In an Empty Nest, You Dust More than You Clean

You throw away leftovers instead of never having enough.

You turn the radio on for noise instead of turning it down for quiet.

You still buy a gallon of milk at a time, but find yourself giving half to the neighbors before it spoils.

You frequent Facebook to see glimpses of your college student instead of telling her that she shouldn't spend so much times posting pictures.

You pray more than you work, although prayer is the hardest work of all.

It is a different season of life.  Not all good, not all bad, just different.

My friend Cheryl shared a book with me that she found insightful and encouraging.  It's called Barbara and Susan's Guide to the Empty Nest -- Discovering New Purpose, Passion, and Your Next Great Adventure.  Its co-authors Barbara Rainey, of Family Life Today fame, and Susan Yates, a mother of five, come alongside their readers in empathy and identification with the realities of the empty nest.

What I appreciated about this book is that although they speak candidly from their own lives about the sad emotions that often come with launching their children out of their homes and into adult lives, they also share the other side of the coin. Empty nest time can be a time of great personal growth, opportunity, and adventure.

With chapters like "What do I do with my loneliness?," "What do I do with my disappointments?," "How do I relate to my husband now?," and "How do I relate to my adult kids now?," they discuss the realities of a home and a life in transition. 

In chapters such as "Celebrate!", "Discovering Your New Purpose," and "Changing Your World," they share the perspective that the empty nest season can be a wonderful time of life.

While I miss my young adult daughters' presence in my home greatly, I am also enjoying some of the freedoms of the pre-parenting years.  I enjoy spending uninterrupted time with my husband again. I like buying a tub of ice cream one day and knowing it will still be there the next. I like receiving phone calls from my girls  sharing the big things and the small. I like more time to write, and think, and pray.

I absolutely loved being a mother of young children.  I absolutely love being a mother of young adults. Each is a season of life that holds great potential, joy, and adventure if we seek God's face every day.

 I encourage you to pick up a copy of Barbara and Susan's Guide to the Empty Nest.  You'll be comforted, encouraged, and challenged to give your empty nest years to the Lord and watch what He will do in your life.

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Never the Bride

Book Review -- Never the Bride by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge

As an unsaved teenager, I read Harlequin Romances like four-year olds eat candy.  After I became a Christian, one of the first things the Lord removed from my life, along with my bikini and the television show Dallas, was romance novels.  As I began to apply God’s word, Philippians 4:8 shone a spotlight on my entertainment choices and convinced me to put better media into my mind and heart. 

 “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” 

Even in my spiritual infancy, I realized that these novels did not encourage me toward purity of thought.  In addition, they held up an unrealistic and unattainable standard for my future husband and my future love life.  Ever since, I have avoided any novel that smacks of romance, even Christian romance, because most of them are just Harlequins with a few token spiritual overtones and the sex taken out. 

(Before you start sending me hate mail, keep in mind that this is how the Lord has led ME. I am just sharing my journey, not criticizing yours.  If you feel that my concerns have merit, perhaps the Holy Spirit is using my thoughts to challenge yours.)

I share this long introduction to explain that the only reason I agreed to review Never the Bride by Cheryl McKay and Rene Gutteridge is because I love Rene Gutteridge.  She is my favorite comedy fiction writer.  I loved Boo and its sequels, so my expectations for Never the Bride were high from the start.  I was not disappointed. 

Her book jacket says this:  “Since she was a little girl, Jessie Stone has dreamed of hundreds of marriage proposals, doodled the romantic ideas in her journal with her treasured purple pen, and fantasized about wedding dresses and falling in love.  She’s been a bridesmaid nearly a dozen times . . . “

Classic story about a 30-something year old single gal who desperately wants to meet the man of her dreams and will stop at (almost) nothing to catch him.  This is where “classic” ends and “classic Rene Gutteridge” begins. 

Jessie Stone is drowning her sorrows in yet another box of chocolate after another failed attempt to catch a man when. . . God steps in.  Literally.  And He looks like a really hot guy.  Are you intrigued yet?

Through a series of conversations and bizarre events, God invites Jessie to turn over her treasured purple pen and let HIM write her love story.  Jessie responds less than enthusiastically, “Everything I’ve accomplished in my life, I’ve done myself.  Me.  Alone. Why should I trust you now?”

God replies, “You haven’t asked me for help. . . Of course, you can keep doing things your way.  If that’s working for you.”

The remainder of the book is a contemporary allegory of how God wants to write each of our love stories.  Suffice it to say that I loved it. I laughed at it.  In Jessie Stone, I saw myself and every other woman who desires to be loved with an everlasting love.   Does Jessie find true love?  Does she finally get her man?  No spoilers here.  One thing I will tell you is that this romance novel hater gives Never the Bride two thumbs up!

In exchange for my honest review, I received a free copy of Never the Bride from WaterBrook Press.

Book Review -- Untamed by Lisa Harper

"Jesus confronted confusion, oppression, dishonesty, and spiritual deadness because He cares so much about us and isn't willing to let us settle for anything less than the abundant life and absolute freedom God created for us to enjoy," so Lisa Harper emphatically states in the eighth chapter of Untamed, entitled "The Divine Trait of Stepping on Toes." 

