And Then Came the Angels

"And Then Came the Angels" by Beth Gayle

If you haven't noticed, I love an inspiring book, a book with tragedy turned to triumph.  This is such a story.  The author is the mother of a young man who was shot in the head with a shotgun in a hunting accident.  This book tells the long and hard journey of recovery and the faith it took to get through.  It is an amazing story of strength and God's divine hand of healing.  I appreciated the mothers honesty of the emotions that she experienced and how she clung to Jesus in her desperate times.  An amazing recovery happened that was nothing short of a miracle.  Gip, the son, overcame huge hurdles, pushed through great struggles and had the faith to move mountains.  If you need an inspiring book to read or need to be reminded that prayer works, read this book.  

Special Heart

"Special Heart" by Bret Baier

The author Bret Baier is a big time Fox News correspondent and had a thriving carrer when his first son was born with multiple heart defects.  Bret realized what really mattered in life was family, love and faith.  His son underwent three life saving surgeries and Bret's faith was challenged.  This book is full of love for his son and all the strength it takes to believe all is going to turn out the way God has planned. "Like it or not, this was exactly what God had given us to deal with, so we were on the job."  When we find ourselves in circumstances we can't change instead of fighting it we need to rest in the fact that God is in the struggle with us.  "...and one day we'll look at the scar on his chest and consider it the most beautiful thing in the world."  All of our scars, physical of emotional, are beautiful, they make us who we are, they have made us stronger and they remind us that God has brought us through.  Celebrate those scars, they are beautiful.

The Waiting

"The Waiting" by Cathy LaGrow with Cindy Coloma

This book is so good.  It is a must read.  It is an incredible story of a teenager who becomes pregnant due to being raped.  A teenager whose parents decide that the baby needs to be given up for adoption.  As the years pass that teenager, Minka, longs for her baby, never forgetting the few days they had together.  Minka feels like she has lost a part of herself and never stops praying for her baby girl.  When Minka is in her 90's an amazing gift is given to her, a miacle that she never gave up hoping for, she is reunited with her daughter.  This is such an inspiring and incredible story.  A story of never giving up hope.  An amazing story of redemption and the power of faith and love.  I highly reccomend it.  "She'd left her true home behind, in an upstairs room, in a bassinet, in the soft bundle she'd never hold again."  As the saying goes, home is where our heart is, and Minka's heart was with her child.  "They were children, after all, and children had to be encouraged toward good character-it didn't come without guidance."  Goodness isn't just in us, we have to be guided and encouraged to goodness.  "Minka had missed every second of it but she had waited, she had waited forever and she had kept her promise, she had never forgotten-and now, impossibly, her Betty Jane had been given back to her."  Never give up, never, ever give up on what the Lord can do.  "'The power of God...' Minka said, thinking of the decades of prayer that had led to this very moment."  She was so faithful, I am inspired by her faith.  "How could she understand it then-that one of her greatest blessings would come only through her greatest wound?  In her own life, the Lord had taken first.  And then, a lifetime later, the Lord had given back.  Blessed is the name of the Lord."   It is amazing how God turns our hurts into blessings.  He is faithful and always has a good plan.  It is so hard to see when we are in the midst of the pain but He turns our ashes into something beautiful.  

