BOOKS I FINISHED - FEBRUARY 2018

*****

365 Days of Wonder: Mr. Browne's Book of Precepts, written by R.J. Palacio

I read Wonder in December and Auggie & Me: Three Wonder Stories in January, so I enjoyed this book comprised mostly of precepts in February. The following were my favorites, some from actual people and others from fictional characters in the book.

1/10 - If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. - Latin proverb

1/18 - Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world. - Annie Lennox

1/23 - There is no shame in not knowing. The shame lies in not finding out. - Assyrian proverb

2/16 - Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. - Lloyd Jones

2/23 - Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. - Shreya

March - My students can't learn what I don't teach them. Kindness. Empathy. Compassion. It's not part of the curriculum, I know, but I still have to keep dishing it out on to their plates every day. Maybe they'll eat it; maybe they won't. Either way, my job is to keep on serving it to them. Hopefully, a little mouthful of kindness today may make them hungry for a bigger taste of it tomorrow.

5/21 - You're free to make your own choices, but you will never be free of the consequences of your choices. - Srishti

6/9 - One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others. - Lewis Carroll

7/4 - Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. - Samuel Johnson

7/7 - Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength. - Henry Ward Beecher

7/11 - At the end of the game, pawns and kings go back into the same box. - Italian proverb

8/6 - Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." - Mary Anne Radmacher

August - So here's the thing about glitter: once it's out of the bottle, there's just no way of putting it back. It's the same with kindness. Once it pours out of your soul, there's no way of containing it. It just continues to spread from person to person, a shining, sparkling, wonderful thing.

9/14 - Sometimes rejection in life is really redirection. - Tavis Smiley

9/21 - Strong people don't put others down. They lift them up. - Michael P. Watson

10/4 - What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in a  while. - Unknown

11/9 - If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. - Milton Berle

11/16 - To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone. - Reba McEntire

12/16 - For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. - Audrey Hepburn


*****


Dolphin Treasure & Dolphin Adventure, both written by Wayne Grover

The true stories of the author's experience rescuing and being rescued by a dolphin he calls Baby. I read these to Tyler for school.

*****

The Future She Left Behind, written by Marin Thomas

A predictable story about a small town girl who leaves for a chance at wealth and city life, but realizes when life falls apart decades later that everything she ever really needed was right back where she started from.

p. 135 - "When she's smiling, people don't see the wrinkles around her eyes - they see the twinkle in them."

p. 232 - It was difficult to expose your soul to people, understanding that not everyone would treat it kindly.

*****

Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, written by J.D. Greear

This was the most recent Skyble study book and, as the title indicates, it talks about the significance of the gospel in our lives. What exactly is the gospel? It's God reconciling us to himself through Jesus, the perfect one who died for our sins.

p. 46 - The gospel is that Christ has suffered the full wrath of God for my sin. Jesus Christ traded places with me, living the perfect life I should have lived, and dying the death I had been condemned to die. < snip > That means that God could not love me any more than He doe right now, because God could not love  and accept Christ any more than he does, and God sees me in Christ. < snip > Christ's salvation is 100 percent complete, and 100 percent the possession of those who have received it in repentance and faith.

p. 54 - We say, "If you can manage to go and sin no more, then God will accept you. God, however, motivates us from acceptance, not toward it. < snip > God's approval is the power that liberates us from sin, not the reward for having liberated ourselves.

p. 64 - We are changed not by being told what we need to do for God, but by hearing the news about what God has done for us.

p. 72 - What you prize most is shown by what you pursue the hardest.

p. 188 - The extent to which you abide in Jesus is measured by your ability to be joyful in all circumstances.

p. 213 - The gospel aims to shatter pride and independence. The gospel's first work is to make us sit in stunned awe at what God has done for us.


