Even Now * Ever After by Karen Kingsbury

...This is actually a re-read but you can never read a Karen Kingsbury book too often...

A teenager discovers she is pregnant. Two sets of parents separate a couple determined to marry. A young girl grows up without either her father or mother.

The most difficult of circumstances tempered by the realization that without faith there can be no reconciliation.

...have I mentioned that I love Karen Kingsbury?

A Borrowed Lent

This the first (and probably only) time I have written about a book before I have read it. I am not really writing about the book, though, more about why I am going to be reading it.

Despite currently being a member of a non-denominational church, I have attended Baptist churches my entire life. As a Baptist, celebrating Lent is something we did not do. I don't remember how old I was when the practice was first brought to my attention, but I do remember wondering what chocolate, or caffeine, or pop (that's "soda" for you Southerners) had to do with Easter.

This past Christmas, I was given a renewed interest in the Advent, not in the traditional practices but in the setting a part of each day to focus on the upcoming holiday and why it is celebrated. So, when I read an article by Nancy Leigh DeMoss about using the Lenten season to set aside time to prepare for Easter, I thought it was an interesting idea.

This weekend I was away at a conference and spent some time at Barnes & Noble (What could possibly be more fun?). While browsing the shelves, I came across this book by John Piper. (You can actually download the book from his website.)

So, for the next fifty days...which will take me right to Easter...I will be borrowing the practice of Lent, and tweaking it a little, by reading "...fifty reasons. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes - in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners in sending his Son to die?"

Decision Points by George W. Bush

I start writing this knowing I can never do justice to what the book contains. For me the lines that best summarize the book, and the presidency of George W. Bush, are those following...

"Freedom is not an American value; it is a universal value. Freedom cannot be imposed; it must be chosen. And when people are given a choice, they choose freedom."

Like the Karl Rove autobiography, one of the things I most appreciated in reading this book was the complete openness in what he had to say. Love him or hate him, experiencing the events of those life-altering eight years from the perspective of the man making the decisions helps the reader to understand them in fresh way.

I truly believe that President Bush was motivated in his decision making by the ideal of freedom. He strove to protect it here in the United States and believed that its absence in other parts of the world was a threat to America. It was tyranny and oppression that allowed the growth and spread of terrorism and the best way to fight tyranny and oppression is with liberty.

President Bush was not a perfect man or a perfect president. He made mistakes. He owns his mistakes. To me, this is one of the things that makes him a good man. Despite what many in the media attempted to portray, he always acted with a sense of vision and purpose. He refused to act until issues had a sense of clarity. He did what thought was best for the nation. You may agree with him or disagree with him, but I find it  difficult to doubt his sincerity.

I could write so much more, but if you are going to spend time reading....you might as well just read the book!

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems by Janet & Geoff Benge

One of the books we previously studied in our Sunday School class spent a lot of time looking at women who have made an impact for Christ in the world. It was great to read how these women sacrificed and worked to change the world, so when I came across some biographies at a discount bookstore in Ohio I decided to share them with the girls. For the past few months we have taken 10-15 minutes of each class to read through the biography of Amy Carmichael.

In today's self-centered world the idea of someone walking away from everything they have ever known to move around the globe and work with children that others literally do not want to touch is a foreign one. Recently, we have been studying imperialism at school. Frequently in the study of history, Christians are seen in a negative light because the spread of "European civility" and sharing ones faith in Christ are linked together by historians. In reality it was often Christians like Amy Carmichael who worked to make life better for those suffering, those everyone else overlooked.