Pray for His Heart
Pray He Will Be a God Lover
For Patience
For Understanding
For Trust
For Loyalty and Faithfulness
For Strength
For Protection
For Intimacy
For “The List”
For Contentment
For Commitment.

The authors appear to have a real desire to encourage young women to allow God the timing and purposes in their lives that lead up to marriage, to pray over their future husbands and to prepare their own hearts.  The younger generations need this kind of encouragement, mentorship and love.

This book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

As a mom, I want all children to have access to the necessities of life, just like my own kids do.  I can’t imagine not being able to get my daughters the medication they need when strep makes it’s ugly self known, or clean cool water when they are thirsty.  Nor can I imagine life without Jesus to comfort them when the deep ugliness of this sin wrecked world brushes by, or when our own sin wrecked words sting.

Beautiful Lesbia

the Guapo Bryan

I’ve joined the “mom” team, to pray for these precious young ones, to offer words of hope and encouragement to do what is right and good in the letters that I write each month.  And that $38 a month we send for each of these children?  It does far more for each of those children and their families than it could for me if I stuck it in my pocket.

• Food and clean water
• Medical care
• Educational opportunities
• Important life-skills training
• Most important of all, your sponsored child will hear about Jesus Christ and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God.

That’s just what your money will cover.  Your prayers and letters full of words of hope and encouragement can tell the child how precious and loved she/he is.  And your act of sponsorship will tell a mom and dad, or a single mom or dad that they are not alone in their hope and fight for a life above poverty for this child.

These days I often find myself thinking, pondering things that Builder says in passing.  Having him home for several months, we get to hear great things from him.  He was recently sharing words of encouragement to our daughters that ended with something like this…

and then there are those who spend most of their lives just healing from injustices of this sinful word.

Those words stuck with me for quite awhile.  Those words really fit.  Ick.  And then, as I slowly read through Pearl Girls encountering grit, experiencing grace, these words…

…through the grace of God,  I do what I do…to live life intentionally…to make the next right choice regardless of circumstances or choices in the past.  I do what I do because my mother did not have that encouragement and her song went unsung. (my paraphrase) words of Kendra Smiley

 It has been a long road since childhood abuses were inflicted and neglect left me alone in my pain.  A road that has been filled with so much debris from the past that made moving forward a slower than slow process. 

But these new words, spoken in love, have ushered in something different.  The road looks smoother and less littered with ugly debris.  My vision is more clear to see debris and call it what it is, instead of bumping into it blindly.  What’s more, old scars don’t feel so tender, instead they are more soft and pliable.  There’s a desire and a strength to now lift my shield higher, over others, use this sword of mine, for others.

It is my desire that while I am broken by the sin of others and by the sin within, that I can show my daughters how to laugh at the days to come becuase of the love that has won me, has renewed me.  It is my newly found desire to share my story, the story of hope given to this very cracked clay vessel.  And show my daughters how to do so as well.

I’m taking the next step, intentionally making a choice, a right choice, a good choice, with gratitude and joy.  Ready to give an account for the hope which is in me!

counting with the gratitude community to #897

Bike rides in the spring

Discovering spring flowers during a walk with a dear friend, life springing from the ground as life springs from our conversation

 A day to rest and allow the pain to subside
Inhaler to keep asthma at bay, allergy meds to help me just get through the day, and night
Understanding family
Desk partially cleared

An 8 oclock appointment tomorrow morning, a next step
Mae’s understanding even with tears, when we say not yet,
 Sweet books with the youngest
While the older girls share an exciting evening with Daddy
Chocolate with almonds
More confirmation of words that I think, that God is answering my prayers for wisdom
Friendly family dogs

Earlier this month I came across this list of books, to read to encourage strong girls, that made me smile and think back on some of the best books we’ve read to and with our daughters.  As summer approaches I think I’ll pull a couple of titles to enjoy on warm lazy afternoons. 

This month I have read and listened to a few books from, and in addition to my 2012 list:

Eternity in Their Hearts by Don Richardson.  Startling Evidence of Belief in the One True God in Hundreds of Cultures Throughout the World This book was given to me by a friend during a discussion about missions and unreached peoples.  It confirmed to me that yes, while it is a task given by the Lord to go out to share the Gospel, unreached people groups do have in their belief systems a knowledge of the One True God.

What’s the Big Deal?  Why God Cares about Sex. by Stan and Brenna Jones.
A few years ago I purchased this series, God’s Design for Sex, at the recommendation of friends who also have a household full of daughters.  Coming from the childhoods that Beloved and I had, I wanted to gather resources and information to better pass on truth regarding growing up and womanhood to our precious young ladies.