Everybody's Got Something

"Everybody's Got Something" by Robin Roberts

This was such an inspirational story.  Robin is a very upbeat, positive thinker.  We can all learn a lesson from her about how to face challenges in our lives.  Robin was diagnosed with breast cancer and then a few years later was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder that she needed a bone marrow transplant for.  She is an anchor on Good Morning America and a very well known TV personality.  She faced these health battles publicly and many rallied for her.  She credits her family, friends, and faith for bringing her through.  "Make your mess your message."  I really like that, it means whatever you are going through use it to be your message.  Use your trial for good.  Robin really exempified this by talking about bone marrow donors and showing peopel what it is like to go through cancer and survive.  What is the point of going through hard things if you can't use it for good?  That is how good God is, He always turns the bad for our good.  "When you are down and you don't know how to pick yourself up, start where you are."  It just takes one step, and the first is always the hardest.  "Why is my something any worse or more significant than anyone elses?  It's not.  It's just not."  We all have hard things and mine isn't any worse than someones elses.  We need to have compassion for all that are going through something, it's all hard.  "Why not be the one to start the kind of family you've always wanted to be part of?"  Robin has an amazing support system in her family.  She had strong bonds with her two older sister and brother.  Not all of us come from great families but we can all be the ones to start what we desire a family to be.  Dare to begin the cycle of building that loving family.  Look to others who have those bonds for guidance.  "Focus on the fight, not the fright."  It is so easy when we are going through a trial to focus on the bad and how scared we are but that will not get us anywhere except more scared and frustrated.  Focus on the good, what you can do and the scary will become less.  "Life provides losses and heartbreak for all of us-but the greatest tragedy is to have the experience and miss the meaning."  Every trial has a lesson, don't miss it or you may get to redo the trial.  "What a gift it is to have friends who really know you.  What a gift you give someone when you listen with your whole head and your whole heart."  It really is a priceless gift.  Be that gift to others.  "I've often said when fear knocks, let faith answer the door.  Sometimes when fear knocks, faith shows itself through a friend who stands by the door, squeezes your hand and answers it with you."

Almost Heaven

"Almost Heaven" by Chris Fabry

Great author, great book.  This book took me a little to get into and I didn't think at first is was going to be as great as his other two but towards the middle I changed my mind.  The way this book was written with first person story telling and also a view from an angel was unique and entertaining.  It seemed to me a little confusing at first but once I figured out the characters it began to flow.  Billy is a bit odd but has an amazing heart for his God.  He is destined for great things but bad always seems to get in the way.  He is a genius when it comes to fixing things and plays the mandolin like nobody else.  Malachi is an angel that is watching over Billy and has his work cut out for him.  But despite the trials Billy never wavers from his faith and because of that God will use him to touch the hearts of many.  "God has seemed massively indifferent to my devotion, if he has even heard my cries."  Oh boy, have I felt like this at times.  Crying out to God over and over and wondering why He isn't doing anything.  "Sometimes, when you know the right thing to do, you simply have to do it, even though it breaks your heart."  I've had to do this numorous times in my life, it's never easy.  "...the struggle of our lives was not a sign that we were failing or losing.  The struggle was a sign that there was still life.  If you stopped struggling, that's when you needed to be worried.  The fight meant God was helping you keep going one more day even if you did't think you could make it."  I read this book when there was a struggle in my life and this spoke to me.  I tell you I know that God gave me this book at just the time I needed it, it wasn't just happenstance.  God is there in the struggle, He hasn't left you.  "For the human followers, it is in losing that they finally discover.  It is in failing that they see.  It is in the abandonment of the trail they believed would lead them to lasting joy that they set out on a new path.  It is much narrower and overgrown, but in the journey through this wilderness of the soul, they discover more about themselves and Him than if every prayer of their wayward hearts had been answered in the affirmative."  Such good words.  We have to let go of the path we thought our lives would take, stop fighting against the struggles and hold on to the One who will deepen our faith and make us more like Him and bring us into glory.  "Some of you may be shaking this morning...from a lack of knowing God loves you and has some kind of plan in the middle of what you call a life.  It can get cloudy and misty at times, so thick you aren't able to see much of the field he has planted you in.  and if that's where you are, I'm here to tell you that you're in a good place.  It probably doesn't feel that way.  But God has you right where you need to be.  Because it's not where you're strong that he will use you; it's where you're weak."  I needed this when I read it and it speaks profoundly to me.  When we are in the midst of a trial it often feels like we have been abandoned by God.  It has helped me to remember and speak truths about who my God is.  He is good and He is love so even in my trials He is good and He is love.  I am strongest when I am weak because that is when He can work the most in me.  "But then there are people like me, who think they are doing exactly what God wants them to do, and they plow through everything that is thrown at them and in the end they're nowhere closer to God than when they started."  It's so hard to keep the path, to keep plowing through the muck and mire but don't give up, God's got a plan even when it is so hard.  "Music has a way of filling in the missing places. It is a gift from God above, who didn't have to provide it, but he did anyway and I half think he decided life just wouldn't be as good without it."  I agree, music lifts my soul and can bring me encouragement and peace.  "When trouble comes, where does help come from?  It comes from The Lord who made heaven and earch.  He is the one who keeps me.  he's the one who won't let my foot slip.  He doesn't nod off during the troubles of my life.  If he really does care, he already knew this was going to happen and had prepared an angel to protect us."  I found such peace in this, such truth.  God already knows all that is going to happen to me and he will protect me, I need not be afraid.  "Success, sometimes, is just loving somebody with a love that doesn't come back the way you want it."  This book spoke to me so profoundly when I was going through a hard trial.  It changed my perspectives on the trials in my life.  There was no mistake I was supossed to read this book at this time in my life.  If you are going through something hard I recommend reading this book.  Hopefully it will bring the encouragement you need to keep walking that path that God has for you no matter the hardship.  God loves you and hasn't forsaken you.

