Wow. What an amazing book. I had read this book back in 2008 before I was married, or was even thinking about raising children, and it was an amazing read then. Now, I'm married and expecting a little one and it's even more amazing! I seriously took 13 pages of notes on it in my journal!!!! I know, a bit overboard, but it's one of those books that you gain so much wisdom and little tidbits from you just want to have them in one place where you can check often. This book has helped me rethink my priorities as a woman (I always feel old when I refer to myself as a woman, anyone else? no just me? ok...), using the Bible as a guide (which it should be for all things) and highlighting things I can do daily to live a fuller life in every area. I don't want to go into SOO much detail because I know people don't read long posts--but just come along with me for a bit...she relates our fullness in life to that of the Seven Sacred Pools in Hawaii (like a waterfall). This describes the huge impact we can have for our own life, but also in the lives of countless others when we get these things right. Let me try to explain the picture to you. There's a pool way at the top of the mountain, which no one can see, and that is like your relationship with God, your prayer life, your deep connection with Him and His Word. He fills us and replenishes us when we seek him first in our life and are filled with his Holy Spirit. 

When we are full from that pool we are overflowing into our next pool, our husbands. God gives us the ability to tend to nurture and grow in servitude to our most important human relationship. Soon this pool overflows to that of our children. Children are gifts to us from God and He entrusts them to our care to love them, to train them and teach them about his ways. Soon that pool too will overflow and flow abundantly into our homes and filling it with God's love. Whether it be by the spiritual life of your family, the feeding, and the love that you give to them to make a home a retreat and a beautiful place until it soon overflows into our dreams and plans and how God wants us to serve others. "Having been filled from the pools higher up the mountain, we now plunge in. WE submerge ourselves in this fresh pool of knowledge, discipline , and training" and soon that too overflows pouring into an ocean of ministry and service that God will use to build His people up--you never know where that pool may end or who it may reach because it has not limits. But you see the key is, that each pool can only be filled if the one above it is overflowing. Do we make is so that our hearts of overflowing for God, our husband, and our children, our home, and then into other areas of ministry? Do we take the time to nurture each of those priorities first and let God fill us to overflowing? I find that sometimes I think that the top pools don't need to be filled and I busy myself with the maybe not most important areas, even if it is a church event, or a ministry-but it doesn't prove to be helpful because the other pools aren't full. It's hard to serve my husband and have a good relationship with him when I don't have a good relationship with the Lord. There is a quote she uses often in the book and it this: "Good, better, best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better best." You can apply that little childhood quote to soo many areas in your life, especially when making decisions, choosing your attitude, how you schedule your time etc. If you aren't married or don't have children you might not have these pools yet, but it's still crucial to understand your priories and fill up the time in your life from the top pool down. 

There were so many amazing quotes and so many references to the Bible and other great books by numerous authors have really just made me LOVE this book. The book isn't just about the imagery of the pools,  in fact thats only one section in a chapter! But I feel that it describes what she focuses on in the other chapters--devoting most of it to a woman after God's heart. It's one of those "back to the Bible basics" for woman, and can be applied to a woman anywhere in life--from young and single, to newly weds to wives of many years, to single moms, to working moms, to say at home moms, from biblical scholars to new in the faith. I hope you woman will pick it up and not just read it, but see how you can use it to grow  and become a woman after God's own heart. 

Tedd Tripp goes through the most important parts of what it means to be a Christian parent. He discusses the importance of discipline and communication with your children at every level of their growth, and the most important factor of having goals for your "child rearing." Spouses need to come together discuss and pray about what their goals are for their children. Here are some common goals parents have that Tripp listed: Is it to have the most athletic kid? To have a psychologically balanced child? To have the smartest best educated kid? To have the most well behaved child? To have a "saved" child? To have control over your child?  He walks through many of these goals and helps point out the good--and also the not so good in them. Do you have goals for your children? Are they God oriented goals? or are they goals that are self serving and worldly? OH my, I'm not even there yet, but I can tell that parenting is going to be a difficult task and this book definitely made me think a lot about what some of the most important things are when raising kids. I'm so glad someone gave me this book now so I can start to think about these principles before it's too late! 
What will my goals be for raising my children? How do I shepherd my child's heart? How do I help them see the sin in their heart which leads to their actions? Who am I trying to serve? Is what I'm doing pleasing and honoring God? Those are some of the questions that I am now thinking about and most are what this book goes through--from every stage of childhood; infancy to teenage years. 

