Read & Reading
Read:
1. I Am a Church Member by Thom S. Rainer
This is a power-packed, read-in-one-sitting kind of book that puts church members into their place as it reiterates our role and purpose as church members. It's easy to let preferences and entitlement sneak into our perspective and hinder what all God intends for the church to be for us and others as we both attend and serve the church. I Am a Church Member covers these six areas:
- I Will Be a Unifying Church Member
- I Will Not Let the Church Be About My Preferences and Desires
- I Will Pray for My Church Leaders
- I Will Lead My Family to Be Healthy Church Members
- I Will Be a Functioning Member
- I Will Treasure Church Membership as a Gift
"I am a church member. I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires. That is self-serving. I am in this church to serve others and to serve Christ. My Savior went to a cross for me. I can deal with any inconveniences and matters that are just not my preference or style."
2. Spiritual Mothering by Susan Hunt
Spiritual mothering is a concept that touches me deeply for God has blessed me with many spiritual mothers to stand in the gap throughout my life. It literally has taken a village (or a church) of women to raise me all throughout my life (even still today). God has used older women so powerfully to teach me many things about God, life, marriage, ministry, and myself as I experienced firsthand the tremendous blessings and slicing heartaches of good and bad spiritual mothers. The thing that made the biggest difference with all of my spiritual moms is that they have consistently pointed me back to God through their conduct, example, and prayers. That is priceless!
As I read this book, Susan Hunt captured the essence of a spiritual mothering relationship which is simply "When a woman possessing faith and spiritual maturity enters into a nurturing relationship with a younger woman in order to encourage and equip her to live for God's glory." It's saying, "It's not enough for me to want to live for God's glory and for you to want to live for God's glory. I must want to help you live for God's glory. I must honestly want God's glory for your life."
And the God-factor is what sticks with a woman far beyond a season of investment into another woman's life. My favorite part of the book is how Hunt went beyond the usual illustrations from Ruth and Naomi's relationship and dissected Mary and Elizabeth's relationship as well as other women in the Bible bringing these relationships into a new light. This is, by far, one of the least fluffy books I've ever read on mentoring because it doesn't give the step-by-step "how to" approach as much as it outlines the "why" that is firmly routed in Scripture. Spiritual mothering has to begin with your relationship with God and your heart condition before it extends into a relationship with another woman.
In many ways, this book is a mentoring session in itself as the author shares her mothering heart and instructs and challenges us from the Word in a gentle yet straight forward, encouraging way. She removes the curriculum and program of mentoring and focuses it all back on God as the source and reason for it all in every area of our life (marriage, church, self-discipline, etc.). She concludes the book with this: "Involvement means taking risks, getting tired, and sometimes getting hurt. But I challenge you, my sister, to write your story into the fabric of another woman's life. This is not a call to a life of ease. It is a call to a life of involvement in serving the King by nurturing his daughters."
Favorite Quotes from Spiritual Mothering
(There are waaaay too many to choose from...)
"It's interesting that of all the ways Paul could have told the women to combat the decadence of their culture, he told them to invest their energies in training the younger women to live Christianly in their society. ... Paul was smart enough to know that women need women to train them how to apply God's Word to areas of our lives that are uniquely feminine. ... This is not a ministry of minutia; it is a vital part of church life that must not be pushed to the back-burner." (Titus 2)
"Until a woman has submitted her speech to the Lord, she surely cannot influence a younger women to build right relationships. Critical words destroy relationships. Younger women need to be taught how to affirm and encourage, how to love and accept, how to influence but not demand."
"Older Christian women must communicate a vision of the beauty of a marriage that endures. ... Only a passion for God's glory can overpower our self-interest. ... When a woman realizes the power of her loving acceptance of her husband and makes an all-out commitment to be his completor and not his competitor, he reaches heights he could never obtain without her."
