Gift of the Red Bird

"Gift of the Red Bird" by Paula D'Arcy

This book was amazing!  It got handed to me by a friend and was a pure God thing.  I could have written it.  My mouth kept hanging open as I read it in disbelief that it could be so perfect at a time I so needed to read it.  It is the authors story of loss and spiritual renewal.  It is her story of a divine encounter.  It is a story of finding God in the world around us, taking the time to find Him.  "But all of our stories, as spiritual journeys, matter.  We affect one another.  We are all reflections of a great Mystery."  "A God so personal and loving that He is in this pit with me."  We are not alone, not ever.  "She is mine to hold, but not to possess.  It makes all the difference.  You treat a gift differently than you do a possession."  She says this about her daughter.  Our children are gifts and we should treat them as such.  "To be out from under the pressure of trying to be so many things that I can't remember what it means to just be myself.  Some sane part of me reasons that you can't know anyone without spending time with that person.  So doesn't that go for me, too?  How can I know myself if I am constantly busy and never alone?"  We are all so busy and in that I think we loose ourselves.  "I consider that fact that God might have created me with special purpose.  Maybe I need to think about what I am here on earth to do.  But to find that I need to be able to recognize my own preferences and my own needs.  That's the hard part.  I am so programed to respond to others, I don't know me at all."  Hello, any moms out there feeling like this is so profound?  That hit me like a ton of bricks!  Now I'm not saying go out and leave your kids behind, our place is in the home serving our kids and husbands but we can't forget that He made us special and we have gifts beyond our home.  "I couldn't help but think what a gift it must be to know so truly the purpose for which you exist."  "Except that God is found in abandonment, and not in fear."  We all live in some sort of fear and that is not what God has for us.  He finds us when we are willing to let go, fear and all.  "How can our lives become so full that God calls, and we do not even hear?  How can we miss that we are in the presence of extravagant Love?"  This book is so, so good.  It is a very short book, an easy read but gets you thinking.  If you are struggling with who you are or where God is, read this book.

Forever Faithful

"Forever Faithful-The Complete Trilogy" by Karen Kingsbury

If you have been a follower of this blog you know that I enjoy Karen Kingsbury's books a lot.  This trilogy is a good one although with three books in one it is a rather large and heavy book totalling 1122 pages.  The first book, Waiting for Morning, is about a family torn apart when the husband and oldest daughter are killed by a drunk driver.  The wife seeks revenge and all that she can see is her hate.  The remaining daughter wishes that she had died in the accident and loses her will to live.  It is a story of struggle and how when tragedy happens God sometimes gets blamed.  But hope is found in the end when prayers are answered and forgiveness is given.  The second book, A Moment of Weakness, is about a couple making a fateful decision that changes the course of their lives.  It tells how sin can lead us down a path we never saw coming and how it affects so many people.  The book is also about our forgiving God and how He can turn beauty from ashes.  The third book, Halfway to Forever, brings the first two books together.  All the characters and in the final book.  Both couples have survived much but tragedy strikes again.  How will they all respond this time around?  Why is God doing this when they have already endured so much?  This book tells how glorious God is and how He has plans for good for all His children.  All three books were great reads and as always Karen uses very real life situations and emotions and shows how God is in it all.

Cutting For Stone

"Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese

This is a good book, long, slow to start, some hard words but worth the read.  I love a book that keeps me reading and that doesn't quite fit with how I think it should go or end for that matter.  This is an ending you will never see coming.  This book is about twin brothers that were born in Ethiopia and left orphaned by their mother's death and their father's disappearance.  The story involves, medicine, poverty, death, revolution, love, betrayal and miracles.  "The greatest sin is not finding it, ignoring what God made possible in you."  We all have special gifts and when we don't use them, I think, everyone misses out.  We are called to use our gifts for His glory, and what wonderful things can happen due to those gifts and Him using us.  "We are all fixing what is broken.  It is the task of a lifetime."  "God will judge us by what we did to relieve the suffering of our fellow human beings.  I don't think God cares what doctrine we embrace."  I love that statement.  Sometimes I think doctrines are the very thing that separates us instead of helping those in need to bring us together.  "All sons should write down every word of that their fathers have to say to them.  I tried.  Why did it take an illness for me to recognize the value of time with him?  It seems we humans never learn."  Value the people in your life that you have been given, you don't know how long you will have them.  "A mother loves her children equally...but sometimes one child needs more help, more attention, to get by in the world."  This was such a poignant book, I highly recommend it.

A Time To Embrace

                                            "A Time To Embrace" by Karen Kingsbury

This is the sequel to A Time To Dance. After almost getting a divorce, finding their way back to each other, tragedy strikes. Can the couple who have already been through so much survive the biggest blow to their marriage yet? "The girls you're looking at belong to someone, too. They're someones sister, someones daughter. Someones mother, in many cases. Someones future wife. Why is it okay to treat them that way? That's the first lie; that a woman is merely a body." In the book the son is dealing with some pornography issues. The dad confronts his son and I love what is said. Those woman belong to someone and we are so much more than our bodies. "Because we forgot about being intimate. We stopped talking and sharing our hearts with each other. We let life and busy schedules rule our relationship, and because of that we almost walked away from a love that, other than God's, is greater than any I know." How easy it is to let life get too busy and take us away from the things and people that really matter. "It was crucial that she see the truth-that any marriage could be saved so long as both people were willing to hear God's voice above their own." Key: hearing God's voice above our own. Oh how hard that is sometimes. We are such selfish beings. We have a right to be mad, we have a right to feel what we feel, we have a right to do what we want. Soon we are hearing so much of our own voice God's is drowned out. "Sometimes love makes a mistake. Even a series of mistakes. When I married John, I promised to love him in good times and bad. No matter what happened." When bad happens we forget those vows and we forget often that if the roles were reversed we would want our spouse to love us through those bad times. It isn't easy, never is, but with God it is possible. "Pride. It's why Adam and Eve took the apple-because they thought they were smarter than God. They wanted to be like God. And it's why good couples start going in different directions and wind up believing divorce is the only solution. When really, the only solution is to grab tight to each other, forgive, and go on."

