Reading, Writing & Pondering

  The Big picture Interactive Bible is touted on the cover as a Bible that will "Bring the Bible to Life for Kids." Indeed it is a beautiful, bright, vibrant looking Bible.  The Big Picture Interactive Bible comes with access to a free app to download to use along with the Bible to see the illustrations in the Bible come alive. The app was simple for me to find and download on my Ipad. It was also fairly easy to use with no previous experience. Along with the learning portions of the Bible app, there is also a game portion to make learning a little more fun and challenging.  This Big Picture Interactive Bible also includes a lot of special features. First of all, I would also add that this Bible has very nice dark print although it is not real large. I also like that it is a red letter Bible. I couldn't find out the type size but I am guessing it is 8 point. Also, this Bible uses the Christian Standard Bible translation. This history of ...

The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin might sound like a book about how to raise pigs, but it is not. Joel Salatin is a respected, successful Christian family farmer who shows readers how the Bible actually instructs us on how to eat, take care of the land, whether you are a farmer or not, and how to feed the world. Each chapter of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs analyzes the different ways of looking at the natural world around us. Salatin debates ideas related to caring for the earth, animals, plants and each other throughout this book: abundance versus scarcity, biological versus mechanical, abundance versus scarcity, narrow way versus broad way and dependence versus independence, among other topics debated. To use more common language, Salatin talks about whether we should factory farm or free range our animals, whether we should use chemicals or not, whether we should eat junk food or whole foods, and other similar topics. I resonated with many of Salatin's ideas ...

Whispers of Rest: 40 Days of God's Love to Revitalize Your Soul by Bonnie Gray is a beautiful devotional book that truly is refreshment for your soul. According to Gray, Whispers of Rest is a "devotional detox for your soul" designed to guide you to feeling more peaceful while you savor the fact that you are God's beloved. In order to use this book to it's full potential, Gray says that you will need three things: a journal, a quiet corner where you won't be interrupted and a desire. Each day's reading includes Scripture and thoughtful words to reflect on from the author. Then Gray includes God's Whispers to You,(words that Jesus would say to you based on Scripture), a prayer for the day, journaling questions to reflect on, an activity challenge to do something to help refresh your spirit and some notes of why that activity would by especially beneficial for you to take time to do. Some examples of the activities include walking in nature, taking...

This Life I Live is the story of Rory and Joey Feek.  As the cover says, it is about "one man's extraordinary, ordinary life and the woman who changed it forever." I really like that subtitle.  Actually the first half of This Life I Live is primarily about Rory and his life's journey up until meeting Joey. He shares details of his family life growing up and the challenges he overcame to live a life for God as a new Christian before he met Joey. It isn't all a pretty story. Like most of our stories, it is painful to read about mistakes he made, but he also shares how God has used those life experiences to grow him and, ultimately, to make him a better person. Rory shares how he believes we are all doing the best we can with what we know and he doesn't hold grudges these days. I think there is a lot of truth to that. In the second half of This Life I Live , Rory shares about how he met Joey and about their life together. He shares the facts of their lif...

I don't know you, but I imagine you aren't much different than I am. I know there are times that I have struggled to feel like I am enough and like I matter, or what I do matters, on many days. Dr. Kelly Flanagan helps us take our lack, look at it, and then turn it around into thoughts that encourage us to see that we are indeed "loveable." Loveable by Kelly Flanagan invites us to see our lives as a story with backstory and three acts: You are Enough, You are Not Alone and You Matter.  Dr. Flanagan weaves his own stories and stories of others he knows into this book to help the reader learn better how to grow in their own life and to apply Dr. Flanagan's wisdom to their life. I would also add that while there are some references to God and church, there aren't a lot of Bible stories in the book to refer to. In some ways this is more of a series of memoir-style essays tied together with Loveable 's theme. It is also a little like going to long-distanc...

Parents of children with special needs have a unique set of daily challenges. As the mom of a child with special needs I often feel the struggles are mine alone. Bible Promises for parents of children with Special needs was designed to speak to this unique parenting journey and to remind parents they are not alone. Bible Promises for Children with special needs is an alphabetically arranged book. Some of the categories included in the book are: Attitude, Change, Comfort, Encouragement, Fear, Guilt, Loneliness, Pressure, Rest, Stress, Trials, and Weary. Each topic includes verses that relate to that topic as well as a paragraph that relates those verses to special needs parenting. I thought this  Bible promise book was so helpful and encouraging with both the Scripture verses and Mason's extra helpful words. I found it to be good to read straight through but also a good quick reference when you need help on a certain topic. It also keeps you turning back to God during those ...

Every day we see countless advertisements for medications. We go to the doctor and expect that we will leave with a prescription that will make us better. But do all of these drugs really make us better? Dr. Andrew Weil in Mind Over Meds helps readers make informed decisions on medication use. Mind Over Meds goes through most of the commonly prescribed medications in the United States: antibiotics, statins, medicine for Gerd, antihistamines, cold/flu medicines, sleep aids, steroids, psych medicines for adults and children, and several other categories of popularly used medications both over-the-counter and prescribed. Dr. Weil also writes chapters on over-medication for children and over-medication for the elderly. The last chapter of the book covers medications with a pharmacist, whom Dr. Weil says is an underutilized medical person in the management of medications. All of these chapters were written with other medical personnel who specialize in these areas since Dr. Weil says...