Reading, Writing & Pondering

Sometimes it doesn't feel like God is hearing our prayers. Or maybe it feels like we don't know how to pray "good enough." This collection of real-life stories shows that God does indeed answer the prayers of ordinary people asked in ordinary ways. Gifts From Heaven: True Stories of Miraculous Answers to Prayer compiled by James Stuart Bell is an uplifting book overflowing with true life stories of answered prayer. Gifts From Heaven contains forty stories of answered prayers from ordinary people. The stories are each different. Some people had miraculous healing, others were divinely protected and still others received answers that were a little different than what they expected but were still what they considered to be miraculous answers from God. Some stories were more uplifting than other stories but all of the stories left me thinking about God and how He can touch all of our lives when we spend time in prayer with Him. I like books with short true stories...

  Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate grabbed me from the moment I started reading this book. Actually, even before that, when I looked at the beautiful little girls on the cover and wanted to know their story. Their story starts out in Memphis in 1939 when 12 year old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings are waiting for their mother to give birth to another sibling on their little shantyboat. Only something goes wrong with the birthing and their mama has to go to the hospital. Little do they know that they not only won't get to see their new sibling, they won't get to see their parents either. Strangers come and take Rill and her siblings away to the infamous Memphis Tennessee Children's Home Society orphanage run by Georgia Tann. Will they ever see their parents again? Alongside the story of Rill and her siblings, we also read the story of Avery Stafford in Aiken, South Carolina. Avery is the daughter of a State Senator and born into weal...

Promises For You Coloring Devotional offers 60 days worth of devotionals for discovering God's hope and love. Each page includes a Bible verse (in the New Revised Standard Version) and either a question or something to write about in the journal that relates to the reading for the day. The book also suggests that if you want to write more than the page has room for to get another piece of paper and keep going. Good idea! This book is also not written in any certain order so you can either start at the beginning with the devotions or jump around to the ones that speak to you that day. The last page if this devotional also has a brief page on how to accept Christ and follow Him. The pages in this devotional are made of nice, thick white paper with dark-printed whimsical coloring designs on every one. Because the pages are so thick, markers work fine, along with colored pencils. However, I did test a Sharpie marker in an inconspicuous spot and it bled through, so I would encour...

Reading time with little ones has always been one of my favorite times of the day. They love to learn and read together. 100 Plus Little Bible Words is a good book to have reading fun, learn Bible story basics and Bible vocabulary words to boot. 100 Plus Little Bible Words illustrated by Holli Conger is a fairly large sized (about 8 inches square) padded board book for young children to learn Bible words from the familiar Bible stories like God's Creation, God's 10 Commandments, Jesus Calls the Disciples, The Last Supper, and many more stories. This 38-page book contains words like snake, garden, lamb, rainbow, slingshot, Goliath, fishermen, shepherd, cross and so many more words. Each colorful two-page spread features a Bible story with a verse reference and illustrated words to go along with that selection. The 100 Plus Little Bible Words book would make a nice addition to any little person's library and could be a lot of fun learning Bible words together. ...

The Seven Money Types by Tommy Brown is a different kind of money book from the usual. If you have been feeling guilty about how you want to handle money and  that you don't seem to fit certain money management formulas in with your personality very well. . .then this could well be a book that is right up your alley. I like to read books about money management and learn how I can help our family better manage resources for God. The Seven Money Types offers a different look at how we handle money based on our God-given skills/strengths/weaknesses. Tommy Brown looks at seven money types based on seven Biblical people--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and David. Each of these Biblical people feature certain positive and "shadow" characteristics that show their money handling personality. At the beginning of this book, the reader takes a test to see which type they best relate to--and there may be two types that they are closely related to. I found this...

Many of us do think of our moms when we think of our homes. Home is Wherever Mom Is is a beautiful new coloring book honoring moms. This book is quite eye catching with its foil cover. Home Is Wherever Mom Is has more than 90 beautiful illustrations to color. The pictures are all nice homey type pictures and most are more intricate that some coloring books so you will want to use fine point markers or well sharpened colored pencils for your work in this book. There are a lot of nice Bible verses and quotes relating to moms throughout this book as well. Part of the quotes are to color within the coloring pages and part of them are part of the Hand Lettering tutorial. The front page in the book explains how to learn the hand lettering and it has a practice page in the back of the book. I wish it had about 3 practice pages but you can practice on your own paper too. This beautiful coloring book would make a nice book for mom to use to relax with if she enjoys creative p...

I have to admit, I love "real" letters--letters from friends and family delivered by the post-person. I think it says something about how special you are when someone takes time to actually write out their message to you. Most days in our modern world, though, messages come by email and text. This new book, Open When. . .Letters to Lift Your Spirits by Karen Salmansohn, offers readers a chance to "open" optimistic letters when they need to be encouraged. This small book, with it's cheery, bright cover, measures just 7.4 by 4.2 inches. There are twelve letters to Open When . . .You've had a bad day, you feel out of place, you're doubting yourself, and more. The back cover describes this book as "an emergency inspiration kit designed to lift the spirits." The designs are cheery and I think this book would make a nice gift for someone. However, I would mention that it is not geared to the Christian audience as there are references to Buddha...

Five years ago I read and reviewed Love Does by Bob Goff. Bob inspired me to show love in action because Bob is an action-oriented guy. However, Bob's wife, Maria, says she is quieter and shows love differently than Bob. In Love Lives Here by Maria Goff she shares a series of essays from her life that share how they navigate their family life, love God, love each other, and love others well, using their differences to love differently. Overall, I most enjoyed how "real" Maria was in sharing her stories in Love Lives Here . Some stories are happy and some are not, but they are all part of what make up Maria's life, who she is, and how she shares love with those around her as she serves God daily from a place of quiet steadfastness, often at home. One of the points that struck me most in her writing was how we all have value (stay at home moms too!) and we do not have to all be alike. She and Bob are very different in personalities but she shares how they both min...

The past couple of years I have had a little acid reflux in times of stress and my husband has had a problem with acid reflux. When I saw The Acid Watcher Diet , my husband and I both agreed it was time to look at making some dietary and lifestyle changes to help our bodies so we needed to read the book and give it a try. The Acid Watcher Diet by Dr. Jonathan Aviv is divided into 3 parts: Part 1 discusses what causes acid damage in our bodies and what to know as you seek treatment. It was big news to me that esophageal cancer is on the rise as a result of this problem and will soon overtake colon cancer in numbers. The second part of this book details the how and why we need to change our diet and what changes need to be made for lasting health improvements. The third section of this book contains the actual diet with recipes. The recipes are easy to follow. It also includes menus for special occasions.  The Acid Watcher Diet is written by a doctor with many years of exper...