What's On My Nightstand, February

Here's a look at what I'm reading this month!

I recently finished reading...
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger, for our January book club. Loved it again!
Holiness: Its Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Root by J.C. Ryle, an exposition of the believer's sanctification. Good stuff!
The Mountains Bow Down by Sibella Giorello. I loved the first books in this series so despite retiring from the book review business I decided to give it one more go when offered this title as part of a blogger book tour. I liked it, perhaps not as much as the others, but I liked it nonetheless.

I'm currently reading...
Suncatchers by Jamie Langston Turner. She's one of my favorite novelists. I hadn't read this, her first book, so when I saw it at the thrift store for 50 cents, I grabbed it up. So far, so good.
Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life by Elyse Fitzpatrick, for this month's book club. Good, good, good! I'm about halfway through and I have nothing to criticize and everything to recommend. It's the gospel and real life, a message I need to hear (and heed) daily.
Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever. This a re-read, this time for our Wednesday night class at church. If you haven't read it, you should.
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp. I told you I'd started this one and, well, I'm still only three chapters in.

I plan to read next...
I'd like to read the next books in the series by Jamie Langston Turner: Some Wildflower in My Heart and By the Light of a Thousand Stars. I haven't read either one in years but Suncatchers has whetted my appetite and I look forward to revisiting them. In March our book club will be reading Through Gates of Splendor by Elizabeth Elliott and I am definitely looking forward to that! I've got a couple of memoirs in my stack that I may jump into (Girl Meets God and I am Hutterite). I'd also like to finish up Surprised by Grace and When People Are Big and God is Small, both of which I started reading ages ago and never got around to finishing.

What about you? What are you reading this month? Let us know in the comments or link up at 5 Minutes for Books!

True Confessions

• I need to make a grocery list. Monday is my grocery day but so far I've done nothing to make it happen. Any menu suggestions?
• My neighbor is moving to another part of town and I am sad.
• I am also envious. I've confessed my inner gypsy to you before. Lately I have been even more restless and tempted to indulge in discontent and the desire for a new address.
• Last week in Bible study we discussed Psalm 16 and I testified how that psalm encourages me when I am prone to dissatisfaction and resentment. I told the group that when I remember that I have a beautiful inheritance in Jesus Himself I can do even the most mundane of tasks with joy. I can be content whatever my lot because of Christ.
• Sometimes after I give confident testimony, I crash and burn and I struggle in that very area of my life. 
• Sometimes I think if I have to do one more load of laundry I will scream. Or lose my mind. Or something. Sometimes it's hard to remember my beautiful inheritance in the midst of so much that is the same, day in and day out, day after day the same. Like laundry. And packing lunches. And going to the grocery on Mondays. Just keepin' it real.
• We've had an exciting week of sports around here: my second son scored a header goal in his varsity soccer debut and my oldest son's basketball team made it to the sweet sixteen of the state tournament!
• Sometimes a mom just likes to brag.
• I always feel a little guilty when I do brag on my kids because one of my biggest fears is becoming one of those moms (you know of what I speak)...
• We watched the second Wall Street movie the other night. I couldn't understand most of what was happening and I felt a little dumb, at least in regard to money and stock and buyouts and just about everything else related to financial markets. 
• Speaking of feeling dumb...I began reading One Thousand Gifts a week or so ago. Ann Voskamp writes with an ethereal, almost mystical beauty, the kind that makes you hold your breath as you read. And yet...yet I found myself kind of confused when I tried to figure out what she was actually saying. I even emailed a friend to ask! So, I felt dumb because evidently plain Jane prose is more to my taste and understanding...
• I haven't finished reading One Thousand Gifts yet so please don't hear me passing judgment on the book or the merit of its message.
• I thought when one got to the ripe old age of 42 she might have gotten past feeling dumb and ridiculous.
• I was wrong.
• I wish I were blogging more.
• We've been enjoying some warmer weather with temps rising to the 70 mark! Despite my professed love for winter, I confess that maybe spring doesn't sound so bad.
• I even wore flip flops this morning to take the kids to school, and this after telling my friends yesterday at church that I just couldn't go there, not flip flops, not in February. Yet further proof of how the mighty may fall! :)
• I will now attempt a grocery list even as I preach the truth to myself, that Christ is enough and He is everything and in Him I find fullness of joy! He is my beautiful inheritance, my greatest Treasure, my life and my joy!

Friday's Fave Five

Joining the gang at Susanne's and posting my five favorites of the week:

1. A visit from my sister and her two children last weekend. Our visits are too few and much too far between. My husband and I (and the boys too) had fun trying to spoil her kids just a little. I wish we lived closer!

2. An evening of great food, great coffee and great conversation at the home of new friends last Saturday night. I love being around friends who love to bless others with their hospitality! I also love the bond that exists between believers because of Jesus. How good He is to us!

3. Sunday morning worship at my church. Hearing one couple's testimony of God's grace in their lives and then welcoming them as new members. Partaking of the Lord's supper with my sisters and brothers and fellow church members. Being convicted by the preaching of God's Word. A good morning, indeed.

4. The beautiful snowfall this week. It was the fourth such occurrence this season and still I think it beautiful, particularly when it doesn't interfere with school and other obligations.