"A woman who struggles with poor self-image is so enslaved that she cannot be a servant/nurturer. The only adequate antidote for the self-image problem is a Biblical knowledge of ourselves. ... Dorcas had experienced the encouragement that comes in knowing she had been accepted by Christ; this motivated her to accept others. Dorcas had a unifying effect in her church; God is glorified when believers are unified. And unity is impossible apart from acceptance."
"Failure to accept another reveals pride in my own heart: "I know what you should be, what you should do, and how you should do it--my way is right and best." It also reveals a lack of trust: "God is not changing you fast enough, so I must help Him."
3. Forward by Ronnie W. Floyd
This is a very simple leadership book reminding us that you need to keep moving forward as you lead others.
Favorite quotes from Forward:
"If Satan cannot get you to do the wrong thing, he will get you to do the right thing in the wrong way."
"Forward leaders are futuristic thinkers. They are not so impressed with their past that they become paralyzed. They are not so intoxicated with their present that they always celebrate and party. They always look ahead, preparing for what could be."
"If we have to tell people we are in charge, we probably are not in charge."
"It is the presence of God that sets each of us apart from other leaders."
"If we do not pray at all, we are depending on ourselves."
4. Move On by Vicki Courtney
It took me awhile to get into this book and to find the meat in it, but it ended up being a solid reminder of God's grace and mercy and the power of the cross.
Favorite Quotes from Move On:
"Healing comes when we learn to ignore the accuser's shameful reminders of our past sins. In doing so, shame loses the power of control in our lives."
"Far too many women are living in the past, defined by their sin, rather than being defined by God's grace in the present. ... Putting the past behind us is the result of not forgetting our past sins, but rather remembering their place on the cross. We can't move forward until we decide to forget the past. ... Rather, as we move forward, we do so with a vision of our sins nailed to the cross in our rearview mirror."
"Legalists feel safer in a world where progress can be evaluated and measured. A world where there are distinct markers (even if they are self-imposed) to gauge their spirituality."
"We must emphasize grace before we talk about commitment, because once grace becomes a believer's identity, commitment will follow." (in response to the Great Commission)
"Charles Spurgeon once said, "I have found, in my own spiritual life, that the more rules I lay down for myself, the more sins I commit." (See Colossians 2:20-23.)
5. The Best Yes by Lysa Terkeurst
This book is perfect for the woman who constantly finds herself drained and stuck doing a bunch of good things while continually sacrificing the things that she knows God wants her to do but doesn't have time to do. I've put off reading this book for awhile because I knew it would mean change. That's not a bad thing, but there is an odd sense of security that comes from busyness...it's predictable and safe and there is never a dull moment. Yet God has been making it clear in many ways that my security is coming from the wrong place. He has something for my life but I keep crowding it (and Him) out through busyness.
It was desperation to find a different way that drew me back to this book. It's one of those books that took several weeks to read because there was so much in it for my Type A, overachiever, I-know-I-can-be-Super Woman (but I'm about to collapse from the sheer busyness of everything) personality to digest. It was a tool that God wanted to use to lay out guidelines to help me weed out what is of Him and what's not of Him (even though it's for Him). Some of my yeses can't be undone right now and there are commitments to finish seeing through, but I can at least move forward from here by saying yes and no in the right way--God's way.
There were two things that stuck out above all else that I've been trying to implement as I discern whether to give a yes or no (oh, how I'm tired of giving yeses only to get into it and realize it should've been a no).
The first is, "Do I have the resources to handle this request along with my current responsibilities? Could this fit: physically? financially? spiritually? emotionally?"
Most of the time, I know when and where I'm overloaded, but this is the first time in my life where I've found my emotional resources all tied up and depleted. It's been a new experience to be in the midst of something and discover that there no emotional capacity left to deal with situations or people and my head literally feels like it's about to explode because of the sheer brain power or emotional investment that's been expended. And that's not healthy at all. It's actually kind of scary to be in that moment when you know if someone says/does the wrong thing, that's it, you're walking away because you have nothing left even though that's not your personality to do so. It's really forced me to evaluate, ask hard questions, and let go of things in order to reclaim capacity.
