"My Own Worst Enemy, how to stop holding yourself back" by Janet Davis

From time to time, I get books to review. This time I chose this book because I had heard of the author. I often listen to Midday Connection on Moody radio. Janet Davis has appeared on there several times. I have always loved that she is very vulnerable about her own life and that she likes to explore the depth of people in the bible, particularly the female ones. To be honest, I didn't really pay much attention to the title when I chose this selection. So I was greatly surprised when this book came and it met me exactly where I am.
I shared in my previous post, that my goal is to Create this year. Most notably "I want to live the life that God has created in me not just what to do to survive." This book hit me over the head. I felt like Janet Davis had been reading my mind. I know that as she says,"I diminish my voice and my contribution".

I loved this book.  In the introduction, she shares that "she became acutely aware if how many awesome and gifted women spent significant amounts of time and energy neglecting, dismissing, or actively covering up their beauty and talent". I so think that I do this. I self-sabotage my life. I call it a fear of failure which it is, but to be honest I don't believe that someone would want me as their employee, their spouse, their friend or their mother. I don't believe that my words,and actions are effective. Janet Davis call this "Shining". She goes on to say "that good Christian women have been taught for generations that it is rude to talk about oneself, much less to shine." because we don't want to shine, we call this humility and think we are being spiritual. Instead we are missing the fact that we are gifted and unique. Ray Kane, another frequent Midday Connection guest says "we each are a unique fingerprint of God, and we express God through being whom he created us to be".
The book is divided into three sections Many Faces, Many Phases and Choices Along the Way.  She begins each chapter with an individual consideration, such as "Make a list of five subjects that you are so passionate about that you would stay up late just to discuss with friends" Then she explores the real life story of a woman, often herself and how God is revealing what is missing in their life. Then each chapter includes a story from scripture of how a woman needs to or has allowed God to shine in her life. Finally she shares a change in the real person's life. Each chapter contains personal challenges titled Your Story.

I am still working through many of these questions. I think working through many of these questions will enable me to create the life I am called to and allow me to shine. This book is definitely a journey, Janet Davis's journey but it can be my journey and your journey also.
   "Her previous painful life experiences became her deep wisdom and the seed of phenomenal inspiration for her creative soul which she now used to bless and comfort... her story shaped her ministry; her identity shaped her creativity.(p98)".

I received no compensation for this review other that a free copy of the book from Bethany House a division of Baker Publishing group. I saw this print on the Kelly Rae Roberts online shop. it is so appropriate.

 


http://shop.kellyraeroberts.com/collections/prints/products/permiission-to-shine-print

Create My World!

So Happy 2012! it is a few weeks in and already most of my thoughts for the year are gone.

Last Year, I decided to live my life according to a word for the year. Last years word was lover. I'm not sure how I succeeded but I do see myself as more relational and less concerned about being right.

This year's Word is CREATE.

Why this word? As I have gotten older I feel the need to be more creative. I used to be so analytical but I really want to express myself and what God is doing in me through my life.

Some ideas!
  I want to live the life that God has created in me not just what to do to survive. So I am going to examine my life particularly my career.
 I want to express myself through music, words and visual arts. I am really interested in creating mixed media art and writing a book.
I want to create a family. I am really praying about foster parenting and adoption. I would love to make some good friends to live life with. I also really long for a husband to share this life with. Mostly, I want to let God mold me into the Dawn he is making me.

So for me 2012 is about what God does through me to Creatively to Become Dawn!

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room!

It is almost Christmas. I think it is going to be a very quiet Christmas. I hope so!

Last night,I sat and reflected on what Advent means to me.  What does it look like to prepare for Jesus coming as a baby? Is there room in my hear for Jesus! What does the Incarnation to me?

I have been reading Organic God by Margaret Feinberg. It sprung the idea that incarnation means that he is living in me.

This heart with Him living in me wants to make room for others. My heart is breaking with the plight of women throughout the world who die in childbirth from infections or from fistulas. My heart breaks for the orphan who needs a family.

What do I do about this? Do I go? Do I sponsor? Do I think about adoption or foster care?

I want Jesus to break my heart for all these things!

Joy to the World the Lord is come let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare him room and Heaven and Nature Sing.

Lord I'm singing!

Merry Christmas!!

Dawn

Christmas Shopping for a Cause!

So Saturday night I was a little bored, and I had a busy day. I decided to go to my local Target store to just roam around and get some early Christmas ideas for my nieces and nephews.

I always buy my niece Mackenzie a doll. I saw these beautiful multicultural dolls.  http://www.hearts4heartsgirls.com/media/

They teach girls about different countries and the cost of them goes to support World Vision. I think this is a great way to teach girls about life not here. Girls cannot also go online and learn about the girls lives.

What a great idea! I didn't buy it but I will definitely purchase one or more of these six lovelies.