Each of the books in this series has been helpful, although the presentation of  What’s the Big Deal? is less appealing to me.  It is written as a dialogue between mother, father, son and daughter.  After reading it one evening, I decided to simply use it as a spring board for conversations.

One Bite at a Time, 2 Projects for Making Life Simpler by Tsh Oxenreider – The title of this book immediately grabbed my attention.  In our immediate and extended family we have a saying when a project or duty looms big…”how do you eat this elephant?”  “one bite at a time”.

This book is the helpful tool that helps me put into practice what I gleaned from Organized Simplicity.  One bite or project at a time. 

The project “Eat that Frog” was the launching point for the 2 important changes I made in my morning routine.  Getting that frog eaten first thing every day has been a funny way to established my small exercise routine and to remember to take my medication each day.

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.
An encouraging read and a helpful tool to develop a deeper prayer life, specifically for my husband, but also in general.  Many of the “prayers” helped me to find a fuller vocabulary as I pray throughout the day.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
This story was a surprise to me.  About a year ago our Mae asked about reading the book but I asked her to focus on her book list.  With the movie coming out I decided to read the book with the hope that I could hand it to her and be able to discuss it as she read it.  In keeping with my hope to give our children “good” food for their minds, this is not a book we will circulate at this time.

While this story is well written, and there are several messages to discuss and to think on, the subject matter is very heavy.  I believe it is more suited to older young adults, more in the later high school, college years.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  Philippians 4:8

Family Reading
Mathematicians are People, Too, Stories from the Lives of Great Mathematicians by Luetta Reimer & Wlibert Reimer.

 It has taken us about 6 months to read through this book, as it is a once a week or less often read during our family learning time.  Mathematicians are People, Too has been a real boost to our math studies. 

Reading about the very real people who made the discoveries and often fought to make them known, has given us a different understanding of these this subject.  We enjoyed the stories and have been inspired to pursue our math studies with more enthusiasm.  We are looking forward to starting Mathematician’s are People, Too, Volume 2 in the next school year.

The Lord of the Rings Part One, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien.  After reading The Hobbit in January, we jumped right into Frodo’s quest.  As a youth, I don’t think I read more than one or two pieces of classic literature and it is very exciting to be sharing great classics as a family.  I hope that reading these together not only brings great enjoyment to each member of our family, builds some good warm memories, but I also hope this lights a fire of interest in the hearts of each of us to enjoy a good book, even a classic book very often throughout the rest of our lives..

So rich are the discussions that have sprung up during these 6 weeks, and so fun are the “at the right moment” quotations.  It is a sweet reminder when any one of us is holding too tightly to something for a sibling, daughter, spouse to say in a fun voice “my precious.”

Much to my disappointment, I have found myself casting a cloud on the story in my over preachy urgency to interrupt the story to talk (me talk) about the accurate reflection of the darkness of our human heart.  This is a matter of prayer as we plan to read The Two Towers after a short detour into the works of Shakespeare.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey ~ Chica and I had some time over the weekend to read a couple of pictures books, something that has fallen by the wayside in our busyness. 

This is the delightful story of little Sal and her mother during a day of berry picking, to can for winter.  I am so thankful that Chica pulled this one off the shelf, as it brought back some fond memories and the idea to make some new ones!
. 
AudioBooks~
The Money Saving Mom’s Budget by Crystal Paine.  As a part of a blog tour I wrote a review for this audio book here.

A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada.  My thoughts from this book are here.

This Moment ~ An extraordinary moment, or string of moments in this week, that I want to savor, remember and enjoy the sweetness of these days.

ready to go, just waitin’

 
all the girls have grown into new helmets, bikes

a long distance down the road, i drive the pickup vehicle.

  
littlest is right behind them

 
the reward for them

  and a gift for me.

Want to play Five Minute Friday? 
1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt- no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link here and invite others to join in.
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Gift:

Hello Friends,

Have you heard of Katie Davis, Amazima or Kisses from Katie?

I know that I talk a lot about Compassion International.  I love Compassion, the work they do, the kids we sponsor.  And we, our family, also love Amazima and the work done by Katie Davis. 

Just in case you haven’t heard, I want to introduce you to Katie and the work she does in Uganda.

If you are looking for a way to support missions while you shop, I’d like to recommend to you handcrafted jewelry made with Ugandan love.  My daughters gave me a beautiful strand of the “heavenly blue” for Christmas.  It thrills me to wear something that a woman in Amazima’s beading program made, and to know that through this she made money to support her family.

Please take a few minutes and “get to know” this extraordinary ministry.

By Quiet Waters recieves no compensation from Amazima.  This post was written in joyful support of the work they do.