Katrina, over at Callapidder Days, hosts a reading challenge every season. I’ve joined the challenge twice and failed the challenge twice also. This time, I’m hoping I’ll be able to read everything that’s on my list.
Here goes:
FICTION:
1. Baby Proof by Emily Giffin – Picked up this book last week. I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time so I took advantage of the sale over at Bestsellers, the bookstore near my office. Looks like a light read so I’m hoping to finish this quickly.
2. Quaker Summer by Lisa Samson - I finally got myself a copy! I’ve been seeing this book on other people’s lists the past two reading challenges
and have heard great things about it. Can’t wait to read.
3. A Place Called Here by Cecelia Ahern - Ahern is one of my favorite chick lit authors. I thoroughly enjoyed PS I Love You and If You Could See Me
Now. This one’s plot looks promising.
4. The Fiction Class by Susan Breen - The only book on my list that I don’t yet own a copy of. Borrowing a copy from my friend Varsha. Seems like a good read.
2. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson - Started reading the first few chapters. It is SO good. I would recommend it to people who need fresh fire in
their lives. Will certainly make you get up and do something!
3. The Seven Pillars of Health by Don and Mary Colbert – I’m on the second section of this book and let me tell you, it’s THE book to read if you want to get healthy. Based on biblical principles, practical, and well researched book.
I would want to add a few more but this looks like all I can manage for now. If I get to finish two in the next week. I’ll probabaly be able to add a few more titles.
What are YOU reading? Would love to hear from you.
Boyce Avenue. They make covers sound even better than the original. I liked Bleeding Love when I first heard it but now, I am completely hooked. And it’s not because of Leona Lewis. It’s because of these guys. Fantastic.
I just finished listening to a preaching by one of my favorite preachers in the whole world – my former boss Pastor Joey Bonifacio. Last February, our Fort church went through a preaching series called What about Love? In this series, they talked about what the Bible says about love. This particular preaching that I listened to was entitled “Love Hurts.”
The preaching came at the perfect time because now, more than ever, I am feeling how love hurts. I’m not heartbroken, mind you. If you listen to the preaching, it talks about how it says in the bible that God disciplines those he loves. And if anyone of you has experienced disciplined in the past, you know that it’s not the most enjoyable thing to experience.
I have always had a problem with discipline. Discipline was not a word I encountered very much growing up. There were not a lot of rules that I had to follow. I wasn’t corrected a lot. I guess it’s because I’ve managed to always pass the bare minimum requirements in everything I did. I managed to not attract attention by being the best behaved among my cousins. I managed to pass all my subjects and maybe even to be good at some of the things I engaged in academically and so my study habits (or lack of it) were never watched over or corrected. I managed to look like I had it together when in fact I did not so that no one would remember to sit me down and tell me what I was doing wrong.
It’s not because I hate correction because I’ve come to realize that I feel more loved when someone cares enough to point out what I’m doing wrong. I think it’s more the fear of being discovered that I need help. Growing up I never liked admitting that there were things I could not do. I would rather move on to the next task if I had to deal with asking someone for help. I guess it’s because I hate not measuring up. I hate it when people have expectations of me and I am not able to meet them. I hate it.
I think that’s why now God is putting me in situations where I need to ask for help, where I need to admit that I don’t know a lot of things and I need to be trained and mentored. I need to go up to people and ask them to help me. Something I have never really done in the past but now is something I need to do.
Love hurts. Yes, it does. But it’s certainly comforting to know that God disciplines only those that He loves.
This time, I’m hoping I’ll be able to read everything that’s on my list.
