Category: Beauty

The Lord Words

7/15/2021

This absolute treasure of a book follows Sarah's Clarkson "This Beautiful Truth", which I wrote about last month. Sarah was writing about the problem of pain and how God's goodness can break into our darkness. Contemplating beautiful things, like this book, is just one way that God can break in and give some light to those of us who feel things a little too heavily.

I also connected to this book because it is celebrating something lost within a language, a form of linguistic revival that I find very effective.

Robert McFarlane, a professor from Cambridge, wrote this book when he found that the people who were compiling the Oxford English Dictionary were replacing words like acorn and adder with more computer related terms. It's a celebration of words that are no longer alive in the world of children.

It is filled with absolutely gorgeous illustrations of the lost word and an acrostic poem. Here are a few samples to get us started. This is the picture of the kingfisher.

And this is the text in the page beside the kingfisher...

Kingfisher: the colour-giver, fire-bringer, flame-flicker, river's quiver.

Ink-black bill, orange throat, and a quick blue back-gleaming feather-stream.

Neat and still it still on the snag of a stick, until with ...

Gold-flare, wing-fan, whipcrack the kingfisher - zingfisher, singfisher! -

Flashes down too fast to follow, quick and quicker carves its hollow

In the water, slings its arrow superswif to swallow

Stickleback or shrimp or minnow.

Halycon is its other name - also ripple-calmer, water nester,

Evening Angler, weather-teller, rainbringer and

Rainbow bird - that sets the stream alight with burn and glitter.

Let's try another. Here is a picture of a dandelion.

And here is the accompanying text for dandelion...

Dazzle me, little sun-of-the-grass!

And spin me, tiny time-machine! (Tick-tock, sun clock, thistle & dock)

Now no longer known as

Dent-de-Lion, Lion's Toothe or Windblow, (Tick-tock, sun clock, thistle & dock)

Evening Glow, Milkwitch or Parachute, so

Let new names take root, thrive and grow, (Tick-tock, sun clock, rattle & dock)

I would make you some, such as Bane of Lawn Perfectionists

Or Fallen Star of the Football Pitch or Scatterseed, but

Never would I call you only, merely, simply, 'weed'. (Tick-tock, sun clock, clover & dock)

It's a beautiful book illustrated by Jackie Morris. I would recommend this as a pick-me-up after a stress-filled day or as something to look at with young children. Children do look with awe and wonder and this book deserves that kind of attention!

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The Wonder Years

7/18/2018

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Leslie Leyland Fields edited this gem and it truly is something to inspire women over 40! It’s a book to encourage those of us who are older and dealing with aging, dying, and the challenges and gifts that later life offers.

I love pomegranates and this book was full of pomegranate seeds. There are tons of favorite sentences and life lessons. I tried to find a favorite but it’s just too hard. Each one speaks to me in a slightly different way. Moving from one essay to the next was like eating a pomegranate one seed at a time reflecting on the virtue of each: each was delicious but different from the last. Try one more. Read one more. Yes. I recommend this book to anyone woman who dreads turning 40, 50, 60, 70, or 80. There's good news; there is even wonder as time passes.

It is an anthology of women authors who are navigating firsts, lasts, and always in life. Firsts in the authors’ second half of life includes embarking on adventures, learning skills, embracing new professions, missions, and relationships, pulling up roots, caring for older family members, and making peace with their own aging. Lasts encompasses letting go of child-bearing, grown children, bikini bodies, perfection, jobs, regrets, and loved ones. Then there were the always: enjoying the beauty of God’s creation, spending time outside, finding joy wherever you can, talking with neighbors, taking care of yourself and one another, and keeping on the move—mission. Though I prefer essay collections over anthologies (4.5 would be my truer rating), this anthology is a lovely collection.

I would also like to mention Leslie Leyland Fields brilliance as an author. I was first introduced to her in The Spirit of Food, another collection similar to this. Her last book, Crossing the Waters is another book worthy of your time. This woman who is familiar to modern day fishing techniques has great insight into Christ as a fisherman! Go get the book and be blessed by wonder!

