Book Review

My daughter has these great teen fiction books The Christy Miller series. I enjoy reading what she does so that we can discuss it afterward. In this case, I wanted to read the books with her because they are written by a christian auther that wants to give young teens a picture of what it is like to apply biblical principle to their lives.
When people write books about God, the bible, and application of scripture, sometimes it gets warped. A verse is taken out of context, or a truth is mixed up in a personal opinion. It sounds like the truth, but isn't quite. There's something a little off. I didn't read the Twilight series with my daughter because, well, the whole series is more than a little off. Entertaining, perhaps, but I didn't need to wonder if the truth was being twisted. In the vampire books, there is no truth. It's all fantasy. Fun, but not as worrisom as believing a lie.
These are great books. I'm sure they aren't perfect, but it appears that author Robin Jones Gunn has done her research. She hits on topics that are important and life consuming for most teens in the USA. She doesn't go into gory and disturbing detail if someting terrible is happening to one of the characters. She is able to communicate through her writing so that the reader knows what happened, and the story continues. There is enough gory and disturbing detail in everyday life, I don't believe that my children need to read about in their fiction.
The biblical refrences are right on - I looked them up myself to make sure that the verse addresses and content match, they do. The commentary, or application that the characters come up with is great. There are some characters whose faith is strong. They are wise and willing to share with new believers with gentelness. This is impressive to me. This series more than encourages a life of faith. It is a great tool to use for expounding on life application lessons with the bible, and they are a fun read
Many thanks to Tia for introducing us to this series!

Psalms

I was supposed to have the kiddos up 5 minutes ago. I'll make this quick. I have been reading the Psalms this morning. I chose Psalms because it' what our Pastor is chatting about on Sunday mornings. I posted something on Facebook about a Psalm, then I read further and posted somethign else. A friend noticed that my Profile became a blog. So here we are!
Psalms are a great place to find incredibly direct communication with God, praises or lament. I love the laments that end by giving God glory. Psalms that say just what I am thinking and feeling in a particular moment and direct my to God's goodness, His purpose, His faithfulness.
Psalm 13 and Psalm 24 were my focus this morning. Psalm 13 is a reminder to trust God even when He doesn't answer us immediately (in my time) and Psalm 24 is a reminder that everything belongs to God (even when my grasp is white knuckle).