Reading Obsession

I have always been a reader, for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, though, I go through these reading addiction spurts. Is spurts a word? Anyway I go through these times when I want to read everything in sight. My sisters used to make fun of me because I would spend hours in Barnes and Noble just walking around staring at books. I think I was waiting for the moment when I had finally stared long enough that I would just start absorbing the words of the book I was staring at. It never happened, but that would be really cool!

Currently, I am in one of those phases. Phases is a better word, I will stick to that. The last time I went through this phase was in November. I went to the library and checked out 10 books! I have read 1 since that time and they are due back in a month. Since I will be so disappointed if I return those book without even looking at page one, I have a goal to get through most of them before their due date. The hard part is I also have about 5 other books that I am really into right now. Allow me to share.

Heaven is For Real

I saw this one yesterday at Hastings and immediately bought it on my Literati as soon as I got home. It was cheaper that way. I am so excited about this book. It's about a boy who at 4 years old went to heaven during an emergency surgery. He sat in Jesus' lap and angels sang to him. He met his miscarried sister that he never knew about and his great grandpa who had died 30 years before. It is a true story.







Wrestling with God

I mentioned this one a couple weeks ago. Its all about growing close to God through the tough stuff in life. I am about half way through it and I love it! I just get distracted to easily by other books.









Gazelle's Baby Steps and 37 other Things Dave Ramsey taught me about Debt

Jon Acuff is hilarious and this book is awesome. I have gotten through most of it already since I bought it on Saturday. The chapters are short and super easy to read, not to mention funny. The title pretty much covers the content of the book.







Stuff Christians Like

Another Acuff book. This one is based off his blog. I just started this one last night, but it too is hilarious. I have heard great things about this book. More to come!










OK so I guess that was only 4 but there was another book at Hastings that I saw yesterday that I will probably pick up shortly. Oh AND Pioneer Woman's new book just came out about her love story with her husband and I am dying to get that one too!
What are you reading? Has anyone read Sheet Music?

Be Blessed!

Books, Books, and more Books

I spent the weekend spread between three books and the Bible. I know many of my posts lately have been on the topic of reading, but I guess it is just that season for me. Not to mention, I was really excited about having my first weekend since August without a single place that I HAD to be. Therefore, between reading, laundry, cleaning, exercising, and church I would say it was a GREAT weekend! Zeb and I also got to cook out with my soon to be brother in-law and his amazing girlfriend Katy, who just happens to be one of my bridesmaids, on Saturday evening which was so fun! Anyway, back to the books.

Book 1-The Volunteer Revolution

This book is great because it talks about volunteerism. If I could be a full time volunteer, you better believe I would. I am not sure why I was given such a servant's heart, but I was and I embrace it. The thing I like about this book is it talks about how to get others to embrace the volunteer in them. You see, everyone wants to do something more besides work and give their time freely or so I like to think. This book likes to think that too and that is why I like it.

Book 2-Confessions of a Pastor

I picked this book up a couple weeks ago at my church. They had their annual volunteer appreciation event and were handing out free stuff. I already have all of Pastor Craig's other books so I decided to grab this one. I love how transparent and vulnerable Craig is in this book. In this book he confesses various struggles in his life. He shows everyday readers how everyday and normal he actually is. It is a quick and easy read.

Book 3-Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Re-visited

This is the book that comes with the Financial Peace University kit. It is hard, challenging, refreshing, and scary all in one. Dave challenges readers to break free from the bondage of debt with practical steps. The catch is, you have to be willing to stop living like majority of Americans. You have to stop consuming more than you can afford. You have to put limits in your life. You have to say enough is enough. Most importantly, when you are heavily in debt you have to be willing to take drastic steps that seem crazy to everyone else in order to pull out. He promises though, that only when you are willing to live like no one else will you then be able to live like no one else. I am so looking forward to that. The best part is his story. He is not teaching this from research, he is teaching it from experience. He went bankrupt at 30 with a wife and 4 kids. He changed his life and now he is helping millions of others do the same. Thanks Dave.

Book 4-The Bible

I started the Gospels this weekend. The book of Matthew is beautiful. I also started a reading plan on Youversion.com. It is a 1-month Christmas reading plan that re-defines Christmas. This will force me to be in the Word everyday. I know this should be easy, but it just is not. I get caught up in other books (see above) and everyday life. I get lost in my all about me syndrome and forget that this life is not all about me at all. Thanks YouVersion for providing such valuable resources.

