Category Archives: Book Review

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Runaway Radical: When Doing Good Goes Bad

Book Review and Giveaway

I can’t say I liked this book. It’s similar to that feeling where you leave your cursor hovering over a fb status unsure of committing to a like. You’ve just read your friend’s sudden outburst of pain or grief and your left wanting to affirm them. You want to say I hear you, I understand and yet there is no simple click to express your empathy and typed words come out flat.

Family Christian sent me Runaway Radical: A Young Man's Reckless Journey to Save the World in exchange for an honest review.

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Become a Better Friend

Natalie Chambers Snapp’s ‘Heart Sisters’ and Girls’ Night Out Giveaway

I mentioned Saturday in Should Christians be “Unoffendable” that I felt God deals with me in themes. So it should come as no surprise that the next book I pick up would build on the one before. Unoffendable was all about offering grace because we have been given so much. It spoke on how to deal with the world at large as well as those close to us, how to come alongside those with different opinions and world views and do life peacefully. Heart Sisters dug in to the inner circle.

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Should Christians be “Unoffendable”- A book review and giveaway.

Life comes at me in themes. A year ago I found myself broken, tired, a mess. I had forgotten how to rely on God to restore my heart. God offered my heart a refill and a I placed my hand over the cup, told him I’ve got this and sent him on his way. I thought someone else may need the portion more. I had forgotten that God’s grace is limitless, that there is more then enough, that I am unable to refill my own heart.

This post is sponsored by Family Christian.

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I Choose You Today - A Book Review and a Promise

There is something magical about a military ball. It is a fairy tale neatly wrapped in patriotism and loyalty with large helpings of tradition and a big bowl of grog.

Fifteen years ago, when I first met my husband, my idea of the military was from World War II movies and Nicholas Sparks. Magical, intense, filled with young love and reunited pasts.

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Is there power in our words? Let’s talk over cake.

Words are such a powerful thing. They start wars and establish peace. They usher in grace and sentence death. They begin and end freedom.

There have been words flung around with great conviction these last few weeks. “No cake for you” has been on the lips and fingertips of so many. There is a great disconnect as we each fill our heads with comebacks and convictions to fling at the other side, never really listening only ever preparing our own words. There is power in words. In the words we listen to and the words we speak.

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Helo Matzelle’s ‘Halo Found Hope’ Kindle Giveaway

God gives and He takes away. There are times when the pain comes and we ask why, and there are times when we just cry out that God is good and trust that He has this when we are to weak.

Helo Matzelle has written a beautifully raw memoir of her diagnoses of a rare brain tumor, her fear and faith that followed, treatment and the long road to recovery. While she had to relearn to control her body she also learned to hold on tight to her faith. When her faith failed her, in the moments she cried out why, she grasped on to the strength and faith of her spouse.

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Bernstain Bears Country Cookbook {Review and Giveaway}

Family Christian sent us the Bernstain Bears Country Cookbook in exchange for an honest review.

The recipes are easy enough that they need little guidance. There are some very familiar recipes mixed with some that I have never before seen. It was fun to let the kids go through, pick out a few, and then destroy the kitchen. The recipes are very simplistic and clear.

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Max Lucado’s “On Calvary’s Hill” - Review and Giveaway

The Easter story is one we hear every year. Whether we have grown up in the church or not, at some point in our lives we have more then likely heard or read of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. It is a beautiful story of sacrificial love, with twists of betrayal, suffering, defeat, and victory.

Characters grow from faithful followers around a table to complexities. Kisses and sleep betray, a thief finds forgiveness while a friend jumps to his death, death is defeated, God’s wrath is appeased, and the world is turned upside down.

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Is there power in a name? The Name Quest

Identity power in a name

Rumpelstiltskin is defeated when his name is guessed. Voldemort, Harry Potter’s nemesis, is referred to as “He who must not be named.” Only those with courage refer to him as Voldemort. Ella loses heart when her sisters bestow the name Cinderella on her, and regains herself when she uses the name to redefine who she is.

Names evoke feelings and memories. They give identity to an individual and a sense of belonging to a group. They bring forth both understanding and assumptions. As parents we spend months selecting and crafting the perfect names for our children.

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On Losing Faith and Gaining Something Far Greater {$25 Gift Card Giveaway}

At some point in our life we all have doubt. Questions go unanswered. Perhaps, it is the goodness of God in the midst of personal or global tragedy. Perhaps, it is an intellectual struggle of the existence of a creator or the authenticity of scripture. Perhaps, it is a desire to hold on to things the way they are and a tight grasp on the things we do not want to give up.

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Small Talk: Learning from My Children about What Matters Most (Review)

We have always raised our kids to question the world around them, to dig deep, to ask why and to search out the answers. So it shouldn’t surprise me when a day is filled with question after question, but it does exhaust me. I’ve been wanting to go back to school to work towards a PhD but I wonder if my children aren’t in fact more of a challenge. I wonder sometimes if motherhood, when we get to the end of it, should be awarded with an honorary doctorate.

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