove for anyone considering writing Christian fiction. A multitude of published authors, from well-known names like Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers, Robin Lee Hatcher, and Randy Alcorn, to authors I’ve heard of but haven’t read yet, to some I’ve not heard of at all, have all contributed chapters that make up this book.

The chapters cover just about everything you might like to know, like how to map out the plot, how to develop characters, point of view, finding your own “voice,” the characteristics and nuances of Christian fiction, how not to make it “preachy,” all the way down to writing proposals and networking.

If you click on either the linked title or the book above, then click “Additional views” and then “Next,” you’ll see a list of the table of contents along with the author who contributed each chapter.

It would be impossible in one little review to give you an overall flavor of the book since it covers so much material by so many authors, but I wanted to bring out just a couple of morsels that particularly stood out to me.

In Robin Lee Hatcher’s chapter “How I Felt God Calling Me to Write For Him,” she shares that she had a career in the secular market, but as she contemplated writing Christian fiction, she wondered, “Can’t I reach more lost people with a Christian worldview in my secular books than I can writing for those who are already Christians? Isn’t writing for the Christian market preaching to the choir?”

The answer she sensed from the Lord was, “Yes. And the choir is sick.”

Very true. I know in my own life, not only do I read for fun and enrichment, but Christian fiction has convicted and instructed me as well.

Ron Benrey has some great thoughts in his chapter “Distinctives of Christian Fiction,” especially a section about unrealistic Christianity and Christian characters.

An especially intriguing chapter is Athol Dickson’s “Evil in Fiction.” One charge I’ve heard against Christian fiction is it’s not being gritty or edgy enough (though I think most of it that I have read does well enough), but Athol reminds us “of the novelist’s most powerful tool, the reader’s imagination” (p. 221) and the need to avoid “[becoming] part of the problem we set out to solve” (p. 225) by including too much evil or too much detail. Yet evil must be included both to be real and to provide plot and motivation. But Athol advises:

To the extent that evil titillates or revolts his readers, the author has failed. Titillation makes his readers a friend of the very thing the author wants them to oppose alongside Christ. Revulsion shuts down readers’ imaginations, because when they look away, the novelist has lost them (p. 224).

Instead, he advises, aim for “hatred of the evil and a deep desire to see it vanquished ” (p. 223). And remember “A writer shows the deeper truth of evil best by shining light most brightly on what is good, while never letting readers forget what waits within the shadows” (p. 222).

Good stuff.

This book is filled with good stuff, and it is going on my shelf to be referred to often.

If you have any inclination toward writing Christian fiction, this book is an invaluable tool. And some of the chapters, like that on evil, might even be enlightening to those who read Christian fiction without a desire to write it.

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

Wednesday Hodgepodge

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Joyce From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge of questions for fun and for getting to know each other.

Here are the questions for this week:

1. What reveals more about a woman-her refrigerator or her purse?

I think the refrigerator. My purse is full of things that I think have to be there, so there’s not much choice involved except brands. But people’s preferences in food and drink are interesting.

2. When was the last time you went to the zoo? Where? What’s your favorite zoo animal?

Oh, let’s see — maybe when we lived near Atlanta and went to the big zoo there. That’s the last time I remember, but then Jesse would have been under 4 years old, so he wouldn’t have any memory of going to a zoo, and that’s sad. Maybe we did go when we were in SC again, but I don’t remember. The zoo was in a town 30 minutes away, so it wasn’t something we’d just pick up and do. Hollywild Animal Park in SC set up drive-through Christmas light displays that we went to for several years, though, and they had a petting zoo. Favorite zoo animal? Maybe the giraffes. They’re just so unique.

3. What social issue fires you up?

I am not sure what constitutes a social issue, but if abortion is one, that would be it. It’s just so hard to understand people not understanding that a life is involved.

4. Are you a coupon clipper? If so, are you extreme?

I clip them once every few months and sometimes even remember to file them, but often forget them when I dash off to go shopping. So the next time I clip and file, I throw away the expired ones and lament the money I could have saved. I just hate to mess with them, especially the ones that have persnickety restrictions.

5. What is one of your favorite souvenirs brought back from your travels?

A little heart shaped ornament from Asheville, NC.

