Reading, Writing & Pondering

Even without the pandemic, there are a lot of things in the world today that can leave us feeling stressed and fearful. Victoria Osteen in Fearless and Free encourages readers to focus on the good things and to leave the hard things with God. Fearless and Free is a book of 47 devotional readings. Each reading includes a devotion, Bible verses to reflect on, a prayer, and some questions to ask yourself or thoughts to reflect on based on the reading. I especially like how Osteen helps me focus on God's goodness in her devotions in Fearless and Free . Each one is a reminder that God is working everything out for my good and that He does love me even when I make mistakes. I like that she shares stories from prominent Bible figures and she also shares stories from her life. The two are woven together and remind me once again that the Bible is just as relevant today as it was many years ago. I do also like that these readings specifically focus on God's goodness and remi

If there was ever a book that was made for this time in history, it is this one: The Big and Little Activity Devotional by Rachel Swanson. This book has activities for both adults and children to do at the same time. Along with the activities, there is a short devotional to read and think about together. How fun is that? Each of these devotionals is pair for an adult and a child to do together. There is a short devotional reading with a few short questions or something to think about for both the adult and the child. And then there are similar activities that are either for an adult or a child: crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, mazes, search and find pictures, coloring pictures, word scrambles and more. The Big and Little Activity Devotional is a fun book to use with a variety of ages. It gives parents a little one on one time with each of the kids as you sit across from each other and do the activities and the readings together. I think this is a great idea to spend

I don't know about you, but like many people today, I have my share of disappointment and problems. Sometimes, I want to run far away from it all. Anuli Paschall shares pain and disappointment in her new book, Stay . From the back of the book, "What if Jesus is pulling out a chair and whispering, Stay?" Paschall encourages readers to "sit with God in the table of your soul." In sitting with God, she hopes that we will continue to invite Him in to our mess and to be transformed through it. Stay is 21 chapters of Paschall sharing both the good things and the hard challenges she has faced in life. She then takes all of those parts of her story and shares how God redeems it all as we live for Him each day sifting all of the parts of the day through Him. She also invites the reader to turn to their own stories to see how God is working in their own lives. As Katherine Wolf shares in the forward, we are invited to be stay in our stories and work through the hard

The Shift by Keion Hendrson is subtitled "Courageously Moving from Season to Season." Now is a good time to read this book and move with courage into the next season as we are nearly all in one sort of shift or another due to the corona virus pandemic. The Shift starts out with an introduction as Henderson explains how he best hopes his book will resonate with the reader through sharing his story. Henderson does share his story in bets and pieces throughout the chapters of the book. He relates the many things that God has taught him throughout his life so far. However, he also relates to many of the people in the Bible through each chapter so that readers can ponder the stories of Jacob, the woman at the well, Adam and Even, Moses and many others. Each chapter ends with a short section entitled, Shift Keys in which he gives a brief summary of what he hopes you learned in the chapter, ask some key questions to help you relate the chapter to your own life and concludes w

My Heart, Ever His by Barbara Rainey is a beautiful collection of prayers for women. What I especially love about this book is that it is beautiful to look at and the prayers are beautiful--but they are real too. My Heart, Ever His has 40 prayers in this book that are written to encourage women to talk to God honestly and openly. These prayers are transparent and so down-to-earth. I could relate to so much of what she was saying in them. In the introduction, Rainey invites the reader to think of these prayers as being in the same style as the psalms. Many times, the psalmists prayed honestly and openly baring their whole hearts. While the prayers are not all "happy-life-is-great prayers," they do include praises for God even though she stars some of them out honestly. It took her years to realize that God is not offended by our honest feelings and complaints but instead He knows our feelings anyway. However, she notes that the psalms almost always end in words of prais

Do you like to do Bible art journaling? Or maybe you want a Bible with plenty of space to make notes in? The new Artisan Collection Bible from Zondervan is simply gorgeous both inside and out. There are a few different gorgeous cover designs available but all are created using a layered alcohol ink painting technique. I received the beautiful blue as posted in my picture above but they also have a cover done in shades of pinks and one with pastels with a bit of gold mixed in all of the colorations. The Bibles also have two satin ribbon markers and gilt page edges. Each one is unique and SO pretty. I have another Bible that I purchased a couple of years ago with pre-printed pictures to color in the column next to Bible verses. However, I have been wanting to try my hand at making my own art journal pictures. I also want to be able to write notes on the lines next to the text. For my first one, I used a picture from an art journaling help book so it isn't completely origi

Kings Falling by Ronie Kendig is the second book in the Book of the Wars series following Storm Rising. This series is full of action, mystery and some romance. If you are looking for books that have it all--this series is it. Leif Metcalfe along with the rest of the Reaper team continue their hunt to find the Book of the Wars. At the same time, they are trying to stop the other warriors from around the world that also want to find the book for evil means. The team works together throughout Kings Falling searching for the Book amidst foes who are bent on tearing them up--and tearing them apart. When I first started Kings Falling , I had to catch up to speed and remember what happened when I left off from Storm Rising . Kendig helps the reader catch up quickly with some refreshment on those first few chapters of this book. Even so, I do recommend that you read Storm Rising first, if you haven't already. I could feel the tension between Iskra and Leif throughout this book fo

Traitor's Pawn is my first book by Lisa Harris.The lead characters in this book are Detective Aubrey Grayson and FBI Agent Jack Shannon. When Aubrey is kidnapped at the start of the book, Jack is on the case to find her and he does. Then they work to solve the mystery of her kidnapping and two overlapping cases. The Traitor's Pawn was difficult for me to read at first. I struggled to really like the characters until the middle of the book. Jack and Aubrey had a relationship earlier in their lives and are coming back together after several years of not communicating. At that point I did pull for them to get together, although the romance in this book is secondary to the crime plot. Communication was an issue throughout the book in their relationship. I think that is actually a problem in many people's relationships so that part does seem realistic. I guess one thing that bothered me throughout the book was that Audrey was so close to the people they were investigat