Taylor's Gift

"Taylor's Gift" by Todd and Tara Storch with Jennifer Schuchmann

This book tells an amazing and heart wrenching story.  A 13 year old girl was killed in a skiing accident and her family is devestated.  They decide to donate their daughters organs and hope blossoms out of the despair.  It is a tragic story that will take your breath away.  The first chapter had me in tears and overwhelmed me so much that I had to put it down for a while.  But when I finished I went to my computer and looked up anything I could find on this story and watched numerous interviews of the parents.  This story is one of God's amazing hope and how He never fails to be with us, heal our brokenness and turn what was meant to harm us into good.  "I cried for us, for them, and for the fallen world we lived in that let things like this happen."  That's truly it, our heart and soul cry out when bad happens as we know that we were not meant for this world.  "...if you deny people the opportunity to help, you're taking away their blessing.  You're taking away a gift they want to give you."  We think we can do it ourselves or we don't want to burden others but we were designed to help others, we are the body of Christ.  Being able to help those in need is what we are called to do and it blesses us.  "Grieving people are hard to be around.  Grief can get ugly.  It's messy.  Some people don't want any part of it.  Others choose to get involved.  They enter your story without concern as to the sacrifices they'll have to make to love you."  Grieving is such a hard process and we often don't think people are doing it right because it looks so different to everyone.  Being willing to step in and love someone through the messiness is a gift.  "You're going to have to crack before you can find your gold."  Hardship and loss refine us and can make us shine if we choose.  We don't know what we are made up and where are faith really lies until we have gone through the fire.  This family found the only way to make it through this tragedy was to hang on to their rock, God.  He pulled them through and showed them beauty from ashes.  

Long Time Coming

"Long Time Coming" by Vanessa Miller

Deidre is a teacher with no children to call her own, her life long dream.  Kenisha has three kids, each with different fathers.  Kenisha has been handed hardship her whole life and being diagnosed with cancer is just one more thing to add to that list.  Both woman feel abandoned by a God they thought they knew.   When their paths cross neither could have known what God was up to.  "Deidre had certainly learned that some of life's journeys were simply too great for her, and she needed to lean on the Lord to get through them."  I've been there, life can hand out some doozies and the only way to muster the strength to keep on is with the Lord by my side.  "I do believe that God answers prayers.  Whether He answers mine or not does not change the fact that God is good and that He is well able to do anything we need Him to do."  This is a truth that I am learning.  He does answer every prayer, just not how or when we want, but He does answer.  And His answers are always the best answers even when I had other plans.  I enjoyed this book as a quick read full of God's grace and surprises.  It was a book I just randomly picked up at the library.  

