Here are some reads that piqued my interest this week: you might find some of them beneficial as well.
We Must Believe. A good explanation of what exactly it means to believe on Christ for salvation.
6 Reasons Women Should Study Theology.
Mentoring 101, HT to Challies.
What a Pastor Wants From the Music Ministry.
The Books Boomers Will Never Read.
Read Slowly to Benefit Your Brain and Cut Stress.
And this from a Facebook friend brought a smile:
Hope you have a great day!
Here are a few interesting reads discovered in the last couple of weeks:
The Cheerleader. If something can be heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, it is this testimony of a mom injured in the tornadoes that took her home and children.
“God’s Not Dead” and the Angry Atheist Professor: That Was Not My Experience, HT to Challies. I’ve not seen the movie, but Ann has a review of it here. She says as well that the atheists in the movie tended to be typecast as stereotypical meanies, and the film has some issues, but overall it has a good message.
Before We Die and After, Too. Things we want to accomplish before we go may not be the typical “bucket list” experiences.
How Can Moms Deal With the Distractions of Social Media?
What to Do in Those “I Can’t Handle It” Moments.
The Church and the LGBT Community: Is There a Way Forward?
Happy Saturday!
It has been a while since I’ve been able to share some of the interesting reading I have come across recently. Hope some of this is of interest to you!
A neat study on True Woman about the “I am” statements referring to God and those referring to us.
Smilingly Leading You to Hell. Sadly, some of the most appealing speakers don’t always have the best messages.
The Assumption We Cannot Afford on the need to teach the Bible and encourage others to study it for themselves. Excellent.
Missing the Forest for the Trees. “The Bible is not just a spiritual search engine.”
In the Heat of the Moment, dealing with rampant emotions.
Anger: Giving In to the Enemy.
Let’s Stop Forgiving Those Who Don’t Want Forgiveness. This has long been my stance on this.
Help! My Kids Are Looking at Porn! Advice for how to handle that.
Authentic worship, hands down. “Authentic worship means to me exactly what it means to you: the freedom to worship as the Lord leads. I have traveled the length of the denominational spectrum….It was a long trip through myriad worship styles, and participation was not always optional. My hands are at my sides for the same reason yours are thrown in the air: because I am free – free from the expectations of any of my fellow worshippers, free to worship in whatever posture the Spirit leads. The truth is, I do occasionally raise my hands, but never when told to by a worship leader or a lyric. Because of my history, nothing could be more inauthentic, nothing less free.” This spoke to me on many levels. The churches I have attended are not usually physically demonstrative, but worship is sometimes “commanded” in other ways (“Turn to your neighbor and say…” or “Pray this right now” or any number of others things dictated from the pulpit). There is a difference between leading worship and manipulating worship.
How Mothers Can Worship In the Midst of Inconvenience.
What Winter Trees Know About Singing. Lovely, lovely post about handling children’s questions without squashing their innocence and wonder.
Ten Lessons From a Hospital Bed.
Always Apologize First, HT to nikkipolani. “Apologizing first is the bucket of water which douses the flames threatening to burn bridges between wife and husband or father and children.”
100 Ways to Thank a Teacher. Neat ideas for end of the year teacher gifts – or any time you want to express appreciation to a teacher.
Happy Saturday!
Here are some thought-provoking reads from the last week or so:
Middle-agers Need Older Women Too.
Salvation in a Dementia Ward, HT to Challies.
Motherhood or Singleness: Which Is More Sanctifying? Short answer: whichever one you’re called to.
8 Things Not to Say to Your Aging Parents.
How to Write a Book in Your Spare Time.
7 Reasons Why I Stop Reading a Novel by author Jody Hedlund, whom I have not yet read except on this blog.
Getting Upset About the Wrong Things in Disney Movies and The Cold That Bothers Us both give thoughtful insights into Disney’s movie Frozen.
Finally, I couldn’t resist sharing with you something we noticed during Sunday breakfast. Apparently one of the biscuits was grumpy, or woke up on the wrong side of the pan or something. 🙂
Happy Saturday!
Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst was one of those books I heard good things about, got when it was either free or on sale for the Kindle app, and then let sit there for months. I’m not sure what prompted me to read it now, but I am glad I did.
The subtitle is Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions. Most of us have had experiences with out-of-control emotions, both externally from others or internally within ourselves. Some of us are “exploders” who lash out at others in some way, and some of us are “stuffers” who seethe inside, or some combination of the two.
Emotions in themselves aren’t wrong: God gave them to us for various reasons. But just like with the rest of His gifts, we can use them in wrong ways.