A Time To Dance

"A Time To Dance" by Karen Kingsbury

Another great one by Karen Kingsbury.  She never disappoints as far as I'm concerned.  This book is about a marriage on the brink of divorce.  The happy, Godly, have-it-all couple is falling apart and no one knows it, not even their three children.  Their lives became hectic, they each did their own thing and before they knew it they were strangers sleeping in separate rooms with not a thing in common.  "It can never be better to divorce, Abby.  Never.  That's a lie from the pit of hell; mark my words."  I think it is the grass is greener in the other pasture kind of mentality and sometimes we don't know what we have till its gone.  It divorce is from the pit of hell, Satan's way of breaking apart what God destined for forever.  "There will always be naysayers, son.  The key is to listen to God's calling.  If you're doing that, then everyone else's opinion amounts to little more than hot air."  Oh if we could only all take this to heart.  What matter is the Voice of Truth, be still and listen.  "Maybe that's why God asked couples to wait.  So they could learn to love each other.  Because over the years it would take that kind of love to make their relationship a beautiful thing."  It takes more than physical love to make it through life's trials and learning to love like that is priceless and long lasting.  "She was losing this-her family's ability to grieve together, to suffer life's dark and desperate times under the strength of her husband.  In a few months she would be on her own, forced to shoulder every major setback and milestone by herself."  Oh the strength of a family.  I do not know how I would have gotten through some things without my husband and girls.  God intends for this community to not be broken, to not be alone through trials.  "I don't care if it kills me; I want to love you like an eagle loves his mate.  Like the Lord wants me to love you.  Holding on until death makes me finally let go." "Fight for your marriages friends.  Pray for wisdom and Godly counsel; seek God and find a way back to the place where love began, a place where love can begin again."  Such a good book with such good truths.  It truly is never too late.

Unfinished Love

"Unfinished Love" by Sherry Tucker

I'm sure you have figured out that I am a sucker for tragedies.  I love the sadness and the triumph, just can't get enough.  So when I saw this book in the discount section at the Bible book store, it was mine.  It is a true story of a 7 year old boy who is diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.  The book talks about his struggle and how his family deals with this drastic turn in their lives.  This was such a beautiful book.  It is amazing what a little 7 year old can endure and with such grace.  It is also amazing the strength and hope you can have in the face of such a trial when you have Jesus.  "Ushering him into God's arms would be my last gift I could give him."  The mother of this child had such a privilege to be able to hold her child as he entered the arms of Jesus.  "Parents, please use these lessons and remember that all children are true gifts from God.  God has blessed us with the chance to mold and teach these precious souls while they are here with us.  Do not waste this chance.  Help to make them all that they can be by living your life with purpose and guiding them to do the same.  Cherish each and every moment-bad and good.  There is a reason for them all!"  Life, a gift we so often take for granted.  When I was reading this book I was grumpy about some situations in my life and just feeling discontent.  As I was reading the author was talking about how she wishes she could have just one more ordinary day, a day without the word cancer, without sickness, without doctors and needles.  I began to be thankful, thankful for the ordinary days I was living with two very healthy beautiful girls.  Thankful that I could stay home and teach and take care of them.  So thankful for the mundane.  It is truly all about perspective.

One True Love

"One True Love" by Barbara Freethy

Here is another freebie on my Kindle.  It was a good one, not too bad for free.  Warning though, it did have some sexual content.  It is about a woman named Lisa who gets a frantic call from her best friend that she needs her to come watch her kids for the weekend.  Lisa then finds herself face to face with her ex-husband, her past and her present collide.  It is a story of how love wins and overcomes.  This was a feel good book.  "You're not failing.  You're just being human."  So often we feel like failures but isn't good to know that we are just human like everyone else?  "Don't you get it, Lisa?  I love you no matter who your father is, no matter what your mother does, and no matter what you do.  I'm never going to leave you.  So you better get used to having me around for the next fifty years.  You and I-we're bound for life."  Oh how we need this kind of commitment in our world today.  "I know now that I took everything out on you.  I didn't know how to deal with my emotions, my anger.  I wanted to break something, to hit someone, and you were the closest one."  Why do we always hurt the ones we love, because they are the closest.  "Because you don't believe does not make it false."  So true, so true.  "Because in order to survive, you had to leave, you had to forget.  The only way I could survive was to face the memories head-on every day, to think about her, to remember her.  Otherwise, I felt like she would have died for nothing."  Grief takes many forms and we all have to deal with it differently.  It's hard not to judge when others deal with it differently than we do.  "She realized that when she turned her back on her life with him, she'd locked away not just the bad memories but the good ones as well."  "That's the hardest part about being a parent, accepting that you can't protect your children from getting hurt.  You can take all the precautions in the world and worry yourself like crazy, but each individual comes to this world with a life to live, no matter how long or how good or how scary it might be.  We give out children life, but sometimes we forget that they're the ones who actually have to live that life."