The Call to Wonder - Book Review

This is an amazing book for those of us who have lost at least some of our childlike wonder and trust. I wasn't quite sure how much it would help me, because I already marvel at God's creation. But there is so much more to it than that! And I still take God's creation for granted sometimes and focus on the downsides of things. From topics on humility, joy, and drawing near to God, there are so many things to learn from this book! One of the big things for me was the reminder that God is a loving Father to His children. Obvious point, but for some reason my mind tends to stay on the judging, angry side of God, when He placed the punishment for sin on His Son. We are still called to maturity and holiness, of course, but we should love and seek those because we love God.

The story Dr. R. C. Sproul Jr. told of his daughter, "Princess Happy" just blew me out of the water, too. She and others like her are a gift, not a burden, and they are our spiritual betters in many ways! They know how to trust, to enjoy, and to please.

Even if I didn't agree with every little point of the book, it still deserves a definite 5 stars.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

“There's this thing that I like to call the RC Sproul principle of hermeneutics.
When you're reading the Bible and you come across someone doing something really stupid, don't say to yourself "I'm glad I'm not him." Ask yourself "How am I that stupid?”

"Daily I witness my spiritual betters in my own children. When the snows come, I see ice crystals falling, slick roads, and rising heat bills. They sit at the window in awe of God's creativity. When nighttime falls and the stars shine, I muse about burning balls of hydrogen. They join the dancing of the spheres in celebration of God who made them. When our family sits down to eat, I envision a cluttered kitchen and dishes needing to be washed. They see daily bread delivered by their faithful heavenly Father."

"If you should ever be blessed to be far enough from the cacophony of civilization when a heavy snow falls, you can even hear the very music of the iced dew's delicate descent. It is the repainting of a landscape in a thousand hues of white. It is the dance of the wind."

"The trees in the fields clap their hands, not as solemn applause but as giddy frolic. The seas roar, not like a lion but like the crowd at the football game."

"Because we are more adult than actually mature, we tend to take our sins and baptize them, dressing them up as spiritual maturity."

"Perhaps the most shockingly transcendent thing about the God we worship is that He is pleased to stoop down to us, to draw near, to know us, love us, walk with us, and call us all by name."

"The call to delight in our heavenly Father is not one that can be rightly obeyed with bootstrap effort. One cannot grimly determine to rejoice in the grace of God. The only way to rejoice the way David did is to be overcome with emotion. David's joyous dance was true to who he was and true to how he felt about God. It was David becoming like a child, so much so that he insisted on giving in to his willingness, even his eagerness, to become undignified."

"Instead of seeing all of this as God's extraordinary grace, we come to expect the comfort and joys that God gives us as the baseline, the measure of what we believe to be our due. When our comfort level drops below our expectations, we are shocked and angered, and even foolishly express our outrage to God Himself."

Recommended for everyone, especially grown-up Christians, who may have to grow down. :)

Stepping Heavenward - Book Review

Written in 1869, this is a fictional journal of a young woman--her beginning, doubts, disobedience, growth, marriage, difficult in-laws, children, and her older days--and is still pertinent to women today.

It's good to read a book (the second time) in which the main character, at least in the main, listens to and learns from her mother and other older and wiser people. The main character has a lot of flaws, yet she wants to please God, and slowly grows. I can relate to many of her struggles, so I find it interesting and helpful. No perfect books can be found, except the Bible in its original language, but I still think this is a book worthy of five stars, or maybe four and a half.

The author, Elizabeth Prentiss, also penned the famous hymn, "More Love to Thee, O Christ."

 Quotes from the Story:

'Our course heavenward is like the plan of the zealous pilgrim of old, who for every three steps forward, took one backward.'

'The question is not whether you ever gave yourself to God, but whether you are His now.'

'She says I shall now have one mouth the more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music, and drawing.
    Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other. Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which it dwells is worth all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother's heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!' 

'This is the testimony of all the good books, sermons, hymns, and memoirs I read--that God's ways are infinitely perfect; that we are to love Him for what He is and therefore equally as much when He afflicts as when He prospers us; that there is no real happiness but in doing and suffering His will; and that this life is but a scene of probation through which we pass to the real life above.'

'People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy. As if it chanced that some parents have such children or chanced that some have not! I am afraid it is only too true, as someone has remarked, that "this is the age of obedient parents!" What then will be the future of their children? How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority? And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?'

More Links

Here is a free kindle recipe book for Thanksgiving. (There are a lot of free kindle books on amazon, if you happen to have a kindle.)

Here are some excellent articles by my sweet new friend...

Redeeming Your Time

Are Stay-At-Home Daughters Repressed?

The Blessing of Babies

The Baby Conference

ave you ever felt burdened by not knowing how to handle children, or not knowing if you really even wanted any? I have. God has been changing my heart, and this past week only strengthened my resolve to love children, regardless of how hard it may be, how badly I fail, or how foolish I look in the process. And it strengthened and armed me with some ideas on how to enjoy and teach children and encouraged me to trust in God. I also learned other things in regard to the glory and intricacies of God's handiwork in very tiny babies before they are born.

What was this event that brought about these results, by God's grace? The Baby Conference, which was held in San Antonio. Learn more about it here.

There were testimonies of God's amazing grace, there were friends, there was for me a new experience of volunteering, helping usher people in. I don't know that I did it well, but it was helpful to me.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” - Genesis 1:28

I believe this command (similarly repeated in the Bible several times) applies today. As my brother pointed out, the earth is far from full, yet.

There's more I could say about this, but I don't believe it's my jurisdiction to teach on such things, especially publicly, nor would I do as good a job as the people of Vision Forum. So...please check out the site I linked to, and if you're able, buy the audio (or here for mp3)! I'm sure you will be blessed!

Meeting Mrs. Verret, Lacie, and Laura for the first time in person. :)

Enjoying the fabulous talk by the Botkin family