I wont go into to much more because I really think it is so crucial for every parent to read this book for themselves if they are interested in shepherding a child's heart for the Lord.  And if you never read it--at least be in search through the Bible, the most important book for life, and for raising children. I believe, if you are a parent, it is probably one of the most important roles God has called you to, you probably don't want to go into it blind or neglect what he says about it. All other books on the subject are just helpful and practical (if they come from a biblical perspective), but the Bible should always be where we start and finish. Best wishes to all you parents out there, I know we will need your prayers as we start this exciting journey and we will pray for you as well! -Britt

Have you ever come across the story in the Bible about Benaiah? I had never recalled hearing the name before and I didn't realize that what this guy did was probably one of the most courageous acts recorded in the Old Testament. Here's the passage: "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear." 2 Samuel 23:20-21. So thats it. No big deal right? It's just one of those passages you read and forget about not putting much emphasis on any part.  Well, Mark Batterson took hold of this small passage from scripture and created a book about overcoming risks, setting big goals, and chasing big dreams, not small ones, but "lion size" dreams. I tend to place God in a box thinking that there are some things he can do and some things he can't with my life but what this book showed me was that with God all things are possible and he WANTS them for us, more than we want them for ourselves. 

Not everyone goes looking for lions to  slay or scrounges around trying to grasp opportunities, but Benaiah did, and he was well rewarded for it (He became King David's personal Body Guard! How cool is that?!). He was a lion-chaser. Mark Batterson quickly became one of my favorite authors after reading this book, I think his style of writing is really easy for me to read, and humorous as well. It's full of biblical knowledge and shows how to apply principles from the bible to our lives. I could go on and on, but I'll just leave you with SOME of my favorite quotes from the book. (This is hard because there are soo many!) So if you end reading here, and you have a big dream, or a something thats been on the back burner for too long, read this book, and read the BIBLE, it will help you realize that there isn't time to waste putting great dreams on hold, your time is now! God Bless! -Britt

"How you think about God will determine who you become. You aren't just the byproduct of "nature" and "nurture." You are a byproduct of your God-picture. And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else. Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem."

"Why is it that the church is known for what we're against that what we're for? Why does it seem like the church is always in a defensive posture? Maybe it's time for Christ followers to put on crash helmets and play offense." 

"Lion chasers don't retreat. They attack. Lion chasers aren't reactors, they are creators. Lion chasers refuse to live their lives in a defensive posture. They are actively looking for ways to make a difference."

"We need to stop criticizing culture and start creating it."

"Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think about you and more and more about what God thinks about you"

"We should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances."

"Worship is forgetting about what's wrong with you and remembering what's right with God."

"Faith is risky business...Maybe risk taking is at the heart of righteousness. Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right. Righteousness is using our God-given gifts to their God-given potential. and that requires risk. Maybe our view of sanctification is too sanitized. Maybe our view of Christianity is too civilized. Maybe we need to reconsider what made our spiritual ancestors heroic."

I'll end with a quote that he quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, " Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do."

I just finished the old classic Pilgrim's Progress. If you can get past the Old English style of writing, it is quite an interesting interpretation of the life of a Christian. It is written from a Puritan perspective with the tradition of being very strict. Bunyan's theology is quite sound from a Biblical perspective and is a great story generic enough to stand the test of time, with its focus on principles and truths that are as true now as they were at the beginning of time. 

It was a good reminder for me that the path to follow Christ is narrow and how easy it is for many not to take that path or try and find their way off that path along the journey. For many that declare themselves Christians will not be admitted into the "Celestial City" because they did not put all their trust in Christ Jesus for their salvation. Even if they did good works, talked well, had lots of friends, or knew of God, they would still get into Heaven only by believing in the cleansing blood of Christ for their sins. The visual picture of this in the book is when the two main characters have to cross a river right before entering the Gates. The river was not very wide but it could be very deep. There was no way across except to walk. When they walked across the river, if they had complete faith that they could not do it alone but only through the support of Jesus Christ, the river was shallow and simple to wade through. However, for anyone that did not have 100% faith that Christ was sufficient for them, the bottom of the river was endless, they were washed away and gone forever.  