6. Lemon meringue or key lime?

Lemon meringue. Not a big lime-flavor fan, though I do like lime jello just very occasionally. Not a big jello fan, either. 🙂

7. What is the most beautiful word you know in any language?

Love.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

These are the kinds of conversations that go on in my head sometimes:

We’re having a cold snap now, but a few days ago the temperatures were at the level that I needed the AC on in the car for a bit, but then it would be too cold and I’d have to turn it off, then back on, etc. I remember thinking, “The dial on the AC setting needs one more notch between the lowest setting and ‘Off.'”

Then I thought: “You should be ashamed of yourself for being so picky and discontent. Some people don’t even have AC. Be grateful for what you’ve got.”

And then, “Yeah, but being content doesn’t mean we never see things that need improvement or let people know who could work out the improvements. Contentment doesn’t mean we sit around mindlessly grinning and never advance.”

It’s interesting….

Book Review: Words

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Words by Ginny Yttrup came highly recommended by Quilly, (and maybe one or two others whom I can’t remember) and her review as well as the first few paragraphs she had posted from the book drew me in immediately.

I was going to say this at the end but thought perhaps since some of you might feel the same way that I should say at the beginning that normally I would not pick up a book which has abuse a big factor because it would either make me very angry or very sad (or both), and because some books sensationalize it. But Ginny does not sensationalize: unfortunately she speaks from sad and all too real experience, yet her book is as much about healing as it is abuse.

Ten year old Kaylee has lost her words, her voice: she hasn’t been able to speak since her mom left, abandoning her to the care of the mom’s boyfriend — though you could hardly call it “care.” The boyfriend, Jack, not only neglects to take care of Kaylee, but he does unspeakable things to her. Kaylee stays because she has nowhere else to go, no resources, no help, but also she wants to be there in case her mom comes back. Meanwhile, she takes refuge in a dictionary that belonged to her mother, savoring words and their meanings and storing them up in her mind.

Sierra is a woman in her thirties who cannot forgive herself for a wayward period in her past that caused great pain to her family and the loss of her daughter’s life twelve years earlier. She tries to bury the pain that is too raw to bring to light and expresses herself in her art, but those who love her worry that she’s going to crack if she continues to keep her emotions inside. Though she has amended her ways, she has not returned to the God of her childhood.

God brings Kaylee and Sierra together in their vulnerability and works in and through each of them to bring healing through the Word, Jesus Christ.

It’s hard to believe this is Ginny’s first novel: she does a masterful job not only telling the story in a compelling but not maudlin way but also in layering various subtexts throughout the plot. The book is riveting, hard to put down, eloquent, and full of depth.

I especially appreciated one section in which Sierra realizes that oft-misapplied John 8:32 (“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”) isn’t just referring to telling personal truth, but to the fact that Jesus is the truth that heals and frees us.

This book is one of my favorites read this year, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here is the book trailer:

And a short interview with the author:

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

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Sorry to be late today! We had a very good but very busy weekend! I just said good-bye to some dear out-of-town company. Without further ado, here are some quotes that spoke to me this week:

This is from Robin Lee Hatcher‘s Facebook page:

“He that revels in a well-chosen library, has innumerable dishes and all of admirable flavor.” — William Godwin

I love that characteization.

This is from another friend’s Facebook:

“It’s better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right.”

I wouldn’t say I am a pessimist, but I probably lean slightly more that direction than the other. I thought this was much more poignant than saying “Look on the bright side” — which can seem a bit shallow if the bright side is a little hard to fathom at the moment.

And from Diane‘s Facebook:

“Satan is so much more in earnest than we are–he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost.”— Amy Carmichael

He is, sadly, more relentless in pursuing his goals — that is a rebuke to me.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, even if you don’t have any quotes to share! :)

Friday’s Fave Five

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Welcome to Friday’s Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, in which we can share five of our favorite things from the last week. This has been a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I always appreciate my family’s efforts in making it a special day. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been nice to be able to Skype Jeremy so he is included in these special days. Here are a few highlights of the day:

1. Mother’s Day dinner. Or feast, I should say. I love that the family all pitches in together to make dinner on Mother’s Day and then to clean up afterward. Jim grilled his wonderful burgers and sausages, Jesse shucked corn on the cob, we had potato salad and baked beans, and Mittu made:

2. Mother’s Day Cake.

It was a chocolate fudge cake with peanut butter icing and fudge sauce drizzled over the top with bits of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups on top.