*****


If We Make it Home: A Novel of Faith and Survival in the Oregon Wilderness, written by Christina Suzann Nelson

Three formerly close friends who haven't seen each other in decades meet up at their old campus. Their lives have all gone in different directions over the years and a spontaneous wilderness trip ends up testing not only the survival of their friendship, but of their lives.

p. 196 - If  my fans could see me now. Would they abandon me because I'm a mess or applaud my willingness to fight on? It doesn't matter. This isn't about how strangers perceive my worth. God didn't put me on this earth to show others all the things I can do better than they can.

p. 255 - "One of the worst things a human can do is wage a false accusation against another person. In this world, there are true crimes and assaults. Each of those is minimized by the manipulating ways of people who choose to use this kind of accusation to get their way. I will not allow it to happen on my watch."

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BOOKS I FINISHED - JULY 2017

Can't. Just. Stop.: An Investigation of Compulsions, written by Sharon Begley
This was a random pull from the library shelf that I found interesting. The main topic is obviously compulsive behavior, both in general and some specific ones, but Begley also spends some time talking about why there's been an increase in the diagnosis of mental illnesses and the differences between addictions, impulses, and compulsions. Lots of interesting stories and statistics, all cloaked in a desire to better understand others.

p. 13, Venturing inside the heads and the worlds of people who behave compulsively not only shatters the smug superiority many of us feel when confronted with others' extreme behavior. It also reveals elements of shared humanity.

p. 22, Compulsions, in contrast to addictive and impulsive behaviors, are all about avoiding unpleasant outcomes. They are born in anxiety and remain strangers to joy.

p. 29, It isn't hard to meet criteria for one or another DSM diagnosis, especially because the experts who devise the criteria worry more about missing cases than about diagnosing as "mentally ill" people who are not.

p. 172, By keeping the stuff in the eternal realm of near-infinite possibility and rose-colored memory, she never has to confront the reality that some old appliance is of little use, that the newspaper article is not life-transforming, that she will never make another Boy Scout float. Hoarding is all about potential, about keeping actualities at bay.

The Hope Chest: A Novel, written by Viola Shipman
Another random book choice as I browsed the shelves, this is about an elderly couple dealing with the reality that their marriage will be ending sooner than later because of her ALS diagnosis and a young mom who's doing everything she can to simply keep her life afloat. Fairly predictable, but still a sweet story.

Humility, written by Andrew Murray
This was the most recent Skyble study book and I'm glad Beep recommended it. The chapters are short, but weighty, and give the reader plenty to think and pray about concerning what humility is and how it manifests itself in our daily lives. It's incredibly convicting and challenging, but also really encouraging. It's a very short book, but I'd recommend reading just one chapter a week so that you have time to really absorb what each one is saying.

p. 8, Let him consider how all want of love, all indifference to the needs, the feelings, the weakness of others; all sharp and hasty judgments and utterances, so often excused under the plea of being outright and honest; all manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation; all feelings of bitterness and estrangement, have their root in nothing but pride, that ever seeks itself, and his eyes will be opened to see how a dark, shall I not say a devilish pride, creeps in almost everywhere, the assemblies of the saints not excepted.

p. 13, (referring to Matthew 11:29) Meekness and lowliness the one thing he offers us; in it we shall find perfect rest of soul. Humility is to be a salvation.

p 19, Humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men.

p. 28, Being occupied with self, even amid the deepest self-abhorrence, can never free us from self.

p. 36, He prays for humility, at times very earnestly; but in his secret heart he prays more, if not in word, then in wish, to be kept from the very things that will keep him humble.

p. 37, It is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all.

p. 37, ... the danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think, and the grace for humility too.

p. 40, The highest glory of the creature is in being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God. It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the diving glory.

p. 41, Lost, swallowed up in Love's immensity!

Why Won't You Apologize?: Healing Big Betrayals and Everyday Hurts, written by Harriet Lerner, PH.D.
And yet one more random book for the month. It intrigued me because of a specific unresolved conflict where I'd like an apology and probably won't get one, but it also gave me some food for thought when someone unrelated to that particular issue confronted me with a handful of reasons they're unhappy with me (which was fair and necessary) when I was in the middle of the book. It's helping me change my thinking on the former situation and impacted how I responded in the latter.