Galatians: A Biblical Study by Joyce Meyer is another gorgeous book with practical applications in her new Biblical study series. Galatians: A Biblical Study starts out with an introduction to Galatians. Meyer then expounds on Galatians in 16 chapters and concludes with some closing notes. In Galatians, Paul gives a lot of good advice for dealing with people with come in contact with on a daily basis as Christians. In this book the reader may learn why it isn't a good idea to be a people-pleaser, how to handle other people's faults Biblically, how to avoid being self-righteous, and how to best walk in the Christian Spirit from day to day. This study in Galatians could be helpful for Christians in any stage of their Christian walk but I think it would be especially helpful for new Christians as it offers so many practical ways to live the Christian life. I like the design of these books--they are easy to read, easy to understand for any layman, and they have space to wri

Joyce Meyer's new Biblical study book, Colossians , is both a practical,helpful Bible study with beautiful design. Colossians starts with both an introduction on how to read the book and an introduction telling about the book of Colossians. Meyer then offers 14 chapters full of information from the book of Colossians written to help you keep your faith and God and live a better Christian life. She says that the first chapter of Colossians alone includes twelve different lessons to incorporate in to your life. She encourages readers to go through the book slowly, read the Scriptures and reflect and to try to slowly live out the lessons that you are learning. I like that Meyer writes in such a way that I can easily read and understand what she is saying to better learn how to apply the lessons from Colossians to my life. It is definitely a book that you will want to take your time reading and working through. I like how nicely this series is put together in that they are well-

I have enjoyed every book in the Harbored Secrets series. It is so hard to see the series come to an end. Silent Shadows could stand alone but because some of the characters are in all three novels, it would be much better if you read the whole series. I especially enjoyed seeing those characters make a repeat appearance in this book too. Silent Shadows has a storyline and suspense that kept me turning the pages quickly until I was done. I didn't figure out the ending either, which made it all the better. If anything, I do wish it had a little more of a faith element but it is a good, clean novel. I liked the main characters, Pecca, Colton, and Maceo from the beginning. Pecca and Colton both have a few real-life problems and are working to handle them. I liked the little bits of humor that added to the story and the humorous situations in a couple of places in the story. Except for those few murders (ha, ha), Walton, Georgia feels like a good place to live with a lot of likea

Before I Called You Mine is my first Nicole Deese book--but it won't be my last. I so enjoyed this book. Lauren Bailey is a first-grade teacher in Idaho. She is in her early 30s and has given up on men and decided to adopt a child from China because she wants to be a mom. Then Joshua Avery shows up at her school as a substitute teacher and Lauren finds him fascinating, unlike so many men in her past. How will she make a difficult decision to choose between the two? Oh my goodness! All the feels for this book! I so loved Joshua Avery. I love Lauren too but for different reasons. :) Deese's writing of this story left me laughing out loud in a few places as I delighted in some of Joshua's antics. I also teared up as the character's made some difficult decisions. One of the other aspects I especially liked about this book is that it felt so realistic throughout much of the book. Lauren's family wasn't very nice and I didn't care for those characters to st

I admittedly have not read a lot of classics but I liked this idea of having a reading guide with the book. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin with the guide to reading and reflecting by Karen Swallow Prior was a great way to read the book. First of all, I love how beautiful this book looks. The classic styling with the ribbon marker are so nice looking. I have seen a few other books in this series and I can already tell that they will look nice on a bookshelf in a grouping. Also, I like the thick paper and the print size. Secondly, it was so helpful to me to read Prior's introduction to the book. She also does not include spoilers for those who have not read the book before, which was helpful to someone like me. I learned a lot in this part about how Austin was a Christian and what her faith looked like as well as what type of book Sense and Sensibility is and who it was written for. If you have not read this classic, I highly recommend this edition with the helps.Then in th

Do you observe Lent? In Uncovering the Love of Jesus by Asheritah Ciuciu, she starts the book talking about what it means to observe Lent and ways to observe Lent that create meaning in your heart. She ends the first section with a prayer based on Ephesians 3:16-24. There are 40 days of reading, as you would probably expect, in Uncovering the Love of Jesus . Each reading includes a Bible verse and a Bible section to read, a short devotional reading, a challenge, a prayer and more Scripture to look up if you would like. One of the neat features of this book is that it can turn the season of Lent in to a family time of learning and growing in Jesus. There are activities for your family to do listed for each week. First of all I have to say Uncovering the Love of Jesus is a beautiful small well-bound book. I love the gorgeous full color spring flowers bordering the title on the cover. This book would be easy to carry around with a Bible in a book bag if you want to get out and do

When God Says Go: A Devotional Thought Journal by Elizabeth Laing Thompson is a well-bound hardcover journal with a ribbon marker. Each short thought-provoking reading has both a Bible verse and a reading with a lot of room to write. As I write this, we are in a pandemic and no one is going anywhere so that feels a little ironic. However, I think this could be a helpful journal as you think about what God is calling you to do--even if it is to continue to stay home and that is different from your old "normal." This book has a lot of good questions to think about and several of those deal with fear. There was one I especially liked about brainstorming to use your gifts to honor God to those around you. That could certainly be done anytime and anywhere. When God Says Go would be a good journal to use whenever you have your quiet time with God. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review.