Second, there's got to be a way to get this list tattooed somewhere so it'll be the first thing I see whenever I consider whether or not to do something. Honestly, if I took the time to answer these questions, I wouldn't be doing half of what I'm doing today (scary thought!). Here are Lysa's suggestions for determining if the expectations that come from agreeing to a yes are realistic or not:
- "It feels thrilling to say yes to this now. But how will this yes feel two weeks, two months, and six months from now?
- Do any of the expectations that come from this yes feel forced or frantic?
- Could any part of this yes be tied to people pleasing and allowing that desire to skew my judgment of what's realistic and unrealistic?
- Which wise (older, grounded in God's Word, more experienced, and more mature) people in my life think this is a good idea?
- Are there any facts I try to avoid or hide when discussing this with my wise advisors."
6. Praying in Color--Drawing a New Path to God by Sybil MacBeth
Sometimes we can become too legalistic with our prayers. We forget that God has given us freedom from formulas (aside from the Lord's Prayer) and that that He has given us freedom of expression and designed us in His creativity. When you carry that freedom into your prayer life, prayer comes alive. Praying in color is simply taking your prayers and instead of speaking them or journaling them, you're doodling them in such a way to focus your thoughts and actively engage in prayer. It's taking prayer requests or scripture and artfully meditating on it and praying over it where each line, each color, each design means something as you pray over the request or Scripture. It's great for the person who has a wandering mind when it comes to prayer. It's combining words with pictures and color to make a lasting impression in your mind that may pop up later and remind you to pray. I was introduced to Praying in Color in 2012 and it's something that I'll pull out every now and then to remind me that prayer is an expression of our faith that isn't bound by words. It revitalizes my prayer life and reminds me that prayer can be more than black and white words. God wants our prayer lives to be vibrant and full of life, so it makes sense to pray with crayons, markers, and paper. It took a lot of work for my conservative Baptist mind to wrap around the idea of praying in a visual way, but it's become special over the years to see what God has done with the doodled prayers and how He honors and answers those just as much as He answers the spoken word. This book is great for reminding us that prayer is about relationship and that God has given us all different ways to connect with Him creatively.
Music
Uncluttered by Gwen Smith
"So I'm cleaning out some closets, tearing down some walls. Things I've never needed that have been there way too long. Give myself completely with nothing in between, like the kind of love He has for me 'cause I want my love for Him to be always be uncluttered."
Grace Wins by Matthew West
There's a war between guilt and grace / And they're fighting for a sacred space / But I'm living proof / Grace wins every time
Links
Why The Church Needs Artists More than Managers Right Now
Mentoring Is More than Teaching
What We Get Wrong about Worship
Other Things I'm Into
Reading Winter Morgan's Minecraft novels to my child. Two chapters each night are never enough (even for this mama). Morgan's has a way of bringing together my child's love for Minecraft and his vivid imagination through her stories. Plus, he keeps learning new game tricks through the characters' adventures.
Celebrating our 12th anniversary!! Twelve years later and I can still say that there is nothing more special than waking up and falling asleep next to your best friend. This year has added some new challenges as we enter into business together and experience life transitions, but these moments of celebration remind us of who we fell in love with and the beauty of our marriage when we are unified and seeking Christ together instead of merely co-existing and surviving the day to day without direction and purpose.
Field tripping with my family! We recently attended the Homeschool Day at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. We are looking forward to cooler weather so we can get out more and do field trips. Late fall and winter are to us what summer is to everyone else. We take a lot of time off school for hands-on learning, traveling, and vacationing while the environmental allergens aren't as bad and then we buckle down with school during spring and summer. It's a little backward, but it works for us plus vacation and field trip destinations aren't insanely busy in the off-season so we get most of the places to ourselves.
I love your book read recommendations.. Do you have a goodreads account?
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