Blogging Challenge -- Days 9-13

9. What's On Your Bucket List?

Travel to Europe
Run a marathon
Find a job I love, so I don't feel like I'm working
Visit NYC
Go on a family vacation
Lead a women's Bible study
Go to a movie by myself

Things I Have Already Achieved on my Bucket List:

Give blood
Donate hair to Locks of Love
Go skydiving
Go on an international mission trip (South Korea and Costa Rica)

10. Daily Routine -- With a 2 month old baby, my daily routine looks very different each day! Three days a week I go to work, leaving before the sun comes up and not getting home until about 5 pm. After I get home from work, I either go to youth girl's Bible study, Wednesday night dinner at my church, or relax at home for the evening with my baby and husband. Two days a week, I am off work and am able to get housework done and run errands. I also like to go on a walk, go running, and see friends and family on those days off. My routine is different each day, but I like the variety! And of course, my son determines a lot of how my daily routine goes :)

11. Last Book You Read -- The last few books I have read have been The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Hunger Games series, Mere Christianity, and The Fault in Our Stars.

12. Something You Miss -- I am at the stage of my life where I have a lot of responsibility. I am responsible for another human life, my house, my job, my car, etc. I also have a lot of financial responsibility. I love this phase of my life and am happier than I have ever been, but if I miss anything, it's probably the phase of my life where I had less responsibility and was able to be more carefree. Every decision I make now affects not only myself, but my entire family. Sometimes I miss those carefree high school and college days where I had less responsibility.

13. Do You Have Regret? My biggest regret is probably the time I have wasted in my life worrying about the future or how things would work out. Each time, everything has always worked out and I spent way too much of my time and energy worrying about things I couldn't control.

My Library -- Book Recommendations

Hey guys! I'm back for another blog post. I have been trying to switch things up lately and write about a variety of topics. Today I decided that I wanted to share my current library with you. This is only a small portion of my entire collection of books, but these are the books that I have read in the last 6 months. I have read a few of them on my own and a few of them with a group (my Bible study and Sunday School class). Either way, I would highly recommend all of these books and believe that they will strengthen your walk with the Lord. So, let me tell you about each of them!

 

My Sunday School class has been on a C. S. Lewis kick this year. We have read a few of his books and we started out the year reading through the Chronicles of Narnia series. Many of you may have read this classic series as children. I know I read a few of the books growing up. The awesome thing about C. S. Lewis is that he can write novels that appeal to both children and adults. His words carry weight although presented in a simple fashion. As our class read through each book, we were amazed at how he weaved the words together to really dig deep into the Christian faith. The books were beautifully written in order to challenge the adult mind to see God within these children's stories. Each book displays a different part of the Bible including creation, the redemption story, and Heaven. It really challenged my class to find the meaning behind the pictures he builds throughout his stories. We used the study guide pictured above to navigate our discussions throughout the books and also reveal truths that we may not have seen otherwise. I would highly recommend this series and I think you will be surprised by how much you fall in love with not only the characters, but also Lewis' style of writing.

 

Next is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. If you haven't heard of this book, I would honestly be surprised. This book came to me with very high recommendations and was actually a gift from my husband (he had also heard great things). The book starts out in an odd fashion if you are expecting the traditional cookie cutter Christian novel. It is Biblically based though and actually focuses on the story of Hosea. It starts off with an emotionally and physically beaten down girl named Angel who makes a living as a prostitute. She has no self-worth and a very ugly past. A man named Michael Hosea sees her one night and feels God telling him to marry this girl. He is immediately very confused and doesn't want much to do with Angel based on her outer appearance and her lifestyle. Michael ends up obeying God and marrying her and from there, things take a turn for the crazy. All sorts of events happen and many that are very surprising. This is a very, very powerful story of redemption. I know I personally started tearing up while reading it because of the way it shows God's unconditional love for us. I would say this is a must read for any woman and is a great example of God's extravagant, over the top, beyond anything we could ever understand, love for us. This book keeps you on your toes the entire time!

  This book is an oldie, but goodie. Its Beth Moore's Breaking Free. If you aren't familiar with Beth Moore, then you are missing out. She is a phenomenal teacher especially when it comes to women's studies. I actually read this book a few years ago and it came at the perfect time for me, a time where I was feeling very captivated and almost trapped by certain strongholds in my life. I reread this book recently and was surprised at how much I got out of it considering I had already gone through it once. Breaking Free is about the obvious: breaking free from the things that hold us captive and finding freedom in Christ. But this book also offers more healing than you would expect and dives into exploring the abundant life God intends for us. The book goes through the benefits and challenges to finding our liberty in Jesus, our past and how to mend our wounds for the future, obedience through the obstacles, God's unfailing love, and the joy that comes with freedom. This book is full of encouragement and you can only walk away from it feeling God's presence and fullness in your life. I personally really connected with this particular Beth Moore writing, but I find that most everything she puts out is something worth reading.

 

Like I said, my Sunday School class is very into C. S. Lewis right now. That being said, they chose to read Mere Christianity after reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I'm not going to lie, I was a little concerned that we would all go into a Lewis coma and be quickly burnt out by reading another Lewis book, but I was pleasantly surprised. This is probably one of my top favorite Christian books. It is so good. This book is different than the Narnia series because he is talking directly about his faith instead of using characters and stories to portray it. These "talks" by Lewis were originally done on the radio in the 1940’s. He was asked to share little segments about faith every week and to explain why he thought Christianity was the way to go. In some ways, Mere Christianity is like an apologetics book (defending a position through the use of information). Lewis defends Christianity and explains how it works. What makes this book really interesting is that Lewis was not always a Christian. He didn't convert until later in his life, so hearing his position on Christianity and non-believers is a unique and inspiring one. He writes in such a captivating way and he explains a religion that can be a tangled web with a completely simplistic approach. He uses logic to explain Christianity in such a profound and powerful way. I can't recommend this book enough!

 

The last book is my most recent read and I am not quite finished with it yet. I am part of a girl's Bible study and we are currently reading Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. The book focuses on 11 spiritual disciples and each chapter entails why this discipline is important to our faith. Obviously, discipline isn't the most fun topic to discuss and it's rarely easy, but Whitney reveals that discipline actually brings freedom. This book has exceeded my expectations so far and challenged my walk. It is a great catalyst for discussions and has allowed me to dig deeper into my faith. So far we have discussed the discipline of Bible Intake, Prayer, Worship and Evangelism and I have yet to be disappointed. If you are looking for a challenge and a way to grow in your spiritual life, this book is for you!

Thanks for sticking with me on this journey through literature. I hope you enjoyed learning more about what is in my library and that you will pick up one of these great books in the future. I promise you will not be disappointed!