It is time for a
FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between!
Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
Today's Wild Card author is:
and the book:
Harvest House Publishers (September 1, 2011)
***Special thanks to Karri James | Marketing Assistant | Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Angela Thomas is a sought-after speaker, teacher, and bestselling author of Do You Think I’m Beautiful, My Single Mom Life, Prayers for My Baby Boy, and Prayers for My Baby Girl. She inspires thousands at national conferences, workshops, and through video studies that she filmed and wrote including When Wallflowers Dance.
Visit the author's
website.
SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Bestselling author and mother of four Angela Thomas delivers a helpful, encouraging gathering of 52 inspiring ideas for moms who, in the whir of busyness, long to connect with their kids. Moms will learn to lead with God’s love in the small moments that make up an abundant, intentional life.
Product Details:
List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (September 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736943919
ISBN-13: 978-0736943918
My Thoughts:
I am reading this slowly, just a chapter or two at a time, and I am absolutely loving it! Each chapter address a small action that we as mothers can do to bless our children. They include heartwarming stories. And almost every chapter has brought tears to my eyes. I love the encouraging tone and the personal narratives. There are some suggestions that I had already been doing, and others that I have consciously thought about putting into action. Many I look back and remember my parents doing for me, and I felt blessed all over again. In short chapters, Thomas gives small suggestions that I believe make a huge difference. I would highly recommend this book to all mothers. I can almost guarantee that anyone can glean parenting wisdom from this book!
AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:
Kids Need Their Mom…
To Pray in Secret
with the Door Open
In my first years as a mom, I desperately wanted to keep a passionate spiritual life with God. I wanted to read the Bible. Sit quietly and pray. Maybe even write a few things in my journal. It’s just that my little people would not cooperate. I had four babies in seven years, and not one of them was willing to go along with my plan. My heart kept longing to go back and have a spiritual life the way I’d always had. Alone. It took me a while to realize that being a mom means you might never be alone again.
Frustrated. Probably even mad sometimes. I remember shaking my head and just fussing on the inside about my crazy, chaotic predicament. I am trying to be with God so that I can be a better mom. Anybody with me here? As you can imagine, being alone rarely happened. And I’d feel guilty about my crumbling spiritual life. And the only ones I knew to blame were them, the ones I loved so dearly, who needed me every minute.
I’d love to tell you that the answer for my struggle came to me in a moment of brilliance. But I was too tired to be brilliant. There was just an afternoon. I think I put on a video for the kids to watch and went upstairs to my bedroom. For some reason I kept the door open and sat down on the floor to read my Bible for a minute, and then I stretched out, facedown, on my carpet to pray. I guess I had been praying for one whole minute, and then they came.
I could hear them coming down the hall, but that day, instead of stopping what I was doing, I just kept lying there, praying. Of course, they walked right in, and I’m sure you can guess what they did. They crawled on top of me. And they played with my hair. And they wiggled their little faces up to mine.
“Hey, mama,” one whispered.
“Hey, honey,” a gentle, not frustrated, voice spoke from inside of me.
“Watcha doin’?” they said in unison.
“Praying.”
“Oh…it looked like you were sleeping,” an honest observer said.
It’s been known to happen, I admitted to myself.
Do you know what they did next? Those little toddling children lay down beside me and mostly of on top of me and prayed too. Oh, they prayed squirrelly prayers that lasted for only a couple of minutes, but they prayed. My babies were praying because they had seen their mama praying.
After a few minutes they were done, but I just kept lying there while they ran in and out. Back to the video. Then back to check on praying mom. And God settled something inside of me that afternoon. The days of being a college coed with lots of time to be alone to pray were over. That chapter was closed. And honestly, I didn’t want to go back. I just longed for the sweetness of how I used to spend time with God.
But lying on my bedroom floor that day, I knew I heard Him speaking to me:
This is how I want you to pray now. Pray in secret—with the door open. I want them to see you being with Me. I want them to catch you turning to your heavenly Father for guidance. I want them to learn from you how to walk with Me. No dramatic presentation needed. No fanfare required. Angela, this is a new season with a new way. And this new way for your heart pleases Me.
I remember being so very humbled. And grateful. My uptight, “everything must be right” personality could have kept me away from God for years. Trying to get it all together. Trying to be just right before I could spend time with Him. But that day God so tenderly walked me step-by-step through one of the most powerful lessons about grace I have ever known.
Come to Me messy.
Come when you’re tired.
Let the children lie on top of you.
Let them interrupt you.
You do not have to be perfect…just come to Me and let them see.
A woman stopped me last night. She said she’d heard me tell this story a few years ago and it completely changed her as a mom. She too had been trying to keep the rules and do things neatly, in order, the way she always had. She told me, “I do my Bible study sitting on the bathroom floor while my kids are in the tub. Most of the pages are warped by splashes of water, and some of my notes written in ink run, but those messy, imperfect books are treasures to me now.”
My kids are older now, but the lesson remains. They still need to catch me praying. They should walk past my room and know I’m reading my Bible. They need to find the notes I’ve taken lying on the counter in the kitchen. They need to overhear me praying with a friend on the phone.
I bet your kids do too.
