Reading, Writing & Pondering

Bread and Wine: A love letter to Life Around the Table combines Shauna Niequist's love for food and community in a book that, frankly, I couldn't put down.  Like lingering with a sweet piece of Shauna's sea salted toffee, I just couldn't rush it either. It was slow food for my soul. As someone who is a dinner-party host wannabe, I was amazed at this woman's ability to put together food and people. Sometimes, she did it with elaborate planning, and other times, Shauna gathered people around her table with fare offered at the last minute. It really didn't seem to matter what the scenario, Shauna shared honestly and from her heart, in ways that inspired me to want to grab a pan and an onion and start cooking for both my family and my friends. At the same time, this book is more than tales of shared food around the dinner table and lingering dinner parties--it is Shauna's tales of life in today's world. She shares the joys of births and vacations as we...

I love the title of this book. . .Healing Hearts with Helping Hands. When people we care about are going through the loss of a loved one, a serious illness or another life-altering challenge, it is hard to know how to respond. We care and we want to help but what do we do? We want to say something to encourage and show that we care but what do we say? Lorrie Flem offers good advice and ways to help in this little gem of a book. This book offers actual words you can say or adapt as you minister to someone who is in a difficult place. Lorrie shares from her own experiences as she lost loved ones as well as times she cared for others in that situation. She also offers unique ideas on what to do to help, even if you are a busy mom yourself. I think she is "right on" when she suggests you offers specific ways that you can help the person instead of just saying, "Please call me if you need me" because most of the time people won't call and don't want to impose ...

Second chances. . .We all make mistakes and any of us that can get a second chance are usually grateful to do so. Max Lucado reminds all of us humans that our God is the God of Second Chances in his new book, Second Chances: More Stories of Grace. This isn't really a "new" book as the book contains stories gleaned from previous works and compiled together in a book focused on grace. The book is divided into sections: For the rebellious, For the regret-riddled, For the prideful, for the mistake-makers, for a faltering faith, and for those who hurt us. Each section contains a few stories focused on the topic. Lucado is a master storyteller so I think each of these stories brings emotion to the surface. Some of the stories are re-told from the Bible in modern day language, some are from Lucado's life and a few are stories he shares from other people. All of them brought home to me the topics at hand. Some of them moved me to tears and others moved me to change my...