It is bold statements like this that cause you to sit up and take notice as Harper one by one debunks the myth of the milquetoast Jesus that plagues our world today.  In chapters with titles like "Rough, Tough, and Ready to Rumble," "Simply Irresistible," and "The God Who Leaves Men Gaping," Harper systematically challenges wrong perceptions of Christ and offers scriptural proof that we serve a God who is wildly untamed.

Harper weaves a mixture of anecdotes from her own life (growing up in a divorced home, being a victim of childhood molestation, and being reared under chauvanistic teaching,) with Bible stories and passages to help readers identify with each characteristic of Christ that she unveils.  She weaves in powerful quotes from respected Bible teachers and preachers and word studies that reference Greek and Hebrew. She concludes each chapter with discussion questions & scripture passages for further study.

Untamed's strength is in the characteristics Harper chooses to focus on -- those characteristics of Christ that we desperately need to understand and experience in order to "live and love with abandon."  At times I found myself tempted to cheer out loud as Harper championed our Savior as wildly pro-women, wildly confrontational, and wildly redemptive.  Other times I was moved to tears when she reminded me that Christ is wildly devoted and wildly attentive. 

There is only one component of this book that I wish were different.  Harper is a well-educated and articulate theologian, and by no means is this a shallow, fluffy Bible study book. 

Unfortunately, Harper occasionally tries too hard to make her Bible stories contemporary.  For example, the otherwise strong second chapter describes Mary's discovery that they had left Jesus behind in Jerusalem after the Passover.  "As soon as she got to the Holy City, she pulled Jesus's middle school picture -- the one that showed His cowlick and braces -- out of her wallet and began asking everyone if they'd seen Him.  She. . .knocked on doors,retraced their steps, and put fliers on windshields."  While I understand the literary attempt at connection, it comes across as over the top, distracting, and slightly irreverent.  Though tempted to discard the book after several similar passages, I am very glad I persisted to the end.  Harper seemed to have gotten that style out of her system and settles into a thoughtful, reverent, yet very contemporarily relevant book.

Untamed is appropriate for Sunday school, women's Bible studies, or as a small group or personal study.

“I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”

A Book is Born!

As my loyal subscribers, I wanted you to be the first to know.

At 2:08 a.m. this morning, Wednesday, June 15,  the book Joy in the Journey -- Encouragement for Homeschooling Moms was born.  It was a painful labor.  After the first 7-1/2 hours of labor, the manuscript was kidnapped into cyberspace, never to return.

Labor began again on Sunday afternoon and concluded this morning with a successful delivery.

Many thanks to my daughters who lent their typing fingers to the task as well as adopted daughters Katherine and Taylor.  Thanks also to those of you who have been praying for me and encouraging me along the way.

For those of you outside the homeschooling community, the book is a compliation of ten years of monthly devotionals that I have written to encourage and challenge homeschooling moms in our support group.  Over the years kind readers (Pat, I think you were the first)  have suggested that I would write a book someday.  I would smile politely, thankful for your vision, but didn't really believe you.  The possibility of publication emerged in January at writer's conference sponsored by Christian Devotions, a publishing company and owner of a website of the same name. Thank you, Lisa, for dragging me along!

The challenge of compiling 40 devotions into a cohesive document was daunting, especially given the fact that many of them existed in hard copy only and had to be typed into an electronic format.  As I read back through the years of writings, it reminded me again of the unique challenges that face homeschooilng families.  Knowing that the Lord might want to use my words to encourage an even larger group of dedicated homeschooling moms was strong motivation.  So we pressed on.

When two thirds of the manuscript was lost on Sunday, I recognized it as a defining moment .  I could quit or start over.  The words of the very title of my own book and blog rang in my ears.  "Be not weary in well doing, for you WILL reap a harvest if you do not faint."  I wanted to cry, but knew that I didn't have time for such nonsense.  I had to get back to work!  For some reason, in His sovereignty, God had chosen to discard the manuscript and wanted  me to begin again.  I lamented in a text message to my band of prayer warriors (thank you Susie, Mandy, Cheryl, Alicia, and Debbie) and started typing again.

Perhaps the words weren't just right.  Maybe there was a devotion that I had missed that needed to be in there because God has a person in mind who needs it.  Maybe I needed to learn another lesson in perseverance and trust to make me stronger.  Maybe I needed to enlist more prayer support for the effort (thank you Ladies Bible Study gals at Kilbourne Park).  Whatever the reason, I chose to trust God and press on.  I might still cry, but I'm too tired right now for such an effort.

What can you do now, my dear friends?  Pray and keep praying.  I received a confirmation receipt from the acquisition editor early this morning ( 7 am, NOT 2 am), so it is officially in the review process.  He will decide whether the book goes any farther with them, or if I should seek another venue.  This publishing company has a desire to reach out to the homeschooling community by publishing good quality materials, so it could be a good fit.

I'll keep you updated, though the review process is usually terribly slow. 

I love you all!!!!!

UPDATE AS OF DEC. 12, 2011:

Joy in the Journey is on its way to the printer. It is targeted for release in January and will be available through Mardel.com by early February.