Together. Clumsily. Humbly.
Becoming a Reader—Kind of
I am a bit of a self loathing book lover. The majority of my reading up until this point was done kicking and screaming, almost with the sole intention of outward appearance. I read so people would see me a certain way, smart, educated, cultured, etc. What I should have used as a tool for growth, I made into a vessel for people pleasing—a particular vice for me. Then, in a completely unassuming sort of way, I actually became a reader of sorts. Here, you will not find hundreds of books with lengthy, penetrating reviews. Rather, you will find what a book has meant to me—an ordinary mom trying to make sense of her own world and the world around her. And maybe, it'll encourage you to pick up one of these reads so you can see for yourself what all my fuss is about! Some books are particularly meaningful to me, and those will get their own blog post for more personal reflection, but for now, enjoy my read for this month!
The Gospel Comes with a Housekey:
Rosaria Butterfield
October 2019
I listened to this as an audio book which was really special because it's read by the author. I love being able to hear an author's voice, humor, and in this book even singing! This review may someday become its own blog post because to say that this book changed my family, is not even an understatement. My family's wanderings to adoption are a direct result of God's grace, lots of prayer, and the work of the spirit through this book. Dan and I moved to Albuquerque and while reading we began to ask ourselves what kind of neighbors we wanted to be. We asked if we were completely neglecting God's call to love our physical neighbors, and mostly the answer was yes. We began to ask ourselves what we had been willing to give up for the telling of the good news to hard people. We asked ourselves if we had idolized the safety of the walls in our home, and used them to keep our family "in." Instead of using it to take the good news OUT. These were hard questions. And through them we prayed lots of repentance and decided no more for us. No more of using safety as an excuse. No more of pretending like our kids were china cups to be kept in the cupboard. We decided that even if it meant that our physical home, and our kids had to count the cost of the Gospel—we would do it. And then we filled out our adoption packet to adopt through foster care. We learned through the pages that it's okay to just do what we can, where we are, with what we have. But we learned even more that we can almost always do more than we think we're capable of—and in those moments, God will never let our efforts go to waste.
Also, it's available on hoopla! So have a free listen, and then tell me what you thought!
“Our homes are not our castles. Indeed, they are not even ours.”