Traveling Mercies

"Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lamott

This is about the author, Anne, and how she came to have faith.  It is quirky, and colorful and not at all righteous.  Each of our journeys are different, each are our own.  "I guess it's like discovering you're on the shelf of a pawnshop, dusty and forgotten and maybe not worth very much.  But Jesus comes in and tells the pawnbroker, 'I'll take her place on the shelf.  Let her go outside again.'"  Sometimes we feel like we aren't worth very much but Jesus says we are each worth a Son.  "And that is why I have stayed so close to mine-because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home."  This is what it shoudl be like, I just don't think it always is.  But this is what God meant, for the body of Christ to be this to one another.  "We in our faith work stumble along toward where we think we're supposed to go, bumbling along, and here is what's so amazing-we end up getting exactly where we're supposed to be."  Thanks to the hand of God directing our paths.  "I always thought that was heroic of her, that it spoke of such integrity to refuse to pretend that you're doing well just to help other poeple deal with the fact that sometimes we face an impossible loss."  Refusing to pretend takes such courage especially when others around you want and need you to be ok.  "She said that the world sometimes feels like the waiting room of the emergency ward and that we who are more or less OK for now need to take the tenderest possible care of the more wounded people in the waiting room until the healer comes."  I love this word picture.  "...in which he said that he's so savoring the moments of his life right now, so acutely aware of the love and small pleasures that he no longer feels that he has a life-threatening desease: he now says he's leading a disease-threatening life."  What a change of perspective.  "But courage is fear that has said its prayers."  We can all then be courageous, all it takes is some prayer.  "And then I remembered this basic principle that God isn't there to take away our suffering or our pain but to fill it with His presence."  He doesn't promise an easy life free of hurt or pain but He does promise to be there in the midst.  "When you make friends with fear; it can't rule you."  I'm not sure how to do that but I'm willing.  This was a interesting little read with lots of good tidbits.  It was quirky, fun and enlightening.

Coming Home

"Coming Home" by Karen Kingsbury

This is the last book in the Baxter series.  And it was such a sad book.  I am a tragedy junkie but this one had me in tears and I think I'm good with tragedies for at least three months now.  But the book was oh so good.  Karen does such a good job of interweaving faith in her books.  Not just faith we speak but real faith, faith played out in the midst of tragedy.  The whole Baxter family is getting together for their dads 70th birthday.  But before they can celebrate tragedy strikes.  It will take all their faith and prayers to get them through the darkness.  Will their love be stronger than their heartache?  Will they be able to remember God's promises?  I'm tearing up just writing this.  So forewarning, you will cry, you might even have to put down the book for a breather.  But it is worth it.  Karen did good.  She ended the Baxter family well.  "Love between two hearts, two souls was never the same from one person to the next."  Love looks different between all of us.  God designed us all different so our love looks different.  Read this book, it will give you faith.  If you are in the middle of a trial, of your own dark time, this book will bring hope and renew your faith.

Ella A Life Unaborted

"Ella A Life Unaborted"

I was given this book by my friend and the author is her friend. It is an unbelievable story about a little girl who's life is nothing other than a complete miracle. The authors water broke at 18 weeks and Ella was born at 29 weeks. No doctor thought she would make it but God told Jennifer, the mother, that He was with her and to have peace. This is an amazing journey of peace in a world of unknowns, where death is at her daughters door trying desperately to get in. You won't soon forget this mother and her courage or this little girl and God's hand on her life. This story renewed my faith in a God of miracles, a God who cares and hears our every prayer, a God who works all for good. "I have said ever since I was a kid that if God hasn't taken us right up to heaven after we're saved, there must be a reason that He has us on this earth; I believe it's so that we can lead others to Him. That is the one and only reason I can logically think of that God would leave us here in this harsh world and not take us up to be in His awesome presence." And this is what the author lives by, through her trials her first thought is how can I use this to show others Christ. Read this book and be encouraged.