If you have a pulse, you're going to both hurt others and be hurt by them. It's inevitable. So apologies are just part of life. I didn't fully agree with her ideas about forgiveness, but the book as a whole is great for navigating the waters of giving, receiving, and/or not being offered apologies. There were tons of good quotes, but here are a few.

p. 59, No one is immune to becoming defensive and shutting down when our favored image of our self is challenged.

p. 95, (on dismissing apologies by saying the situation was no big deal or that the apologizing person shouldn't even think about it) If the other person has pushed through his or her discomfort to do the right thing and apologize, we can push through our discomfort and say, "Thanks for the apology." It's important to resist the temptation to cancel the effort at repair that a genuine apology is.

p. 108, (speaking of accepting an apology, even if you're not ready to forgive and/or still need to talk about it more) It can be less a way of saying, "Okay, the past is past and there is no need to revisit it," and more a way of saying that there is still a future in which something other than anger and resentment is possible.

p. 109, We want change but we don't want to change first - a great recipe for relationship failure.

p. 125, We can apologize to someone in thirty seconds, but changing our part in a relationship impasse is a long-distance run that takes endurance, and the capacity to push forward in the face of enormous resistance from within and without. At the same time, the process requires restraint. It asks us to sit still when we feel fired up to speak and act, and to have the wisdom and intuition to know how and when to say what to whom.

p. 126, The substantive changes that give an apology its meaning may occur slowly. It's the direction, not the speed, of travel that matters.

p. 142, Chronic anger and bitterness dissipate our energy and sap our creativity, to say nothing of ruining an otherwise good day.

p. 174, Letting go of anger and hate requires us to give up the hope for a different past, along with the hope of a fantasized future. What we gain is a life more in the present, where we are not mired in prolonged anger and resentment that doesn't serve us.


KID BOOKS I LIKED

At the Same Moment Around the World, written and illustrated by Clotilde Perrin
This book moves through all the time zones, showing what kids are doing at that moment in each one. We found each location on our map as we read through it.

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BOOKS I FINISHED - APRIL 2017

100 Days of Read Food, Fast and Fabulous: The Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Out Processed Food, written by Lisa Leake

There were several recipes from this book that I want to try. So far we've enjoyed simple roasted pork tenderloin. 

*****

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Dairy-Free Eating, written by Scott H. Sicherer and Liz Scott

We're cutting back on dairy around here, so I found some recipes in this book to try. The only one we've tried so far is maple pecan granola, which we liked, but we have more waiting.

*****


Good News for Weary Women: Escaping the Bondage of To-Do Lists, Steps, and Bad Advice, written by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick

Beep and I read this for our Skyble study and it had a lot of great stuff in it. The nutshell is that God's love for and acceptance of us has absolutely nothing to do with us obediently working our way down a checklist of cultural rules (with cultural meaning the country we live in, the church we attend, or whatever). He chose to love us. Our identity is not based on the good or bad things we've done or following man-made rules that we or others have elevated to the level of scripture. Our identity comes from acknowledging we are sinners who can never get our act completely together on our own and resting in the grace of God, who obeyed perfectly, sacrificed willingly, and loves freely. There were tons of quotes I liked from this book, but I'll try to choose a few highlights.

p. 16, Motherhood is not a woman's only calling, nor is it her highest calling, just as fatherhood is not a man's highest or only calling. The Bible never makes such a claim, and shaming women who want to work in the marketplace (or have to) is unkind, unwise, and unbiblical.

Soapbox alert - I was so, so, so grateful to read this! I could not possibly agree more. I've always been bothered by the ignorance and arrogance this belief conveys, even though I know that, at least among my friends, it comes from a sincere love for one's kid(s) and a deep desire to do the best possible job at parenting that one can do. Being a mom is a privilege and responsibility that carries so much weight and value, however motherhood is not the supreme role in life and staying at home full-time is not the indicator of holiness or successful parenting. I feel the same way about the belief that homeschooling is the best choice for educating one's kids, but that's another soapbox for another day. For now, back to quotes I like.

p. 42, We've been given everything our souls ever needed in Christ - and not because we earned it or because we're really good. It's because He is really good. That's really great news, isn't it?

p. 61, Failure to live up to human additions to God's rules always produces guilt, and guilt never produces grateful obedience. < snip > True obedience must be fueled by love, and love occurs only in hearts that have been warmed by the knowledge of God's love for lawbreakers like us.