I received no endorsement of any kind for this post.

My Life and Lesser Catastrophies A memoir by Christina Schofield

What is a memoir? It is a reflection. it is not the complete story,but a perspective. It is what God has done in our lives, or is doing in our lives.
The subtitle of this book is an "unflinchingly honest journey of Faith". That is what I liked about this book, Christina Schofield is not afraid to tell her story. She's not afraid to share her disappointment when things don't work out when they are supposed. She's not afraid to share the fact that God 's will for us is that everything goes smoothly.
What is her story. She is married to Allen, a Christian student minister and has one child. She works as an illustrator in Christian publishing. her life seemed to be the American Christian dream, until one morning they are taking a belated anniversary ride on their motorcycle and hit some gravel. They are both injured. Christina has a concussion and Allen is left paralyzed.
She then wrestles with whether God is still faithful and still good. She wants God to heal her husband physically but does he have other plans for them? She learns to rely on God's presence in her life.
I sometimes struggled reading this book. I think I wanted Christina to see God's faithfulness faster. I haven't really had a life where I could relate to her feeling that bad things hadn't happened to her until this moment. My life has been messy and I've grown up trusting God to guide me through these days and not because my days are good, but He is.
In the end this is what Christina learns and her story isn't over. I can't not like her story because it is her story, my story is different.
 I am glad that people are willing to share God working in them. That God loves us....He writes our story...Maybe it isn't happy ever after...He is the hero and we are loved...
What is your story???

I received no compensation for this review of this book, other than a free copy of this book from Chosen, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

Can you read too much? Can you be so lost in stories that you forget to live life? This is the dilemma of the heroine Alice of Wonderland Creek.
She loses her job, her boyfriend breaks up with her because he thinks she is out of touch with people. Is there nothing left for her but books? The only thing left for her is to go to Kentucky and take the books that she has collected for a rural library. She goes herself is the hope that there is more to her than books. She wants to touch people with books, which is proof that she does care about people.
So Alice shows up uninvited and gets caught up in an adventure. This adventure involves how to cope without the comforts of home. She gets caught up in the middle of a murder and a town broken up by a feud between two families. She also becomes a librarian who rides a horse to the homes of poor families and learns how to be involved in the lives of people.
I can relate to reading too much, but I like to believe that I have a balance of living. This book was a good reminder that the adventure is with people and not with books.

As far as this book goes, it really wasn't a page-turner for me, which maybe helps you to not get caught up in a book. I think it took a long time for me to like the characters in this book. Alice isn't very likable until she has her big adventure and then you begin to care about her.
I recieved no compensation for this post other than a free copy of this book from Bethany House.

To Have and To Hold Bridal Veli Island by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

To Have and to Hold by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller

This is the first novel in the Bridal Veil Island series. This is a fictional island near Savannah, Georgia.  The name Bridal Veil refers to how the Spanish moss on the trees look like the lace of a brides veil. I happen to love this part of the country--so I have a natural curiosity about that area. I am also a fan of Eugenia Price novels which all take place in St. Simons Island or Savannah. So the comparison occurred naturally for me. I would say this novel is not quite as epic as a Eugenia Price novel. It takes place in a shorter period of time and almost everything occurs on the island or on the nearby coastal city.

I really enjoyed the main character, Audrey. She seems lost on her native soil after returning home having been raised in the North following the civil war. Her father had moved his young family north to make a living for his family after the island and the South are destroyed by the civil war. Instead of prosperity in construction, he found a life of alcoholism and the loss of his wife. Prior to moving with her father to their ancestral home, Audrey is a household servant. She comes to Bridal Veil to be with her father in his new life of faith and sobriety. I liked that she is able to forgive her father, but is still haunted with prejudices and suspicions. I like that she has a struggle to imagine the worse and let the proposed drama get the best of her. She is also old for a heroine in this time period. She is in her late twenties and never been married at a time when most barely teens are becoming wives and mothers.

Audrey and her father in order to relieve a family tax burden begin to take in boarders as their northern friends begin to build on the part of the island that the family sold long ago. This brings many men to the island which begins the drama for Audrey. This is even more complicated by a family friend "Aunt Thora" who hated northerners especially after the war. There are opportunities for love, dealing with prejudices, mistrusting people,a mystery and dealing with loss.

Sometimes the novel seemed a little predictable like with the title you are sure there is a wedding coming.  I did like that the faith seemed genuine and a part  of their lives unlike many inspirational novels where it is sometimes seems to be in the background.

I could relate to the character and her struggles. So for me it taught me when I am to quick to figure out a situation or to judge someone when I do not have a clear picture. then I like Audrey let my imagination run wild. I need to hold by every thought captive to Christ. I'm so thankful he forgives me. Oh grace it is amazing!!

I received no compensation for this review other than the book that I did receive free from Bethany House.