Bookin' It: April Update

I didn't do as well this month reading non-fiction as I did last month. Possibly because my plan was more vague. There was nothing that I absolutely wanted to read. I chose Jamie's food revolution : rediscover how to cook simple, delicious, affordable meals by Jamie Oliver, The Millionaire Mind by Thomas J. Stanley, and couple of books on container gardening all from the library.

I enjoyed looking at the gardening books, but didn't read them word for word. I was considering starting a container garden with a few vegetables and herbs, but haven't done it yet. I may still plant the herbs, but am not sure I want to commit the time and money right now when it will probably get neglected later in the summer when the new baby comes. My two-year-old son and I did use my new found knowledge to start some seedlings and are enjoying watching them grow.

Jamie Oliver and I obviously define affordable differently. If you've been eating out every night and begin cooking at home, you might deem these recipes more affordable. Many of the recipes are for more expensive cuts of meat or seafood and he uses large amounts of olive oil and other speciality ingredients. It simply wasn't the type of cookbook that works for me right now. I returned it without even trying one recipe.

The Millionaire Mind is on my coffee table and needs to go back to the library. I've read one chapter. I read Thomas Stanley's The Millionaire Next Door last year and thought it was fascinating. I about drove my husband crazy reading excerpts from it to him. We had just finished Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and that book really reinforced a lot of the things Dave teaches. This one just didn't draw my interest. I'm still on the waiting list at the library for Stanley's other book, Stop Acting Rich. The title sounds more practical and maybe I'll like it better.

The one non-fiction book that I actually did complete this month was From Fear to Freedeom: Living as Sons and Daughters of God by Rose Marie Miller, which I read for a book club at church. This book is part memoir, part Christian how-to. She writes about her own life and how she struggled to understand and accept God's grace for herself. She had always been strong and able to accomplish things on her own and when she began to fail at things, she became trapped in a cycle of blaming God and others for those failures. It's interesting because she's so real. One of the first failures that really bothered her was running out of food at her daughter's wedding. Miller writes:

"I did not realize that the confidence I had always had about my life was not faith, as I had assumed, but a reliance on my own competency, be it real or imagined. When my competency was called into question by my failures in life's momentous events, like my father's death and my daughter's wedding, my confidence -- and the world it supported -- began to crumble. And yet, because I thought I was living by faith, I did not understand what was happening. . . . Faith and presumption look alike because both qualities are characterized by confidence, but faith begins in the recognition and acceptance of our total human weakness. It relies solely on God and his gracious willingness to empower us" (15-16).

Many of the women I know, including myself, are working very hard to look like we have it all together. We try to be (or at least appear to be) perfect wives, mothers, home managers, church members, employees (for those that work outside the home), etc. This book is a great reminder that the Christian life isn't about being perfect. It's about trusting in the grace of God that He has paid the penalties for our sins and covered us with His perfection. Nothing that we do makes us any more saved. And really when we try to always appear perfect to the world, we just end up looking hypocritical and/or self-righteous because everyone does fail. We need to be more honest about those failures.

This month I have four non-fiction books that I'm excited about reading, hopefully I'll make it through at least three of them. Three are parenting books. The first, Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel, was recommended at a parenting weekend conference we attended at our church. The second is the next book we're reading in our book club, How Children Raise Parents by Dan Allender. The third is Bringing Up Girls by James Dobson. We're expecting a girl in July. I am currently reading Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. Although it was written in 1922, it's amazing how modern it sounds.

I'm still trying to read Pilgrim's Progress. I told my pastor (who continues to claim from the pulpit that it's his favorite book and hasn't been struck by lightening) how much I disliked it. He suggested reading a modern translation. I picked one up at Lifeway earlier in the week so I'm going to give it another try.

I read a great YA sci-fi novel, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'm waiting impatiently to make it to the top of the library waiting list for the second book in the series, Catching Fire. Since the third and final book doesn't come out until August, there is no reason to hurry and read the second book immediately anyway.

Check out what other LifeasMom.com readers having been reading lately.