My little bookshelf has been filled with some great books lately. I find myself doing less craft projects in my spare time and reading more. I think God is working on my heart in a few areas and that is just spilling over into my desire to want to know more and do less.
I was reading recently and my 4 year old asked what my book was about. I told her about being a good Mommy and she sweetly and sincerely replied, "you are a good Mommy". One of the best compliments you can receive! Let's hope she feels that way in 10 years, 20 years and so on.
If you are in that season, I wanted to share a few of my current reads with you.
I am pretty excited to read this new book by Vicki Courtney called Ever After. It is next on my list. I happen to attend church with Vicki and her wonderful husband Keith leads our Sunday School class. She always offers great wisdom to us young Moms and we are all anticipating this book with great excitement. It talks about how society, movies and even Pinterest can give us unrealistic expectations of marriage, ourselves, and our children and how to debunk those myths and focus on Jesus.
A few of the girls in our class participated in the DVD Bible study for this book (coming out this fall). Click here to see more on that.
I am in the middle of Unglued by Lysa Terkeurst. My MOPS groups is reading it this summer and it is enlightening. Lysa talks about imperfect progress with yourself- how often do we avoid starting something because we know we will not be perfect at it? Overall, the book is about keeping control of your emotions when situations are out of control. This has been so helpful in not yelling or losing my temper with my husband and child.
After attending a parenting conference in February, I read Raising Girls by Sissy Goff, one of the speakers. What a great read for Moms of girls. Sissy and her co-author are counselors and take you through each of the developmental stages of girls so that you know what is normal, what needs attention and how to relate to your child at the stage they are in. It has been immediately applicable to my 4 year old and my 11 year old niece. There is a boy Mom version- Wild Things if you are interested.
I started reading Graceful by Emily Freeman this Spring and found it coming up in conversations with so many girlfriends of mine. It is all about being a good girl and the hidden problems associated with that. For example, if being a good girl is based upon your actions then you are constantly worried of making a bad choice and that your image will falter if that happens. It puts the focus on others, not yourself or God and leaves little room for you to step out in faith for Him. Make sense? She goes through all the different versions of good girls and where they place priority? It is life changing. I haven't started her other book, Grace for the Good Girl, but am excited to read it soon.
The others on my shelf are upcoming reads! What about you- any parenting or Christian books you can recommend? I'd love to keep up my reading into the fall.