5. My fifth and final favorite of the week has yet to occur but I'm looking forward to it so much that it most definitely deserves a spot on the favorite list: I am finally getting the long overdue cut and color. Yes, call me frivolous, but I'm talking about my hair. Not only am I looking shaggy but I also remotely resemble a skunk what with all the gray! So, yeah, I'm headed to the beauty shop and I'm excited. And yes, I suppose I am just that shallow! :)

What about you? What are your favorites of the week? Let us know in the comments or link up over at Living to Tell the Story!

Status Report, February

Sitting...at the kitchen table.

Drinking...coffee, black, and eating a pop tart. Yes, indeed, the breakfast of champions.

Marveling...at yet another snowfall. Yes, snow! In Alabama! For what, the third time this season? Fourth? Amazing! And gorgeous. This snow has covered all the tree limbs and it is so beautiful.

Canceling...Bible study this morning. Bummer. Some of the moms in the group have children in a neighboring school system which delayed their start time this morning due to the snow. So we had to comply as well. Though I was woefully behind in my preparation due to a day spent on the sofa with the beginning stages of this sinus junk, I am disappointed that our discussion of Psalm 16 will be delayed a week.

Blowing...my nose every two minutes as I type. How's that for a visual? Being sick is the pits.

Praising...the Lord for His countless mercies and abundant blessings. His living Word and the privilege to study it with a group of godly, passionate women. My church and the joy of welcoming new members to serve alongside us. My husband. My boys. Our home. Our families. The beauty of the snow. Friends I know face to face and friends I know via the internet. And on and on and on it goes. Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! Grace, grace, God's grace!

Reading...hardly anything at all. For real. I have only a few pages left in Holiness by J.C. Ryle and cannot seem to find the time to finish it up. Maybe today since I have a snow day in lieu of Bible study! I recently finished Peace Like a River by Leif Enger for our book club and loved it all over again. Once (if) I finish Holiness, I will read Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick for our February book club. I'm looking forward to it.

Humbled...by all your sweet comments on yesterday's post. Thank you for encouraging me!

Thinking...through a couple of posts caught in my draft pile. Another one on blogging and one on motivations and goals of Bible study, both of which take far more brain power to write and edit than, say, the humble status report, which is why you're reading this instead of one of those! :)

Planning...my day of cleaning, laundry (always and forever), and errands. Wanting instead to climb in bed and watch Masterpiece Theater. Or something.

Finishing...this post so I can begin my day of cleaning, laundry (always and forever), and errands. Perhaps I can squeeze in a few more pages of Holiness as well!

Pouring...another cup of coffee.

Happy Thursday, friends!

Why I Don't Blog

I've thinking about this post by Trevin Wax on whether or not blogging is essentially self promotion. It's an interesting read and if you haven't already I hope you'll click over and read it, particularly if you are a blogger.

I like what he says about service and stewardship and his confession that blogging is sometimes hard work (What? Him too? Why does that offer such relief?). As he states his motivation for blogging, I am stirred by a desire to blog more regularly:

I blog because there are people who (for whatever reason) find this blog worthy of their time and attention. I want to serve those readers faithfully, and I want to properly steward the little bit of influence God has given me.

My readership is small by anyone's standards but I don't ever forget you are out there and when my blogging is sporadic at best I will admit a sense of responsibility to those of you who do visit and read, however many or few of you there are. Sometimes that sense of responsibility morphs into full blown guilt which seems to me to be pretty silly. I mean, of all things to feel guilty over, not blogging is a little ridiculous. But, hey, often, too often, I wear guilt as a second skin. I think our enemy effectively uses guilt in the lives of most women (this woman in particular) to keep us cowed down and hating ourselves. But, I digress.

So Trevin's post is spot on and quite inspiring. But the truth of the matter is I don't blog as often as I'd like or my sense of service and stewardship (rightly or wrongly) dictates. It isn't because I somehow despise or take for granted the trust of my readers. On the contrary! Rather, when I don't blog it's because my real life precludes my virtual one. I'm not blogging because I'm doing laundry and cheering at basketball games. I'm running errands and I'm cramming for Bible study. I'm cooking supper and chatting on the phone with friends. I'm mopping the floor (okay, only on occasion) and walking the puppy (or, alternatively, standing at the back door yelling for her to come in).

In other words, I'm living my real life and sometimes I can't do it all.

This may seem an obvious truth. And, well, yeah, it is. But in some strange way remembering my inability to be and do it all is freeing. Sure I want to write. Sure being a frustrated blogger is, well, frustrating. But I'm learning that the good stewardship of my time means the service to my home and family, church and friends, takes precedence and that's okay. This is the call of God on my life: to bring glory to Him as I serve Him in the seemingly small and ordinary tasks that comprise my day to day life. Sometimes that means blogging. More of time here lately it means not. When I remember it is the Lord Jesus Christ I serve as I fold clothes or sit in car line, my frustration at not finding time to blog (or whatever other task I wish I were about) gives way to joy. Blogging or not blogging is a side issue to my earnest desire to be a woman consumed with one thing: Jesus Christ.

So, when the occasional post shows up in your reader or you click over and to your surprise there is a new post (or two, if we can be optimistic), you can know it is my honor and privilege to serve you, the reader, in grateful stewardship of this small corner of the internet that the Lord has granted me. If not, well, then it means I am seeking to joyfully live my life in all its ordinary-ness and busy-ness, giving thanks to God the Father for this, my real life. It's my prayer that you too may be found faithful in all things, real and virtual, being a good steward of the measure of influence granted to you by the Lord. Let us exalt Him in all things, sisters; He alone is worthy!