Like Dandelion Dust

"Like Dandelion Dust" by Karen Kingsbury

I am reading more and more of this authors books, thanks to my parents, and continue to like her. Many of her books, this one included, have been made into movies. This book is about a boy who is caught in a custody battle. He was adopted as an infant and is now 4. His biological dad just got out of prison and found out he had a son and wants him. His adopted parents will do anything to keep him, even take him and just disappear. This book makes you think, what would you do if one of your children was to be taken from you? To what lengths would you go to keep them, would you break the law? Running throughout this story is a lesson in faith. "I can only believe that we-like children-are in the backseat however long the journey lasts. God is driving, and we must trust that in the end, if we stay with Him, He'll get us safely home." So hard to trust but really it is the only way to go. Jesus is the only one who sees and knows all so why don't I trust Him?

Above The Line Series

"Take One"; "Take Two"; Take Three" and "Take Four" by Karen Kingsbury

I have really enjoyed reading numerous Karen Kingsbury books and I sped through this series. She really has a way of writing about characters that makes you think you know them and she also writes about stories that happen today, they are so relevant. This series is about two men who are filmmakers and decide to make movies that make a difference. In the midst of making this movie they find out that the risk may be too great. What are they willing to sacrifice? How much will they trust? Is this even from God? So many lives are intertwined in this series and you will just want to keep reading till you finish the series. "Ministry of any kind came at a price, and trials were part of the cost." What a poignant statement, ministry does come at a price and few are willing to pay it. "Never enough time to love the way you want to love." I don't want to regret at the end of my life that I didn't love enough. Some days are harder but I want to love with all I've got. "The key to life isn't looking for a safe sameness with every passing season. It's learning to enjoy the ride, whatever the next turn in the road might bring. Believing that God's driving, and He'll get us home safely-however bumpy the trip." I would appreciate a less bumpy ride but I do have to trust God knows what He is doing, no matter how bumpy. "Their deaths had come too early, but the number of days in their lives hadn't mattered nearly as much as the life in their days." There have been a few deaths in my life this last year but I will remember the life in their days more than anything. "People had a way of ruining God for those who really needed Him. But that wasn't God's fault." Lots of people turn away from God because of what another believer said or did. No of us want to be stumbling blocks, but all of us stumble. I pray that others will see Jesus despite my stumbling.

Stumbling Toward Faith

"Stumbling Toward Faith" by Renee Altson

I stumbled upon this book and I don't really know what I think of it. It is a short book that I read in one night. The author was severely abused when she was young by her father (done in the name of God) after her mother abandoned them. The book is about her journey back toward faith. I appreciate the honesty in this book and Renee's freedom to question the God who created her. I don't agree with everything she believes but she does have some profound things to say. I am also in awe of a God who can bring light to so much evil. "All that they offered me, the love and kindness and friendship, was only the beginning of my becoming whole. It was only a birth to my healing, not the completion of it. If I had gone with them, I would never have really found myself, never really found the wounded broken part of me. I would have simply used someone else to cover who I had been. I would have let them recreate me into who I had always wanted to believe I was rather than do the hard work of changing who I had always been. I would never have truly healed." How easy it is for us to be what others want us to be and how hard to change, to the core, who we are. To truly heal from yucky things we have to go back there, it isn't fun, it isn't pretty, but it is the only way to truly heal. "God doesn't always provide when we think he should, and sometimes, his provision looks nothing like what we expect it to. God may not give more than we can handle, but it doesn't mean that we don't hurt under the weight of what he has already given us. God might provide a way of escape, but it might begin past the path of grief or sorrow or betrayal." Wow, I love the honesty in that quote. So many people just give pat answers when others are hurting and forget the hurt the person is feeling. "Can I trust a God who lets me live with an "I don't know' and expects that it is enough?" "My healing has only begun to happen when I have been honest with the pain that I have lived. Rather than simply putting it behind me, I am finding that I have to befriend it. Rather than choosing to forget what happened, I am finding that I must choose to remember." So powerful, so very true, it takes my breath away. When we choose to forget it just manifests itself in other areas of our life. To truly heal we have to confront that pain and see how it has changed us, made us who we are today, good and bad. "I am where I am, and God is bigger than me. God is bigger than any person, than any definition from any person. Bigger than any person's cruelty or kindness. I am learning to reach more toward God with every breath, and in that reaching, and perhaps even through that reaching, I become more able to believe."