It was very good! It was also very sweet and rich! We could only eat small pieces of it at a time. But it was good!

3. New books! I’ve finished one already and will review it next week.

4. Hanging plants. We used to hang plants by our patio of our old house, and I’d been lamenting (inwardly — I don’t think I had said anything out loud) about having no place to put any here. But my husband put hooks up outside these windows and I saw the plants there when I opened the blinds on Sunday.

5. An encouraging Mother’ Day message. Mother’s Day sermons can be inspiring, but sometimes the ideal Mother is presented in such a way that the bar is raised so high that moms often feel discouraged. But our pastor gave a message from Romans 5:5b: “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Believing mothers can love as they ought to because God has shed His love abroad in us. It reminded me of II Peter 1:3-4: “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” I can remember being astounded when that verse first dawned on me.

Hope you have a great weekend! Ours will be busy — Jesse has a Junior-Senior banquet tonight, our church has a Mother-Daughter luncheon tomorrow, and we have out-of-town company coming on Sunday. I’d better get busy!

If they only knew…

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Do you ever ask your kids (or even students or coworkers) to do something and then get a bit of “attitude” back? My kids rarely said, “That’s not fair!” But sometimes (not always) I did sense a bristling of indignation, especially on Saturdays. Some of them seemed to think that Saturdays were made for doing what one wanted all day without any obligations. I tried to get across that days like that are very few and far between, especially the closer you get to being an adult. A day off work (or school, in their cases) didn’t necessarily mean a day just to “play.” The Bible does say, “Six days shalt thou labor” after all, and even though a lot of us have two days off a week, one of those days is usually spent with other kinds of work: running errands, cutting grass, doing house projects, working on the car, etc. The other day for many of us is spent mostly in church, and though there is a rest time in the afternoons and then usually a relaxed evening afterward, the day has obligations all its own. They’re blessed obligations. But obligations still.

We required jobs or “chores” of our children from very early on as we taught them to put toys away and eventually expanded their skills to taking out the trash, dusting, vacuuming, unloading the dishwasher, etc. We gave them an allowance so as to help them learn to handle money, but it was only loosely tied to their jobs. We required their work mainly because that’s part of being a member of a family: everyone pitching in and pulling together to get things done. Even when the older two were in college, though I kept their school and job schedules in mind, I did ask them to take out trash and unload dishwashers when they were home, partly to keep that “pulling together as a family” principle in effect so that as they grew older and started families of their own, they’d be in the habit of contributing to the household even when the rest of life got busy.

Sometimes when I’d parcel out jobs (usually I made a list of what needed to be done and then let them take turns choosing which ones to do), one of them would ask me, “What are you going to do?”

Oh, just go to the grocery store (several times a week!), clean bathrooms (I did offer to let them clean the bathrooms if they’d rather not vacuum floors. They never took me up on it 🙂 ), cook, bake, sweep, mop, do laundry, organize, buy and mend clothes, clean the glass on the front doors, keep on top of everyone’s schedules, taxi kids around, etc. etc.

Sometimes I would just smile and shake my head and think to myself, “They just don’t understand all that’s being done for them — beyond the physical tasks there are financial and emotional expenditures, and besides all that, the love we have for them. If they did, they’d never fuss about being asked to do anything.” Not that we want “payback” as parents, but willing cheerful responses would be nice (and truly, they do respond that way many times). I figured they probably wouldn’t really understand until they were adults, maybe not until they had kids of their own.

Then it hit me just this morning: we do the same thing to God. Sometimes if I sense He wants me to do something, my first thought is, “But….I had my own plans…..I don’t have time….I don’t want to, I’d rather…..”

I had been thinking about worship earlier in the morning and the fact that we don’t worship God as we ought or as often as we should, and then remembered the vice-president of my alma mater preaching one time that we could think of “worship” as “worth-ship” — ascribing to God His worth both by what we say and what we do.