There are countless lessons throughout the book, like the one above, when reflected upon my own life, I can be more conscious of the pitfalls that I do encounter on the path of following Christ. Even though this is a hard book to get into right away it is worth the read for the timeless principles and would make a great book to discuss for church groups. -Paul

Not, going to lie, this book took me FOREVER to read. NOT because it was boring, I think I just needed to take the time to go through it so that everything would digest properly!! There was so many good nuggets in this book, I wish I could go through them all, (So that I can remind myself what I read!!!) but I won't, you really will just have to read this book. Another awesome part about this book was that in about EVERY paragraph there was a reference to scripture. I never knew there was so many passages that related to our words and how we treat others. 
Are you like me, do you find yourself rambling on with words in a conversation and then all of the sudden, you find yourself bitting your tongue, praying that what you just said, you really didn't say? Are you sometimes prone to gossip? To lie? To exaggerate? to murmur? to anger?  to boast? to flatter? to swear? to be sarcastic? As this book says, our culture, especially Christians need a transformation of our tongue! Stowell says that it should be a top priority for those committed to spiritual growth. WOW, really? I honestly never really thought about things I say having an effect on my relationship with God, let alone my spiritual growth. But it truly does. Like Jesus said in Matthew 15 :17-19, "Don't you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of  a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts--murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person." If I am to have the Holy Spirit living in my heart, yet I have these things that defile me coming out of it, then do I truly have the Holy Sprit within me? (just a question to think on) Now, I understand no one is perfect, but I can't stop thinking of how much the things I do reflect upon my relationship with God and how in tune I am with the Holy Spirit. I know that I have the Holy Spirit within me, yet sometimes I feel I place him in a jar, screw the lid on top really tight so I can "say my few words" and in doing so I'm refusing to let Christ do his full work in me. Are my words, attitudes, actions always a reflection of the Holy Sprit in my heart? (I'll answer that for myself....no, they aren't)  Anyway, I just babbled on again, sorry, it's just a really great book that made me think a lot about the life I live, and the life I should be living. Feel free to comment or question what I just wrote, especially if you've read the book, I love to hear other's thoughts.  I'll post a few quotes from the book below just to spark your interest...Enjoy! 

--We tend to tolerate a bit of "fire" in our speech, thinking it can do no harm. But fire spreads quickly--often before we realize it. And after a raging fire has done it's damage, it doesn't matter whether or not it was intentional. (p.18)

--We need to pray for wisdom in our speech (James 1:5). We should train ourselves to search for the truth in every situation. (p.32)

--Rumors, whether true or false, are devastating for many reasons--one being that they are irretrievable. I recall the story of a young man during the middle ages who went to a monk and said, "I've sinned by telling slanderous tales about someone. What should I do?" The monk replied, "put a feather on every doorstep in town." The young man did just that. He then returned to the monk, wondering if there was anything else he should do. "Go back and pick up all those feathers," the monk told him. The young man replied excitedly, "Thats impossible! By now the wind will have blown them all over town!" Said the monk, "So have your slanderous words become impossible to retrieve."  (p.36)

--Galatians 5:13-15 "You were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another"

--Exaggeration erodes trust and credibility, two building blocks of successful relationships. It is a violation of God's will for us. (p. 55)

--Perhaps that the root of our problem [taking the Lord's name in vain]--we don't appreciate the real value of God's name. too often we interpret God from our limited point of view instead of conforming our thoughts to who God says He is. Our shortsighted perceptions of God insult Him by attempting to bring Him down to our level. the result is distorted thinking and idolatry. (p.68)

--(I'll end it here I promise!) All talk is really heart talk. Granted some people's spoken thoughts never seem to reach down to the heart (or up to the brain for that matter). But even empty flattery, thoughtless comments, automatic responses and mindless greetings are reflections of an insincere heart. Christ recognized that all talk is heart talk He said: Either make the tree good its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give and accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. (Matthew 12:33-37) (p.77)

Betcha didn't think you'd be reading most of the book! LOL, sorry, but there was so many more verses, many more quotes that were so meaningful and helpful to myself, please read it for yourself, then tell me what you thought! Love to you all! Britt

This is a great story that anyone with a big dream will be able to relate with. I will not give the story away but if you are pursuing a dream or would like to pursue a dream of yours, then this book is for you! This quick read will help you understand the ups and downs of pursuing a dream, and how you can grow through it. 

One thing that I learned from this book is that no matter how big my dream seems to me, God is so much bigger and so much greater. He is the one who put this dream in my heart but if I try to accomplish it without him the dream will probably die or not have a very big impact. The reason that God gives people such great dreams that are so much bigger than themselves is because he wants to use that to show His power and greatness, and so that He will be glorified and praised. If we try to accomplish a dream for self praise then we take that praise away from God.  So be in prayer about how God will use you to accomplish such great things, but do it with your eyes on God, not on yourself.

