Reading, Writing & Pondering

Many of us are broken in spirit somehow and need healing from God. Yet, many of us are not sure how to go about it or are afraid to ask for it. Enfolded in God's Arms by Lisa Are Wulf is a gentle, beautifully written devotional just for those who are wounded and in need of healing. There are forty devotions in Enfolded in God's Arms . Each reflection has a short reading, a Bible verse, and a series of questions along with a prayer for each day. This devotional is great to use with a personal journal or you can write in the book in the space provided by the questions. I like that God is shown to be tender-hearted and caring in this book. Enfolded In God's Arms is sort of a balm to my soul read, as well as a real source of encouragement each day. Taking time to thoughtfully answer the questions would truly help the reader to grow and learn more about God and themselves. The gentle words in Enfolded In God's Arms may provide just the sort of soul healing that you ...

Are you a crafter? If so, you may have a UFO or two are your house. . .No, I don't mean a flying saucer for extraterrestrial beings. I mean unfinished objects, or UFOs as they are referred to in Half Finished . Lauraine Snelling writes about small town life and a group of people gathering to finish their unfinished craft projects. . .and how their lives intersect in other ways. Half Finished was a little slow for me to start with as I got to know the characters in this book. Then it picked up speed and I truly enjoyed the people and became interested in their lives. There is one woman in this book who experiences grieving for her spouse. I thought that was well-written as Snelling seemed to truly understand the steps and the challenges the character was facing. Other characters face different life challenges that were happier and those were well portrayed too. They also balanced the sad parts in the book with a happy story. Of course Half Finished would be of interest to cr...

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. Placemaker by Christie Purifoy is one of those books. Not only is the cover beautiful but the spirit-lifting prose inside is equally as beautiful. Placemaker begins with the introduction as Purifoy talks about how her love of trees began. She then relates placemaking to various kinds of trees which the twelve chapters cover: Citrus Grove, Queen Palm, Silver Maple and ends with Arboretum. In each chapter she relates how she made places home and how the trees relate. I simply cannot do her beautiful prose justice in my review. I truly enjoyed Placemaker . I felt like Purifoy's words took me away to beautiful places. I already have a love of trees and gardening--that is what really drew me to this book. But she helped me feel even more in love with the woods and the gardens where we live. She said that "she hopes her stories inspire you to set a table with care, pick up a hammer with courage, or plant a seed with hope." (P...

John Smith, 14 years old, fell through an icy Missouri lake on a winter morning. . .For more than 60 minutes he laid lifeless. However, his mom, Joyce, was not ready to give up on him. She prayed and cried out to God to save him. . .and he did.  Miraculously his heart started beating again. However, that was just the beginning of John's recovery in Breakthrough . He still had a healing process to go through. Thanks to social media, millions of people prayed for John's complete healing, along with his family. God did answer those prayer and in the end he astounded the medical community with his recovery. Breakthrough is written from the point-of-view of John's mom. I can't imagine watching my son go through this. It truly is encouraging to read her words. Near the end, she had to convince the medical people that true healing had taken place and had to advocate for John. I could see real strength in her coming through. I would think Breakthrough would be especial...

I live in a college community in the Midwest. We have a lot of cultures and background represented in our community--and we have a problem with homelessness. I like finding books that help address issues that I can talk to children about. GraceFull by Dorena Williamson is a great book to help children understand the tough subject of homelessness.  Hope and Anna are friends at church. Anna's family is facing some challenges right now as her father lost his job. GraceFull briefly shares their story and talks about how we can help others facing similar struggles. This book also opens the door for more discussions at home or this book could be used in a group setting like a Sunday School class. The Parent Connection page in the page of the book makes sharing the book and learning through the story even easier as there is a correlating Bible verse and a series of questions to ask and think about together. I enjoyed GraceFull . Williamson's books are so good at helping kids se...

Courting Mr. Emerson by Melody Carlson is touted as contemporary romance but it isn't the typical contemporary romance novel. However, there are a lot of contemporary components to this book. Mr. George Emerson is a buttoned-up English teacher who is in the process of retiring from teaching and struggles with change. He is also a confirmed bachelor. Willow West is a fun-loving artist and grandmother who enjoys life. She also owns and operates her own art gallery. When George and Willow meet, Willow finds George fairly stuffy and George finds Willow to be a bit wild. In spite of their differences, Willow encourages George to try new things but he also struggles with his attraction to her. He really wants to make new friends but it hurts too much to loose them so he doesn't seem to know what to do. Will George and Willow be able to work a relationship out? I started off reading Courting Mr. Emerson and enjoying the story. It seemed like a light read, which I was in t...

Prayer remains elusive to so many of us and I think many of us wonder if God is hearing us. Adam Dressler's new book, This is How We Pray , addresses so many struggles that Christians have with prayer. This is How We Pray is divided into 15 chapters relating to prayer and God. Chapters address building a sort of friendship in praying with God, addressing the guilt that is often in our hearts, and how so many of us worry instead of praying, among other issues. The last chapter, Simple, offers practical steps to consider in making your prayer life better: Talk to Jesus like a friend, Listening to God, praying briefly but often and other truly practical ideas for bettering your prayer life. This is How We Pray is written in such a way that I truly enjoyed reading it. Dressler made me think and yet I never felt like he was above me. This book felt like a breath of encouraging air to my prayer life. I have read several books on prayer and I think each one has been helpful, but ...