I don’t mean to compare children’s response to their parents as worship. What God has done for us is so much more than what any parent has done for any child, and kids’ attitudes towards parents should include honor but not worship.

But I did see a similar principle. We know some of what God has done for us, and we love and praise Him for it. But in some ways we have no idea of the depths of what Christ went through to secure our salvation nor even of the multitude of everyday ways He blesses and protects us. Even what we do know is plenty enough to motivate us: as the hymn says, “Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

So while I took comfort in the fellowship of knowing God understands even this aspect of parenting, the greater lesson was a rebuke to me and a reminder that not only does He have a right to ask anything of me because of who He is, but in light of all He’s done for me, my response should be an obedience motivated and fueled by love.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

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Joyce From This Side of the Pond hosts a weekly Wednesday Hodgepodge of questions for fun and for getting to know each other.

Here are the questions for this week:

1. How many times in your life have you moved house?

In my adult life, six. In my childhood, I’m not sure but it was a LOT — seven times come to mind off the top of my head, not including going to college, but I’m sure there were more. .

2. What subject would you study if you had a year to devote to it?

Writing.

3. What in this world breaks your heart?

Abuse.

4. What is one item that symbolizes the times in which we live? Why?

Probably cell phones. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t have one, and many have only their cell phones and no land lines. As they got more advanced they set off the texting phenomenon and revolutionized communications.

5. Share a favorite bumper sticker or t-shirt slogan.

“Don’t believe everything you think.”

6. How do you like your spaghetti?

We use ground turkey rather than ground beef (no meatballs) and prefer very skinny spaghetti, preferably angel hair, and homemade spaghetti sauce.

7. What is one piece of advice you would give a recent, or soon to be recent, graduate?

Hmm. I’d have to think about that for a while. The verse I usually put on graduation cards is Psalm 16:11: “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” So I think I’d say, whatever you do, keep your relationship with the Lord first — not just routines and rituals, but a living relationship that begins with being born again and needs to be nurtured like any other relationship by time spent together and communication.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Does anyone know what kind of plant this is?

Here’s a closer look:

I’m not sure if it it was planted there on purpose or if it is a weed. I’m thinking of taking it out anyway — if I were going to have something viny there I’d rather have some type of pretty ivy or Morning Glory.

Three shortish reviews

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Here are a few short reviews of books I’ve finished recently.

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury is a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series. I think Karen provides enough background information so that a reader could enjoy the book without having read all the books leading up to it, but the story would probably be richer for those who have shared this journey with Bailey so far.

This book, as the title suggests, sets us up for Bailey’s leaving her family to go out on her own. She has a Broadway audition she has always dreamed of and faces her future with excitement but naturally dreads leaving her family. Cody, her off-and-on love interest is currently off. He has struggled in the past with feeling like Bailey, from an ideal Christian family, would be better off with someone without his baggage of past alcoholism and a mom in jail for drug abuse. He seemed to overcome that in a past book, but threats from his mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend cause him to leave the area completely so as to keep Bailey safe. Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell Bailey what’s going on (a bad habit of his), so she is hurt and confused. They both struggle with their feelings for each other but wonder whether to pursue other relationships.

There are almost parallel plots in Bailey’s and Cody’s lives as well as a subplot with Ashley and Landon Baxter, also from previous series. They struggle as well with their oldest son growing up and a new health issue threatening Landon.

I enjoyed keeping up with the characters and could identify with the feelings of the first child leaving the nest.

I picked up Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna on a whim because we’re new transplants to TN ourselves. Come to find out the area Janice writes about is not terribly far from were we live. I do want to drive out to it some day. Janice also lives where some of my family members do, so I felt we had a lot in common before I ever got into the story.

That story has to do with a small community called Camelot which sorely needs to raise funds. One member of the city council, Amy Hart, comes up with a grand idea: the townsfolk will put on the musical Camelot to try to draw in tourists dollars from nearby Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. As Amy casts various eccentric townspeople, she can’t find a suitable King Arthur — until it dawns on her to ask her childhood friend, Steve, the town’s mayor. He agrees if she’ll play Guinevere. A handsome out-of-towner who volunteers to play Lancelot shows interest in Amy, setting up a love triangle that parallels that of the musical.