God Bless,

Paul

Quite a different read than the others on the blog so far, but I figured I would post a little blurb here. I'm very interested in learning more about the "classical education" method.  I'm planning on Homeschooling my future kiddos and I read a book a while ago called the Thomas Jefferson Education by Oliver DeMille. I won't go into to full detail here, you really just have to read the book to learn more about it, and I HIGHLY recommend it. It doesn't just talk about homeschooling but it talks about our school system today and how all schools could improve if they adapted this classical/leadership education method.
If you want to learn more, pick up that book, it's an interesting and quick read!  
Part of learning more about the classical education approach is reading more classics! I have a list put out by DeMille of all the top classics out there and this was one of many on the list.
Well I can't go into every detail of the book or the plots or anything, but here's what I found interesting or "took from it." First off, Puritan culture is so unique and so much focus is put on being sinless on earth because for them, the earth is a sort of  pit stop on the way to heaven. So they try to rid their community of all sin. Hester Prynne, was forced to be publicly humiliated and forced to wear a letter "A" the rest of her life to remind herself, and everyone else, of her sin (Adultery). Yet, after that experience in her life, she continued on, remaining in the same community. She grew and became a better woman. She found she could now critically look at things in her culture that maybe weren't right. Whereas others never questioned the rule of the "governors." 

Now, I don't think that this was Hawthorns intent or one the "main themes of the book" but I couldn't help relating this story to sin in our life, and how we have a huge need for Jesus Christ. We all are sinners, every one of us, thankfully our culture doesn't put us on a platform and announce every one of our sin's to the whole world. But what if they did? What if someday we have to stand on a platform, not before our community, but before a God who has the authority to show mercy or give out justice?  Each of us must come to a point where we realize that there is nothing that we can personally do to allow us to be in the same company as a perfect God in Heaven.("...For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23) Hester had to stand up there and get mocked and jeered at before her whole community. We are dirty and filthy and some of our lives are in complete opposite of what God wants for our lives. We know we are sinning because we often go against what our conscience says is right, we break even the 10 laws that God set up for us to follow in his Holy Word.  That's why we must come to a point where we acknowledge we are sinners and are in need of a Savior. Then all we have to do is accept that Jesus Christ stood on that platform, perfect, for us, before God. 

John 3:16-18 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

*Attention* do we really understand that? Do you mean, that he died for me? That I don't have to stand on that platform and receive the punishment I deserve?????? YES!!!!! It's true! He was perfect and he took on our sin, was placed on a cross, crucified, humiliated, mocked, forsaken by his Father, by his own people, and even by some of his closest friends; and he did that all for us. For you. For me. And all we have to do is accept it. Grace, pure Grace at it's finest moment.( "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:20-21)

I urge you to read more about this Savior Jesus.  Pick up the  Bible and if you don't know where to start, start at the Gospel of John. Dive into it, and realize that the man you read about did all that for you, and for anyone who chooses to accept His gift of grace. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
I know some of you literary scholars out there, can not believe that I read The Scarlet Letter and that's all I "got" out of it. Now, that's not entirely true, there are many other interesting connections to sin, to Adam and Eve, the nature of sin and more nuggets like that. I think that it's probably because Easter is approaching and I can't stop thinking about the Grace given to me by Christ. I'm so thankful for His sacrifice. I love what John Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone but I remember two things. That I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior." I pray that if someday my memory fails me, that those are the two things I remember as well. Thanks for reading!

    I just finished the classic by CS Lewis entitled WEIGHT OF GLORY. It was a little hard for me to get into it at the beginning. I believe the biggest reason for that is that I did not discover it to be a book of many different lectures on many different subjects until I was into chapter 3. I was trying to find the common theme to all the seemingly unrelated topics, and after finding that there really wasn't one I became to understand the individual subjects of each chapter better.
    The chapter that I found most intriguing is Membership. Lewis describes the topic of membership in a church and how in the Bible a member is more like a "member" or organ of a body, unlike today's view that a member is just another name, or just a number. Each "Organ" has a unique function and was created by God for a unique purpose. He talks about the "Collectivist" view, or more easily understand to us as a Socialist view, of how crowds or large organization listening to only lecture (rather than discussion as a group), is to take the place of small groups that come to know each other intimately through discussion.
    I am also currently reading another classic in economics, called THE ROAD TO SERFDOM by FA Hayek. It was interesting to read it as the same time as WEIGHT OF GLORY because they were both written in England during WWII but one from an economist and one from a philosopher, and both taught at Oxford. The one thing that they both discussed in their books is the distaste for Collectivism, especially its spread through England. Both discussed how their colleagues praised the idea. Lewis said that it is trying in every way to take away the private time of people, where they think and pray. For if you take away people's time to think and pray, they may become ignorant and faithless. What better of a combination is there for a Socialist recruit! So word of warning to America, always make time to pray, read, and think. Time with a few close friends to discuss topics on faith, business, and relationships I believe also to be of benefit to the mind. -Paul.