It seems that the lessons we so want to teach our kids are transferred—and not because we sit them down in the living room, pass out ten pages about being spiritual, and then give them a long-winded lecture about how our family is going to follow God. The thing that shapes them more deeply is that you and I pursue God in the everyday of living—that our spiritual lives become the backdrop for their childhood. Bibles left open are normal. A kneeling, praying mom is an ordinary sight. Bibles studies done at bath time, routine.
Reaching Their Hearts
One afternoon I had gone to pray in secret, but God so beautifully taught me that my “secret” needed to be seen. Jesus said in Matthew 6 that we are supposed to keep a secret life. To give in secret, pray in secret, and fast in secret. But I think that when we become moms, for a season those sets of eyes sent from heaven to watch you need to see what you do with God in your “unseen” moments.
May it be so for you and me. And may the children who witness our prayers learn to pray more powerfully because they catch us being with God.
"
For Review: The Baker's Wife by Erin Healy
Irene Hannon's books are entertaining, fast reads that always include strong Christian characters, spiritual growth and often scripture applications. In Fatal Judgement, judge Liz Michaels loses her sister when an assassin shoots the wrong woman. Jake Taylor is assigned protection duty and is not too happy. He and the judge have a history: Jake believes that Liz is an uncaring workaholic who is responsible for the possible suicide of his college buddy, Doug, who was also her husband. As the two work together, Jake discovers that he may have been misinformed, and protecting Liz becomes more important to him than ever. 
Julie Lessman does not disappoint in the second installment of The Winds of Change series, which is actually her fifth book featuring the O'Conner family. I LOVE this book, this series, this author! A Heart Revealed begins and ends with a wedding. At the first wedding Sean O'Conner is not himself and frightens everyone, especially Mrs. Emma Malloy, a close family friend. After escaping an abusive husband, his temper brings back memories that she'd rather keep hidden. Sean is holding on to painful memories as well. The two of them must release the past into God's hands, in order to move forward toward the love He has planned for them. 
The Queen is the fifth book in a series by Steven James about special agent, Patrick Bowers. In this installment, Bowers is investigating a double homicide in Wisconsin. He finds traces of computer hacking and eco-terrorism, and the mystery doesn't look as simple as others thought. Patrick's brother Sean lives nearby, which adds another layer to the story due to a conflicted past.
Steven James is married with three daughters and lives in Tennessee. Visit his website here. He received the 2009 and 2011 Christy awards for best suspense, and The Bishop was 2010 Book of the Year for both Suspense Magazine and The Christian Manifesto. He is author of over thirty books, including the five Patrick Bowers thrillers. This series includes The Pawn, The Rook, The Knight, The Bishop, and now The Queen. Click on the titles to check out my reviews of the three previous titles. 
This week I won a book from A Christian Writer's World: a signed copy of Plain Fear: Forsaken by Leanna Ellis. I received a book for review from Tyndale: Forsaking All Others by Allison Pittman
Okay, so this is definitely not Christian fiction, which is obviously what I prefer. Being secular fiction, my biggest complaint about this book was the language. There was quite a bit of swearing and foul language. Also, it is a thriller--so there was some graphic blood and guts. However, this series had been recommended to me a number of times while running the bookstore and a couple times since. Because it is so far from my usual genre, I debated about whether to post a review, but here it is... 
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
In My Mailbox Monday originates from two blogs: Check out MailboxMondayand The Story Siren. I am using it to highlight any books that come into my house the previous week, whether they are form the library, from a store, from a friend, e-books, or actually in the mailbox.
If you've read my previous post, I'm sure that you have gathered that I would definitely recommend this book. The Confident Heart by Renee Swope is what I would describe as a Christian-motivational book. Renee shares personal stories of trials, failures, and successes to relay a strong theme about our worth in Christ. She uses Scripture references and Scripture-based prayers to reinforce the message and help readers overcome their self-doubt. Some of the things that she said, I have heard before, but she stated them in a new and fresh way: a way that touched my heart and changed my thinking. The imagery and metaphors that she used were so tangible, that even though I haven't finished reading the book, I already feel more confident. I know that even though I do fail, I am not a failure. God was not trying to make someone or something else when he made me. He wants me to be--ME!! 
Renee Swope is executive director of Proverbs 31 Ministries, a non-denominational, non-profit ministry dedicated to helping women along their journeys with Christ. She is an author and speaker. Her website has assorted resources. There is one called the 7-day doubt diet that works in conjunction with this book. I just signed up for it yesterday and am excited to delve into the extras she is offering.
Last year, I felt a prompting to send a women in my church an encouraging letter. I did not know her well, but what I observed was a beautiful woman of God. She always looks put together; she is friendly and confident...not only that but she is down to earth and genuine. At Bible studies, she always shares relevant insights that she learns during her time with the Lord. What could I do that would encourage a woman like that. I am disorganized, struggle to have a consistent quiet time, am too shy to share during small groups...Her strengths are so evident, and it looks like she has no weaknesses. While I know that is not true, unfortunately MY weaknesses are ever so obvious to me. And I could not see what I had to offer. I was afraid that she would think-"why did she write me" or "she is so strange." A couple of weeks later, she shared that on the very week I thought of writing her, she was struggling. The enemy was attacking her with lies, and using interactions with a close friend of hers to enforce those lies. God wanted to use me in that situation, but I allowed doubt to stop me from obeying and being used by Him. 