Finally, I decided this weekend what my end goal is in my career life. I want to own a bookstore. It will include lots of comfy spots for people to plop down and read. It will most definitely have a coffee shop. It will probably include a kids reading section. But most importantly, it will allow for me to create a community around things I love. I envision it to be a place my family can hang out at, my employees will be engaging, and my customers will be friends. I know I have entertained my closest loved ones with lots of career plans in my adult life, but this is the one I hope sticks. And until then...I will just keep reading.

The Beauty in 26 Letters

I have a love-hate relationship with reading. It is more of a love rather than hate. Like, the only time I really hate reading is when I am too tired to continue reading and I hate to stop. :) Reading brings out something different in me. I can not quite explain it, but I will do my best for the purpose of helping you understand.

I really love non-fiction. I love non-fiction because of its aunthenticity. There is something special about reading a book about something, someone, or some event that really happened. It may be the strong empathy inside of me, but I just really find joy in connecting with the character of the book who is actually not a character at all. They are a real person with a very real story that was worth sharing with the rest of the world. It is fascinating.

I love reading blogs. Again, I think it has so much to do with the authentic piece of it, but nonethless it is a favorite. It is easy to get lost in this world feeling not good enough and troubled. When you read about the lives of others through a source that they purposely put out there for others to read it is humanizing. It makes me realize that I am human and not the only one facing the trials of society. It is also inspiring and uplifting to read the success stories of other. I love reading the things that work in other people's lives. Maybe I am just nosy, but I would like to think it is fairly normal to enjoy this type of reading material.

My goal is to read more over the next couple of months. It expands my mind and challenges me in different ways than the day to day tasks. I would love for suggestions.

What are you reading?

Not God's Type

This is the book that consumed me last week. It is a short book and rather easy to read. It tells the story of a woman who came to know God as an adult. A woman who is a liberal, feminist. A woman who is a rational thinker. A woman with her Ph D. and a professor. A woman who was an atheist all her life, until the age of 31 when God revealed Himself to her through rational Truth. A woman who now lives as a walking testimony of how God worked in her life that was unique to her needs because he knew her so well to know what it would take.

I was drawn to this book while at the Stillwater Public Library last Monday for the first time. I wanted to find a new book to read and truth be told I can't afford Hastings anymore, so the library was the next best option. As a fairly new Christian myself I am intrigued by the stories of other Christians. I love to learn about the stories of God's grace and mercy in people's lives. This book was immediately appealing to me when I read the back cover. The reason is, in my quest to know God deeper and more intimately, I think it is helpful to know what it was about others that drew them to God.

I am not even close to being a rationalist. Rational thinking is so far off my radar. In fact most of the time, I will not tell you what I think about something. Instead, I will tell you how I feel about something. In general, this means that any decision or thought I have is usually made with emotion rather than logic thought. I came to Christ at an emotional time in my life. I was hurt and broken. I felt empty and needed something to fill the hole. I was drawn to Christ through my feelings.

However, in this book, Holly was not drawn to God through an emotional circumstance in her life. Holly wanted someone to show her that it made sense that God was real. She wanted someone to show her the truth through rational explanations. It was through this curiosity that God so beautifully showed Himself to Holly. He knew it wouldn't take dragging her to the pit. He knew that warm-fuzzy miracles were not convincing enough for her. He knew that she just needed the black and white facts of who He was. When she was able to work through the research, the experiments, the pros, and the cons at her pace she was able to see her Savior.

It is a beautiful story. In more ways than one this book just made me fall more in love with Jesus. I will leave you with one conversation between Holly and her Fencing coach from this book that will forever stick with me.

"Ok," I said. "You believe in God. I don't. When I die, what do you think is going to happen to me?"

He said, "I'd rather not answer that question."
I was surprised-and I recognized that I was getting more respect than I probably deserved: he'd prefer to say nothing rather than water down his response to make it more palatable for me. Suddenly I realized that I genuinely did want to hear the answer.
"No, really, I want to know what you think."

"Well," he said, "I believe that we will come before God in judgement, and He will give each person either perfect justice, or perfect mercy."

I sat in silence thinking about this for a moment. Slowly, I said, "And you believe that it would be better for me to know enough, beforehand, to ask for perfect mercy?"

"Yes, I do."