I would classify this book as a romantic comedy, and it’s a lot of fun, but it’s not without depth as well as the characters deal with the various issues that arise. I felt the Christianity of the main characters was very natural as was the way they applied Scriptural principles to their lives and situations.

Evidently there are a number of “Love finds you…” books by various authors set in various US cities. I don’t normally gravitate toward this type of book, but I definitely enjoyed it and might be tempted to pick up another in the series or from this author.

I wasn’t planning to review An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, but someone said they’d like my thoughts on it.

In this book, new pastor Alex Armstrong comes from city life to a new rural parish. Alex obviously deals with situations that are completely new to him both in meeting new, often eccentric people and getting the lay of the land both in his church and in the community as well as adjusting to rural life and dealing with having just broken up with his fiancee. He is over two churches, one of which is doing fine, but the other keeps its distance emotionally as well as physically due primarily to the bitterness of it leading member.

The first part — maybe even the first half of the book has Alex meeting the people in his parish, and though that’s necessary and I don’t know how the author could have handled it differently, it just seemed like I was waiting that whole time for something to happen. Indeed, the whole pace of the book seemed a little slow and sleepy to me. That may have been on purpose to reflect the slower rural community. But it was several pages after the climax before I realized, “Oh! That was it!” In fact, when I was assembling my last “What’s On Your Nightstand” post, I had completely forgotten that I had read this book until I saw the title listed. I described it there as a “pleasant but not riveting read about a new pastor of two churches in a rural town. Similar in many ways to Mitford but not quite as charming.” It wasn’t a bad book at all — it just wasn’t compelling, at least to me.

But, as Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don’t have to take my word for it — the reviews of this book I skimmed through on Amazon were all quite positive, so I may have just been a little off while reading it.

And my shortish reviews ended up longer than I had planned, but I’d rather keep them together than string them out throughout the week.

The book I am reading now IS a riveting, don’t-want-to-put-it-down, wish I could let everything else go to read it type of tale. Can’t wait to finish and tell you about it!

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

The Week in Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are some that ministered to me this past week:

From a devotional titled The Invitation by Derick Bingham. commenting on about the Pharisees casting out the blind man healed in John 9:

The truth was that the man’s spiritual sight was now dawning. He refuted the Pharisees on their own ground but they threw him out of the synagogue. They literally excommunicated him. But Jesus found him. What a moment! Being excommunicated from a dead religion and being found by the living Saviour is no mean swap.

Sometimes the thing we lose is something dead that needs to go to make way for true spiritual sight and truth and life to dawn.

Seen at Callapidder Days:

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s “own,” or “real” life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s “real life” is a phantom of one’s own imagination. This at least is what I see at moments of insight: but it’s hard to remember it all the time. ~ C. S. Lewis

As many times as I have been convicted of this truth, I still need to hear it. I can get so caught up in my agenda, schedule, goals, etc., that I get resentful of interruptions or other bids for my time and attention. It’s interesting to read through the New Testament looking for interruptions. Mary was interrupted from whatever she was doing to hear the news that she was to bear the Messiah. Jesus and Jairus were interrupted on their way to Jairus’s ill daughter by a woman with an issue of blood. Jairus’s daughter died in the mean time, but was raised to life — an even greater miracle. Jesus was interrupted during times of solitary prayer, travel. God works through interruptions! That doesn’t mean we don’t plan and schedule, asking for His guidance as we do, but we remain open for events He had on the agenda that we didn’t know about.

From For the mother of teenagers who aches but a bit.

“It takes all the years of making a boy into a man — to teach a woman how to be a mother.” ~ Ann Voskamp.

So true — it’s a continual learning process, and we don’t feel we’re anywhere near getting a handle on being a mother until our children are almost grown. I am thankful for God’s sufficiency in my inadequacy!

And finally, from an Elisabeth Elliot e-mail devotional:

“Pray when you feel like praying. Pray when you don’t feel like praying. Pray until you do feel like praying.”

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

Don’t forget to leave a comment, even if you don’t have any quotes to share! 🙂