This book talks about about contentment in various areas, the differences between faith and worry, and trusting God through the questions of life. It includes a twelve week Bible study for those who want to dig a little deeper, but I just read the main book.
p. 26, Two women looked through prison bars / One saw mud, the other stars (quoting Mary W. Tileston's Daily Strength for Daily Needs, which quotes E. B. Posey)
p. 73, By replying, "I distinctly remember forgetting it," Clara Barton was saying, "I remember choosing to forgive and I still choose to forgive."
p. 75, These verses didn't say that I had to feel loving but that I was to decide to love, decide to honor. To bless is a choice of my will. (referencing Romans 12:9-10, 14, 18)
p. 93, We tell our children, "Don't complain," but do we practice what we preach?
p. 94, Our giving should not be like an overflow valve on our wealth, only giving the excess of a hoarded supply. Rather, it should be like a loosened drain plug that regularly and continually lets our resources flow to others.
p. 103, As Goethe, the German philosopher, put it: "The things which matter most must never be at the mercy of the things which matter least."
p. 121, Perhaps the most striking characteristic of worry is its absolute impotence. Worry never changes a single thing except the worrier.
I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her, written by Joanna Connors
After having a breakdown while taking her daughter to visit college campuses, Connors realizes she needs to tell her kids that she'd been raped decades earlier. Not only that, she determines to learn more about the man whose assault radically changed her life. At times hard to read, I think it's a valuable look at the brokenness and hardship that often surrounds violent offenders and the strength of a woman learning to deal with trauma in a healthy way.
An easy going woman contentedly living an ordinary life and a man accustomed to living large, but now bitterly confined to a wheelchair, are the two main characters in this story. Life is messy and love is inconvenient. I rarely cry over books, but I shed many tears over this one. I've found myself thinking about all the characters and the decisions they made along the way in the days since finishing the book, wondering what I would do if I was in each of their places. We just never know how we'll handle a given situation until we're in it ourselves.
Unashamed, written by Lecrae
Silas, Devon, and I all read this book by one of their favorite artists. With a past littered with the fallout of both things done to him and his own foolish choices, Lecrae has come out on the other side as a man with a solid faith in Jesus, a freedom to love people without needing their approval, and a confidence in his art.
p. 59, If you don't know you're lost, you can't be led. And if you can't be honest, you can't be healed. Before I could be rescued, I needed to realize I was stranded.
p. 62, College allows you to make better decisions, better friends, and a better future. There's only one catch: when the opportunity comes, you actually have to take it.
p. 73, Sometimes God lets the darkness settle before He pierces it with light.
p. 103, Your true character is revealed not by how you act when life goes your way, but how you act when the bottom falls out.
p. 152, Because I saw her as a reflection of myself, I was trying to manage her instead of loving her enough to let her be who God made her to be.
p. 176, But the critics didn't know the whole story. Critics almost never do.
p. 181, You know your heart is in trouble when luxuries become expectations.
A teenager whose father just died. A step-mom who has no legal right to the teenager she loves. A mom wrapped up in herself. A young girl going through some major struggles. Desperate parents who make foolish decisions because admitting the need for help carries great risk.
KID BOOKS WE LIKED
Hippopposites & Rhymocerus, both written and illustrated by Janik Coat
The Homelander's series, written by Andrew Klavan
My Rows & Piles of Coins, written by Tololwa M. Mollel and illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Words, written and illustrated by Christoph Niemann
Yasmin's Hammer, written by Ann Malaspina and illustrated by Doug Chayka
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