What's the Point?: Book Reviews!

Well, back in June I wrote a post called Summer Reading.
I am shocked to tell you that I actually finished all three books:
1) Weird by Craig Groeschel
2) The Help by Kathryn Stockett
3) Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent

Plus I somehow fit in one more, A Stolen Life: A Memoir by Jaycee Lee Dugard, and tidbits of two others. This is craziness for me but truly I enjoyed it. Now let me say this, in my opinion, if you are going to take the time to read, it really needs to be #1 uplifting and #2 informative. I am reminded of Philippians 4:8, "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things," and I definitely think this pertains to books too!

Now that being said, I will tell you about the Jaycee Dugard book first. It definitely was not uplifting, but I did personally find it informative. I think it is so important when we are raising young children to not just live in our little bubbles in life and really remember who and what is out there in this world. Most of the book was very difficult to stomach, but what I came through it with is a desire to pray for her. She says that she doesn't exactly know how she feels about God, and who can blame her really. Her mind was filled for 18 years with mistruths about her Almighty Creator by a man who was being led by Satan rather than the Holy Spirit. I sincerely hope that she will be able to lead a somewhat normal life but mostly that she will form a relationship with Jesus because if anyone deserves the opportunity to get to know Him, she does.

Heaven Is for Real was just an easy, enjoyable read. It was so amazing to hear the little boy's descriptions of Heaven and then see the scriptures that aligned with it. It really made you think about the verse in James 4:14, "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." This life is so temporary and reading this little book made it all the more exciting to think about my eternal home.

The Help was absolutely fabulous! I'm a little slow on this one because when I first heard about it on Oprah, I thought it was some "self help" book and I wasn't about to read it if Oprah thought it was great. Well, oops, boy was I wrong. I am absolutely obsessed with the decade that she wrote about and just find the whole thing fascinating. Remember the Titans is my favorite movie and The Help reminded me so much of all that went on in that film. Speaking of film, i haven't seen it yet, but I am definitely going to. I can't wait! Oh and by the way, this will probably be the first time I have ever gone to a movie when I have read the book FIRST! :)

Now to talk about Weird! I have read Crazy Love, Radical and now this one and let me just say, WOW! It was awesome; knock your socks off awesome! One of my favorite paragraphs was this one. "Imagine God looking at most of what passes for Christianity today and saying, "I know who I am. I know what I've done for you. I sent you my Son, Jesus, so that you could truly live. And yet you act like you think that simply squeezing me into your schedule every now and then will satisfy me - the one and only true, holy God." It really made me think outside my comfort zone and gave some great advice on marriage and parenting as well.

Since I know pictures make the world go round, I will add a few from our day at Wassaw Island this past weekend.