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On Reading Aloud and Great Picture Books

5/16/2018

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Mary Ann Hoberman's The Seven Silly Eaters is a family favorite in this house! The illustrations are lovely, the text is amazing, and the overall structure is great.

First, let's talk about the text. It's a long running poem about the beginning of a large family all the way to a family of seven children and it's just beautifully written. If you have a large family you are going to laugh along the way as you meet Peter Peters, Lucy Peters and the rest of the clan! Clever, fun, and funny.

The illustrations are fantastic. The illustrator, Marla Frazee, has done an excellent job capturing the fun and chaos of family life. I also love the pictures of the mother and her reactions to the challenge of raising a family.

Lastly, the structure. It's a celebration of life. The birth of each and every child is celebrated and in the end we celebrate the wonder of a mother who finds something delicious in the oven. A family favorite here!

I've made no secret of Sarah Mackenzie's brilliant first book, Teaching from Rest. This is no exception. She has taken so many of the gems said in the Read Aloud Revival Podcasts and compiled them into this great handbook for parents and educators who are interested in getting their children into books.

If you are one of those people who would like to get started reading to your kids, this is a great place to start. She is a great storyteller and she drops gems on how to get kids excited and into reading.

The Read-Aloud Family has three sections. Part 1 goes through all the pertinent research about the benefits of reading aloud to our children. For all of the times when I wonder if what I'm doing is actually worth anything, I will remember the information gleaned here. The biggest takeaway for me is that reading aloud is the BEST use of my time with my kids. From making ourselves present for our kids in a highly distracted culture, to inspiring virtue and compassion in them (and us!), to encouraging our kids academically, reading aloud does it all.

Part 2 is all about practical application. Sarah describes what she calls a "Book Club Culture" at home. She provides us with the right questions to ask about books to encourage deep thought and great conversation. We don't have to be experts on literary analysis to have a good conversation about books. We just have to be able to ask compelling questions. An really valuable part of this book is the chapter on how to pick books for your family, and what makes a good book.

Part 3 is the book list. Sarah breaks her book list into four age groups, 0-3, 4-7, 8-12, and the teen years. One of the things I appreciate about this list is that many of the books and authors are newer. Booklists for older books abound (see John Senior's 1000 Good Books), but navigating the world of new books can be tough for busy parents. I don't have time to read everything before my kids get to it, so this list is valuable. I trust Sarah's opinion and through being a "Sarah MacKenzie Groupie" I have found many gems that have become family favorites. Of course Sarah does not discount classic literature, and encourages families to read it in this book. But because lists for newer literature are not as easy to find (and if you do find one, can you be sure it's a good one?) the list in The Read-Aloud Family belongs in every home.

I am a bit of a book nerd, so I have looked at other resources about reading aloud and this is going to be a new favorite! But Sarah's book is so much more than just a book on reading books. Sarah's book is about building up the family culture while providing an avenue to have wonderful conversations with our children and deepening family bonds. I highly recommend The Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your Kids. Its worth your time and your money.

Jamie C. Martin wrote this one and its for those of us who interested in having our children learn about the world. She has amazing book lists in here and you can find a lot of the books at the local library.

The other thing that is amazing about this author is that she organizes a Read the World book club every summer and she is doing it again this summer. If your child loves books and is interested in other cultures, this is a great way to go. If your children or students are more solitary readers, it's still a great resource.

Be blessed and try any of these resources!

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The Brilliance of Sally LLoyd Jones

4/18/2018

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I'm a mother of three boys and a Children's Ministry Director and I have looked at many different Bibles. I've been excited to introduce my children to the Bible, but totally overwhelmed with finding a Bible that would faithfully communicate the Scriptures at a level that made sense to young children.

The Jesus Storybook Bible seeks to show how God's plan of salvation is unfolding through each story, and largely succeeds in doing so. Let me try and demonstrate what I mean.