p. 69, In addition, if we remember that God's law has already been fulfilled by Jesus Christ, who obeyed in our place and then died for all our disobedience, we will grow in our desire to love Him and live for Him - not out of obligation but out of gratitude for his mercy.

p. 114, Jesus never tells us seventeen things we need to do to be better people. He simply tells us to believe in Him.

p. 119, We do not earn God's smile by our own works after we are saved any more than we did before we were saved.

p. 132, If we don't take the good news of the gospel as the only antidote to our weaknesses, sin, and slavery to self-approval - if the grace of God doesn't flood and satiate our souls - then stupid rules about how to make ourselves better will take over.

p. 148, The cross of Christ, that bloodied wood, is the surest sign any of us will ever need. Have our sins been forgiven? Are we loved? Will He care for us? We need no more proof than to look to Golgotha and fall down in worship.

*****

Make It Mighty Ugly: Exercises & Advice For Getting Creative Even When It Ain't Pretty, written by Kim Piper Werker and illustrated by Kate Bingaman-Burt

Desiree read this and thought it may be good for me to read. It's like she knows I'm wound tightly or something. The book addresses the fears that keep us from creating, helps identify our strengths, encourages imperfection, includes interviews with various people and interesting links to check out, and has several exercises for those who want to dig a little deeper. Not life-changing, but an easy read that has me thinking about some ideas I may try.

p. 63, I can't stand it when people attribute their successes to luck - it's unfair to themselves, and it's falsely humble. At the same time, I do think it's important to acknowledge the role that privilege and happenstance play in our successes. Taking an honest look at what contributes to our successes can be just as difficult as doing the same for our failures, and it's just as important for our growing ability to handle both in stride.

*****

The One-in-a-Million Boy, written by Monica Wood

Anne Marie recommended this fictional story of a 104 year old woman, an 11 year old boy, and the people in their lives. It's a book about love and grief, family and friends, chasing dreams and taking responsibility, hearts breaking and healing. A bittersweet story that I really enjoyed.

*****

Slathbog's Gold, written by M. L. Forman

I don't like fantasy books with elves, magic, dragons, time warp stuff, and so on, but Devon does. He's enjoyed the Adventurers Wanted series and asked me to give the first book a try. I love him more than I dislike that genre, so I read all 382 pages of this book. It wasn't my favorite, which was no surprise, but there were good things about it - loyalty, honor, friendship, and bravery.

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BOOKS I FINISHED - MARCH 2017

After You, written by Jojo Moyes

This book is the sequel to Me Before You, which I read and enjoyed last month, but I didn't really like it. Had it been an independent book, I would have bailed on it for content and boredom, but I felt compelled to slog through because I'd read the first book.

Glory Over Everything, written by Kathleen Grissom

The sequel to The Kitchen House, which I read several months ago, this book is still about the hard topic of slavery, but didn't seem as heavy as the first book. Heads up that an adulterous relationship is one of the main parts of the story line. That's usually a deal-breaker for me, but, given the plot, I went ahead and finished the book.

p. 82, Your signature is the same as giving your word, and keeping your word is the mark of a man's character. In the end, it is the most valuable thing a man possesses.

A Hand to Guide Me: Legends and Leaders Celebrate the People Who Shaped Their Lives, written and collected by Denzel Washington

Washington starts and ends this book with his own story and thoughts, but it's filled with more than seventy short essays from a wide variety of people, each talking about who was instrumental in their lives. Although you could spend big chunks of time reading it through, the short essays make it ideal for when you only have a few minutes at a time to spare over the course of your day.

p. 270, If you've achieved anything in this life, if you've overcome any kind of obstacles, odds are you've had some help, and we'll do well to acknowledge that help and pass it on.

The Light at Tern Rock, written by Julia L. Sauer and illustrated by George Schreiber

This was my fourth time reading this book (read it to Teebs this time) and I still love its lessons about thinking past ourselves and choosing a good attitude while making sacrifices for the good of others.

