Book Review

In order to offset the complaint blog of yesterday, I thought today I would focus on some of the blessings in my life and other things I am grateful for. Once again, this could be a lengthy post so I am going to try my best to just focus on a few things.

Let’s begin with something that has shaped who I am today: my family. I have a younger sister and brother. Both my siblings have been married for over ten years and they each have two kids—my sister has two girls and my brother has a boy and a girl. I love being an aunt and because I live so far away (I’m in Tennessee, my sister is in Washington and my brother is in Idaho) it is a treat when I get to see the kids.

My brother and sister and I had some knock-down, drag-out fights when we were younger. I remember busting the glass of a backdoor window with my brother’s head once. We would get in some big trouble for our fights. But, now that we are all out on our own, I think we’ve come to appreciate the rewards of having siblings. I think my sister and I are closer than we ever were when we were younger. We were only nineteen months apart so there was a lot of competitiveness when we were growing up (I was the one who did very well in school, my sister was the one who was popular).

Mom and Dad have also been a huge blessing in my life. I am so lucky to have parents who are still married after 38 years and who are still the best of friends. My parents have shown all of us kids what it takes to make a marriage work and I couldn’t have asked for better role models in that area. Again, life wasn’t all kittens and roses growing up, my parents were young when they got married and I think that affected how they raised us. I haven’t always agreed with how my Mom & Dad handled certain things but I appreciate that they loved us enough to put in the effort.

I’m also thankful for good friends. This past February, I took a vacation to not only visit family but to also visit some of my friends from college. Now, it has been twelve years since I the University of Idaho and it has been months (and even longer in some cases) since I have sat down and talked to some of my best friends from that time in my life.  I love that even though we may not have talking in months, when we get together, we are still comfortable enough with each other to share the things on our hearts and minds.

In addition to all of these things, I am also grateful for a church that preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ and isn’t afraid to look at the hard things. I am grateful for a good job. Sure, there are days when I hate my job but, overall, I am blessed to be here. And I am grateful for my health. Over the past couple of years I have had several friends and co-workers have some serious health issues which just brings to light how lucky I am to be in fairly good health.

This could potentially be a really long blog post so I am only going to focus on two frustrations in my life—weight loss and being single (especially with regards the church). These are two of the biggest frustrations and challenges in my life so I figured, why not just put them out there.

Let’s start with what is one of my biggest “soap box” issue: Being single and specifically being single in the church. I am three years away from being 40, I have not been married and I have never really had a serious relationship where I thought marriage would come out of it. And most of the time, I’m ok with that. There are some days when I wish I were married with a family at this point but all I have to do is look at the freedom I have in my life and, once again, I am fine with my singleness.

There is one place, however, where my singleness stands out like a sore thumb. It is a place where most people feel accepted and part of a group. That place is the church. I believe that churches today are really geared toward families—couples, children, teens and often even those who are college age. But what about those of us who are out of college, in the work force and single? I love my church and the friends I have there but there are times I feel like I just don’t fit in.

Now, I am not condoning churches start career singles groups so that they are providing a dating service. As a matter of fact, I don’t really think it is necessary that churches have specific singles groups. I do, however, think it is important that churches recognize that not everyone in the congregation has a husband (or wife) and two and a half kids and a dog. I also think it’s very important that churches realize what a valuable resource they have when there are singles who are part of the church body. We are not tied down to a family which frees us up for volunteering and helping out with special projects. We are able to take off on a mission trip without having to re-arrange too much (really, just our work schedules).

So church, don’t overlook us when you are planning events and needing volunteers. Don’t alienate us when you are talking about marriage and family (most of us hope to be there someday). And don’t exclude us just because we are not at the same place in life as the majority.

And now, I am completely going to switch gears and move on to my other frustration: weight loss. Three years ago I was motivated to join Weight Watchers (WW) and lose some weight. I have been overweight most of my life and I was not ever truly happy with myself. So, after a year on the WW programs and 100 pounds lost, I began to enjoy things triathlons and races, swimming and biking. I also ran but it really wasn’t one of my favorite things. I ran because it was the thing that really helped with the weight loss.

But now, a few years down the road, I’ve put weight back on and I am really struggling with finding that motivation once again to get the weight back off. I am very sporadic in my workout routines. I haven’t run regularly since last September and I’ll lose ten pounds just to have a bad few weeks and put it back on.

They tell you in WW that you didn’t put the weight on overnight so you shouldn’t expect to take it off overnight. Wouldn’t been wonderful if it really worked that way? But, alas, losing weight is a daily battle that I will have to fight every day of my life.

Overall, I do not have many complaints in my life. I am content in almost every area of my life. Sure, I have days where my job is frustrating or someone in my family has irritated me but everyone has those days. I have really learned to shrug things off. I mean, there are just some things you have no control over and you accept that and move on.

If anyone were to look at my Netflix queue, I think they would see I have a problem. You see, I have almost 500 movies in my Netflix queue. I will watch ***almost*** any movie once (the exception being slasher movies). If I come across a “Top (fill in the number here)” list and I haven’t seen some of those movies, they are added to my queue. I have been a Netflix member for a couple of years now and I think the number of movies in my queue has actually increased.

And it’s not just movies. I like television, music, the wii and books as well. Even though I love the show, I’m glad “24” is in it’s last season because it frees up another night for me. Although, I know myself well enough to know that I will really just find another show to fill its place. I have quit watching a couple of my staples this year so I am paring it down a little bit. Thank goodness for Hulu. I would miss a lot of shows without the use of that website.

I do like to expand my mind through reading as well. A good book is a treasure. And now that the television season is starting to wind down, I should have more time for reading (and maybe making a dent in that Netflix queue).

Set in modern day Texas, “Lonestar Homecoming” draws you into the story immediately and keeps you turning pages until the mystery is solved at the end of the book. While the book is the third in a series, it definitely stands on its own (I had not read the other two books and was not at all lost).

The main character, Gracie Lister, is fleeing on her wedding day from her fiancée. When she reaches a small Texas town, out of money and with no certainty of her or her daughter’s future, Gracie runs into Michael Wayne. Wayne, coincidentally, needs a nanny for his children and agrees to hire her.

The romance happens quickly and is really a small part of this story. The most attractive thing about the story is the mystery and all of the secrets in Gracie’s life.

The book also delves a little into the story of the prodigal son. If you enjoy Christian fiction romances, Christian fiction mysteries or just a light, quick read, I would recommend putting this book on your reading list.

As a member of booksneeze.com, I have received a copy of this book free of charge. I have received no payment for a positive or negative review of this book.

For the past month or so, I have really been feeling the desire to find a spiritual mentor in my life. I realized that I really haven’t found that person since moving to Nashville almost twelve years ago.

The challenge that I am finding with this is: Where do I begin? How do you find that person to be your spiritual mentor? I don’t feel like I can just walk up to someone on Sunday morning and say, “Will you disciple me?” Another issue I am running into is that my church is fairly young and I am actually older than many of those people. Not that a spiritual mentor necessarily has to be older than me but I have the misconception in my head that I will need to overcome.

What’s funny to me is that ever since I have begun praying about this, I have been running into it almost on a weekly basis. One of the bloggers I read daily took a break from her normal posts of meal planning and grocery deals to talk about three of her mentors and a couple of people in my small group from have been taking about maybe starting up a discipleship group.

So, while I don’t yet really have any answers, I would be interested in hearing from anyone out there who has been or currently is in a discipleship group, has mentored or has been mentored. I would appreciate any insights that people are willing to share.