Steph’s Picks
For more recent reads, check out my hashtag #stephheartsbooks on my Instagram page.
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For more recent reads, check out my hashtag #stephheartsbooks on my Instagram page.
A quick glance at what I'm reading... The Bible, Hinds Feet on High Places, Dance Stand Run, Freedom Session and Longing for Home
Have you ever experienced hanger—irritability as a result of hunger? The physical and emotional emptiness leaves us vulnerable to reach for the quick fix— chips, crackers, fries, or cookies. They offer temporary satisfaction at best, and a junk food hangover at worst, and over time, this pattern —anything to quickly satisfy this craving, would compromise physical health.
But as I’m sure you know, a quick fix never satisfies the way a nourishing meal does.
I grew up thinking that God’s design for sex and relationships could be summarized in a few do’s and don’ts. As long as I saved sex for marriage, I could check the box of keeping His way.
Summer is a fantastic time for reading! I love cracking open a good back at a quiet campsite, in the hammock, or on my back deck. (Of course, assuming that small people are sleeping!)
My thoughts on The Undoing of Saint Silvanus, Among Wolves and The Curious Christian
At our latest installment of Supper Club, us ladies sat around the table laughing, talking and sharing life. This once-a-month gathering is one of those times you want to slow time down and savor it. We marveled at how much childhood has changed from when we were kids until now over Korean barbeque and coffee. We discussed how our mothers had only the temptation to keep with the Jones' (if they were in fact next door) rather than hundreds of Jones' on newsfeeds. We laughed about how we've all seen pictures of our Facebook friend with clean and perfectly coifed hair with smiling children on her third outing of the week, while we feel worse about sitting at home still in pajamas with unbrushed teeth and no plans, and it's not Saturday. C.S. Lewis said, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What? You too? I thought I was the only one."
Are you still there?
Have you ever felt a little offended when Netflix asked you this? Of course I'm still here. Are you implying I shouldn't still be here? Are you suggesting I should be doing something more productive with my life? I was extremely busy finishing the entire series of Gilmore Girls in only a couple of short months.
In her new book, Nothing to Prove, Jennie Allen (one of my new favourites and founder of IF Gathering), describes my Netflix phenomena as numbing out.
Perhaps like me, you communicate in attempt to connect with and correct people, or change circumstances you most desire. But often these attemps fall flat.
What if we took our words to vertical conversation, before we went horizontal? What if we talked to God before we talked to others? What if we allowed Him to filter our emotions, fears, feelings and responses through His truth before uttering a word?
Because here's the thing: Talking gets it out, but prayer gets it done.
We used to sing this simple song in church. Perhaps you remember it?
Brokenness, brokenness, is what I long for. Brokenness is what I need. Brokenness, brokenness, is what you want for me, O Lord, O Lord. So take my heart and form it, take my mind transform it, take my willl conform it, to yours, to yours, O Lord.
I say 'used to' only because I can't remember the last time I heard it sung. Broken isn't the bullseye the world tells us to aim for.
Perhaps that is our problem.
The authors graciously guide readers through many tensions that we have tried to simplify to either/or when they’re really both/and. Tensions like fear and faith, temporary and eternal, the details and the big picture, the infinite and the finite, God’s trustworthiness and our present difficulties, and how everything and nothing simultaneously matter.
"Sometimes it takes everything moving to notice the thing that doesn't move. Sometimes it takes telling two very different stories to notice how the Truth was exactly the same in both of them."
Any book has the potential to be a good book. But a powerful book, one that has you highlighting and talking incessantly about, is one that is well-timed.
Do you love getting wrapped up in a good book?
I always have! Shortly after I had my second baby, I realized that it had been quite some time (possibly a few years) since I had picked up a good book. I set a very un-SMART New Year's Resolution to "read more books" in 2014. I started using my fringe hours more purposefully...
To celebrate the kick off of "She Reads Book," I want to give you.... a BOOK! Which book you may ask? Any Christian book you've been dying to read that I can order on Amazon Prime for $25 or less!
It’s embarrassingly easy to point the finger in marriage and come up with a long list of ways your spouse isn’t meeting your expectations or measuring up. But have you ever flipped the question and asked yourself and God, Am I loving well? Am I loving like Christ has loved me?