Well, yet again, I only made it to 2 books but oh my, they were so so good. So this month, I’m going to add a kids book I read for the first time to Jaden that I really loved. There are just a handful of books that I try to read every year and this month, I read one of those and another that will now be on my yearly list. And since I love to give away the things I’m learning and reading, I thought it’d be fun to physically give away one of these books this month! Read to the end to find out how you can get them!
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
If you haven’t read this book, you need to. Really, there are few books that I would be adamant about people reading and this is one of them. I don’t even know where to begin to review it because it is such a good book and even though I’ve read it now several times, each time I gain new insight, discover new courage and new truths about who God is in the midst of suffering and how we are to respond. This book tells the story of Corrie Ten Boom and her families deep love for the Jewish people in the midst of the Nazi regimen and commitment to save their lives no matter the cost to them. And it truly did cost them, some of them it cost their lives. What a courageous family Corrie comes from! The things she shares about her father have given me parenting tools, the things she shares about loving others challenges me to be more sacrificial in my love and the ways in which her sister Betsie loves her enemies, the very ones doing such atrocious things to them in a Nazi concentration camp, is convicting and makes me want to know the love of Jesus in the way that she did. But it is Corrie that I feel most connected to. Of course the book is from her perspective and I wonder what doubts and fears would be represented if Betsie wrote the book, but still Corrie is a woman who is average on every account and yet wrestles with God in the midst of her questions, takes steps of faith and experiences His power and so grows to know the God who can do beyond what we can imagine when we choose to live for Him. It is incredible story depicting the presence of God in the midst of great suffering. I think in our culture today and especially as I have seen such pain in light of the recent election, this book will bring powerful insight into what it looks like to love the oppressed sacrificially as well as to love, forgive and pray for your enemies.
At some point in your life, this book is a MUST read. And it’s a book I try to read every year. Whether you are going through suffering, wrestling with where God is in the midst of painful circumstances or just feel quite ordinary, and wonder can God really use ME? This book reveals an extraordinary God who takes the ordinary and transforms them, showing up in the most unlikely of places to create joy and peace and hope in the midst of the most hopeless of circumstances.
Purchase “The Hiding Place” at this link
Let Us Pray by Watchman Nee
“Prayer is the most wonderful act in the spiritual realm as well as a most mysterious affair” -Nee
Is prayer mysterious to you? Do you wonder how to pray and what to pray and what is prayer really doing? Are you constantly looking at your prayer life and thinking it dismal at best (like me)? This book is sure to reignite a passion to pray and give you some practical guides to prayer. I was astonished at both its depth and its simplicity and want to read this book again more thoroughly as I take in what Nee has learned of prayer. Watchman Nee was a Church Leader in China in the 20th century and this man truly knew how to pray. I would HIGHLY recommend this book. It is also quite short which is always a greater motivation to read in my opinion. This book will be on my yearly read list!
Purchase “Let us Pray” at this link
God’s Love in my Heart by Thomas Nelson
I read this book to Jaden earlier last month for the first time. I think we’d had it for awhile but for some reason I don’t remember ever having read it to him. I’ve noticed that often children’s books about God reveal His character to me in a fresh way that my soul so needs. This book goes through what God’s love in our hearts does, and I couldn’t help but shed a few tears in the descriptions as I thought of what His love has done in my heart over the last few years. This is a wonderful book to teach a child (and yourself) what the power of God’s love can do in our lives when we trust Him.
Purchase “God’s Love in my Heart” at this link
FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY
I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving away the things I’m learning, the resources and books that have greatly impacted my life and I love gaining new resources and tools from others of things that have impacted YOUR life. So, if you’d like to win one of the above books, comment below in the comment section with a book you think is a MUST READ. I’ll randomly pick a winner on Monday and let you choose which book of my 3 this month that you’d like!
On another note Part 2 of our Journey to Jaden will appear next week, not this week as staying up till 3am election night did not jive with writing and taking care of a little baby who didn’t think to sleep in that morning. How do you catch up on sleep with a baby??? Also, Dasah’s 2nd birthday is Sunday so I’ve been giving myself some grief space this week. Thoughts on her birthday later, but missing her deeply and can’t believe it’s been 2 years already! You can pray that day will be sweet and we will just enjoy celebrating her life!
- A Time to be Silent and a Time to Speak - October 29, 2020
- Teaching Them to Hope, Birthday After Birthday. - January 15, 2020
- A Taste of Hope Fulfilled – Briella Dawn’s Birth Story - August 3, 2018