One in a Million: Journey to Your Promised Land, written by Priscilla Shirer

A friend passed this book along to me and it said many things that lined up perfectly with my personal Bible reading, topics discusses in counseling appointments, and what Beep and I are talking about in our Skyble study. Living a comfortable life versus intimately knowing the God who created and loves me. Trying to fix the difficult seasons of life versus yielding to them. Doing what God asks, even when it's uncomfortable or scary or inconvenient. Running this race of life to win instead of simply to survive. Oasis of complacency, an acceptance of the current status of things being good enough and a preference for comfortable familiarity over unfamiliar better things that are actually what God has for us.


p.32, The question is not whether a good God could possibly be so restrictive as to confine our path of redemption to one available option. The better question, after all that we've done to resist and reject Him, is why He chose to open the one path He did.

p. 89, Are you bitter because of the hand you've been dealt? Sometimes He'll allow us to come face-to-face with an experience that could potentially breed bitterness, just so we can see His ability to work miracles in the way we feel. He wants us to know that our natural slide into bitterness and anger can be caught by the rescuing hand of His grace, then transformed into a state of mind, mood, and motivation that could only come from the Lord Himself. 

p. 112, That's the pattern of complaining - always intensifying, always escalating. It starts with a few minor, incidental frustrations, then builds over time into a wildfire, whipped into flame by every available draft of oxygen. Everything becomes a new subject for its scorn - Exhibits X, Y, and Z in an ever-growing list of grievances. 

p. 115, The spirit of complaint is born out of an unwillingness to trust God with today.

p. 159, If we let our intimacy with God diminish into mere details and to-do lists - if the focus becomes more on the "turning, setting, and going" than on the One who's calling us onto the path - we'll soon find ourselves alone and out ahead of God. (The"turning, setting, and going" part is in reference to Hebrews 12:1-2.)

p. 182, There comes a time when the best advice anyone can give you is to just get over it. While each of us needs time to heal, we can't allow healthy mourning to become unhealthy sulking. < snip > And at some point, like the children of Israel, we too must choose not to participate in mournful acts anymore. This doesn't mean our hearts are no longer saddened or that tears no longer fall from our eyes. It just means we've stopped acting in a way that keeps us focused on what we've lost or left behind.

p. 183, Yes, you can mourn and move on with your head up, my friend, because whatever you've had to release has only served to empty your hands for what He is about to give you. 

p. 198, Jesus knew what you and I must learn: not every good thing is a God thing, and nothing is worth doing if it's not what God wants us to do. 

p.200, It takes faith, knowing your personal, family, or community situation the way you do, to start walking in patient confidence that God hasn't conceded defeat in your life. It takes faith to look at an obstacle that is deeper and meaner than any courage you can conjure up yet be absolutely assured that God's power is more than enough to move it out of the way.

SKYPE + BIBLE = SKYBLE

One August Beep asked if I'd be interested in doing a weekly Bible study with her, a proposal I quickly accepted. Given that we live on different continents, we meet once a week via Skype on our computers, which is how I coined the term "Skyble study".

We're still having a weekly Skyble study three and a half years later and have studied a mix of things, from a focused Bible study to whole books of the Bible to books written by Christian authors. We each read a chapter on our own time, then come together once a week to go over it together. We share which parts stood out to us (it's uncanny how often we underline the same things), ask questions, remind each other of related Bible verses, and so on.

Partly to help myself keep track of what we've completed and partly to give ideas to those of you who may be looking for some ideas, I'm going to share what Beep and I have studied together so far. I'll also include some verses and quotes that stood out in each study, although it will be challenging to narrow it down to just a few.

OLIVES
First we zeroed in on olives trees in the Bible using a study my sister had found online and downloaded for us. We didn't complete the study and I can't find it online anymore, but I did a blog post at the time about comparing our spiritual lives to characteristics of an olive tree.

Psalm 52:8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.

MATTHEW
Next we worked our way through the book of Matthew in our Bibles. We didn't use any particular study plan or method, but just read a chapter or two each week and then talked with each other about it. I shared a few highlights from that study in a blog post while we were going through the book.