Lysa starts with the idea of making “imperfect progress.” Sometimes we beat ourselves up over missteps and failures, but we need to remember it’s okay to take baby steps and to get up and start over as many times as needed, as long as we’re moving forward.
A big part of diffusing our emotions is taking control of the thoughts that feed them. “We won’t develop new responses until we develop new thoughts. That’s why renewing our minds with new thoughts is crucial. New thoughts come from new perspectives” (p. 22K – the K means Kindle version. I’m not sure if the page numbers are the same in the book itself). “Scripture also teaches that we can accept or refuse thoughts. Instead of being held hostage by old thought patterns, we can actually capture our thoughts and allow the power of Christ’s truth to change them: We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (p. 23K).
The other biggest factor in getting our emotions under control is spending time in God’s Word, and Lysa shares many applicable Scriptures.
Here are some other helpful quotes:
“I can face things that are out of my control and not act out of control” (p. 23).
“Could I trust God and believe He is working out something good even from things that seem no good? You see, if I know there is a potential good hidden within each chaotic situation, I can loosen my grip on control” (p. 24K).
“We can’t always fix our circumstances, but we can fix our minds on God” (p. 28K).
“Instead of condemning myself with statements like, I’m such a mess, I could say, Let God chisel. Let Him work on my hard places so I can leave the dark places of being stuck and come into the light of who He designed me to be” (p. 37K).
“I choose to view this circumstance as a call to action, not a call to beat myself up mentally” (p. 40K).
“In processing unglued reactions, soul integrity if the heart of what we’re after. Soul integrity is honesty that’s godly. It brings the passion of the exploder and the peacemaking of the stuffer under the authority of Jesus where honesty and godliness embrace and balance each other” (p. 52K).
“I stuff to protect myself by keeping conflict at bay. But if I’m stuffing and not being honest about my true feelings, that self-protection quickly turns into selfishness, and the unresolved conflict gives birth to bitterness” (p. 56K).
“Choosing a gentle reply doesn’t mean you’re weak; it actually means you possess a rare and godly strength” (p. 69K).
“Feelings are indicators, not dictators. They can indicate there is a situation I need to deal with, but they shouldn’t dictate how I react. I have a choice” (p. 72K).
“We must spend time with God, letting His truths become part of who we are and how we live. That’s what it means to have an internal experience with Him. Only then will we develop holy restraint” (p. 75).
“I acknowledge that I can only control myself. I can’t control how another person acts or reacts. Therefore, I shift my focus from trying to fix the other person and the situation to allowing God to reveal some tender truths to me…My job isn’t to fix the difficult people in my life or enable them to continue disrespectful or abusive behaviors. My job is to be obedient to God in the way I act and respond to those people” (p. 88K).
“I stuff as a false way to keep the peace. True peacekeeping isn’t about stopping the emotion. Remember, emotions move inward or outward – whether we want them to or not. True peacekeeping is about properly processing the emotions before they get stuffed and rot into something horribly toxic” (p. 91).
“Is my desire in this conflict to prove that I am right, or is my desire to improve the relationship?” (p. 92K).
“Instead of reacting out of anger, I pause and let the Holy Spirit redirect my first impulses. Then I tackle the issues – not the person” (p. 93).
“It is through God’s ‘great and precious promises’ (2 Peter 1:3-8) that I can participate in the divine nature. A nature very different from my own. I may not be gentle by nature, but I can be gentle by obedience. If – and only if – I equip myself with predetermined Biblical procedures that I can rely on when I start to feel the great unglued coming on” (pp. 104-105K).
“I started thinking that maybe I needed my own set of default procedures for when selfishness, pride, impatience, anger, or bitterness rear their ugly heads. Because in the moment I feel them, I feel justified in feeling them and find them hard to battle. But God’s promises – His truths and examples from Scripture – are powerful enough to redirect me to the divine nature I’m meant to have. Having a predetermined plan from Him will help me stay calmer when I start to feel unglued. More godly. More in line with Scripture” (p. 107K).
That’s probably way too many quotes – and that’s not even all I marked. But I hope some of them spoke to you as they spoke to me.
This is the first book by Lysa Terkeurst I’ve read, though I have two more on hand. I enjoyed her style, and I gleaned much from this one (I even went skimmed back through it after I finished to remind myself of some of the main points).
There were places where I didn’t agree with something she said, but I instead of going into them here, I’ll refer you to this review for more detail. Reading it has made me rethink this book.
(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Stray Thoughts 