6:33-34, But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

22:37-39, Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

THE COMPLETE GREEN LETTERS
Beep had read The Complete Green Letters, written by Miles J. Sanford, for school many years earlier. She was interested in going through it again and I'd never heard of it, so that was our third study. The whole book is about spiritual growth - knowing and standing on Biblical truth, understanding who we are in Christ, and being changed by God from the inside out instead of on our own from the outside in. I loved this book and have been thinking of reading it again soon because I need to be reminded of those things from time to time. I'm also going to have it be required reading for all the little Ws at some point in their teens.

p. 3, Moreover, and this is all-important, true faith must be based solely on scriptural facts, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). Unless our faith is established on facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption.

p. 113, The believer who rests in his position rather than his condition, who abides in his risen Lord in the presence of the Father, is growing spiritually.

p. 170, But when our knowledge of our Father is Bible-based, we are able to evaluate our circumstances and personal condition in the light of who He is. Then there is rest and joy in Him no matter what the situation may be. To know Him is to trust and love Him. Calvary is the proof of His love for us, even if there were no other indication or if all other indications were to the contrary.

p. 200, Our Father's ultimate purpose in saving us is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son, not simply to keep us out of hell and get us into heaven. We have been born into Christ that He may be our life, not just our Savior.

PRAYER: DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
I'd somehow acquired a copy of Philip Yancey's Prayer: Does It Make A Difference? and had thought Reaching for the Invisible God: What Can We Expect to Find?, another book of his, was great when I read it on Beep's recommendations back in 2010. So Prayer became our fourth study. We read about why and how to pray, obstacles to prayer, and its effects on both ourselves and God. Pointing to what the Bible teaches and giving practical suggestions is balanced with an honest admission of what he doesn't understand and what he personally struggles with, a down-to-earth approach that I found helpful and encouraging in the two books of his that I've read. Like Green Letters, I plan on reading this one again and having our kids read it. 

p. 42, Prayer invites me to bring my whole life into God's presence for cleansing and restoration. Self-exposure is never easy, but when I do it I learn that underneath the layers of grime lies a damaged work of art that God longs to repair.

p. 161, Prayer remains a struggle for me < snip > I persist because I am fulfilling God's command, and also because I believe I am doing what is best for me whether or not I feel like it at the time. Moreover, I believe that my perseverance, in some unfathomable way, brings pleasure to God.

p. 191, Jesus taught a model prayer, the Lord's Prayer, but otherwise gave few rules. His teaching reduces down to three general principles: Keep it honest, keep it simple, and keep it up.

p. 303, In short, prayer allows me to see others as God sees them (and me): as uniquely flawed and uniquely gifted bearers of God's image. I begin seeing them through Jesus' eyes, as beloved children whom the Father longs to embrace.

SIMPLY TUESDAY: SMALL-MOMENT LIVING IN A FAST-MOVING WORLD
We chose Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World, a book by Emily P. Freeman, as our fifth study because Beep had a copy someone had loaned her and it interested both of us. It's the least blatantly spiritual thing we've studied, not filled with tons of Bible verses (although we easily found plenty to support what was written) or focused on the foundations of our faith, but it consistently brought the nitty gritty of life back around to Christ. I really liked this book and would sum it up with words like rest, surrender, contentment, vulnerability, patience, humility, and trust.

p. 74, "Excellence" just becomes a more respectable word for "control", which is a fancy version of "manipulation", which is a physiological word for "sin", and did I really just align "excellence" with "sin"? Maybe I did. Maybe I meant to.

p. 94, True smallness is an invitation to live as I was meant to live, to accept my humanity, and to offer my ability and my inability, my sin and my success, my messes and my masterpieces into the hands of God.

p. 177, Faith doesn't mean waiting for understanding or clarity. Faith means trusting God in the midst of misunderstanding and lack of clarity.

p. 213, You want to embrace a hopeful vision for the future without sacrificing a healthy contentment with the now.

ROMANS
We recently finished going through the Bible's book of Romans for our sixth study. It was encouraging to read about the salvation and freedom that's found in Jesus, the faithfulness and love of God, and the transformation that will happen in our own attitudes and behaviors as we move our focus from ourselves to the cross.

8:23-24, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

8:38-39, For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,  nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And that's that. Three and a half years of Skyble study summed up in one blog post.

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