First of all, there are children's Bibles like the Read With Me Bible that are simply bland. Granted, toddlers are not going to pick up on every nuance of a story from the Bible, but the Read With Me Bible often chooses the wrong points to emphasize, entirely leaving out important points of narrative along the way.

One story simply lists miracles Jesus did with no context, failing to communicate that Jesus' miracles actually anticipate and begin to realize a new world, a world where God's Kingdom and rule are breaking into the world in a new and exciting way. Now, children obviously won't grasp the entirety of this message (indeed, even the most mature Christian is still growing in their understanding) but Jesus is more than a magician, he is more than simply amazingly powerful, so why drain the miracle stories of their power? If salt loses its saltiness, what is it good for?

The Jesus Storybook Bible works to explain the big idea, and big picture of the Scriptures at every turn. The focus is on God's love for the lost, the great problem of sin, and the great hope we have in Christ. So, for example, the story of the Exodus is told not as the story of God's great magic show, but instead on the great, mighty, and terrifying rescue of God's people from their slavery, pointing forward also to humanity's slavery to sin and coming rescue in Jesus. That is why the subtitle to this Bible is "Every Story Whispers His Name." Every story anticipates the coming of Jesus and the great rescue he brings to those who put their faith in him. This is a great concept, and a great work for children.

Now is this Bible perfect? No, and no translation is, much less a paraphrase. Other have commented on some of the shortcomings of this Bible. Sometimes the language and tone is a bit casual, although casual doesn't necessarily mean disrespectful. Every story doesn't say as much as it could, although this is a strength rather than a weakness for a paraphrase (See: The Message). Not all of the theology expressed in the paraphrase matches perfectly with my own, but I see that as a teaching opportunity rather than a fatal flaw, not to mention that I think children should know early on that there are many ideas in the world, and not all of them are equally valid, and certainly not all of them are true. But again, the strength of this Bible is that it gets the story right, interpreting the main idea correctly and always pointing toward Jesus.

This is the point. It continually turns you toward Jesus. From the beginning to the end, everything points towards Jesus Christ.

Here are a few other opinions:

“I LOVE to give people The Jesus Storybook Bible because from the very first chapter it paints a powerful picture of God’s epic love for each one of us. Sally Lloyd-Jones has a unique way of inviting the reader, young or old, to dive in and discover for themselves the truth and hope of the greatest story ever told.” Amy Grant (Amy Grant)

“Sharing the Gospel with The Jesus Storybook Bible has been one of the greatest privileges of my life.” Ann Voskamp (Ann Voskamp)

“I would urge not just families with young children to get this book, but every Christian–from pew warmers, to ministry leaders, seminarians and even theologians! Sally Lloyd-Jones has captured the heart of what it means to find Christ in all the scriptures, and has made clear even to little children that all God’s revelation has been about Jesus from the beginning–a truth not all that commonly recognized even among the very learned.” – Dr. Timothy Keller, NYC (Dr. Timothy Keller)

The last thing I want to mention is that the pictures for this are incredibly well done. Jago is one incredibly talented artist and this book is beautiful.

I would be so bold as to recommend anything by Sally Lloyd-Jones. She has a real gift for communicating truth to the very young or the very young at heart.

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Daring to Hope

12/4/2017

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I have always had a heart for missions and I have been interested in Africa since I was a teenager. For these reasons, I was excited to read Katie Davis Majors’ Daring to Hope: Finding God’s Goodness in the Broken and the Beautiful.

In Daring to Hope, Katie shares stories from her life and ministry in Uganda that emphasize God’s goodness during those times in her life when God didn’t act the way she wanted God to. Throughout the book, Katie continually wrestles with the question, “What do you do when God doesn’t show up in the way that you asked Him to?” It's a question we all wrestle with when we are honest with ourselves.

As she wrestles with her answer to this question, Katie tells stories that often appear hopeless. More often than not, they involve death and despair. In Katie's words, “I unknowingly believed that when things turned out well, God’s blessing was evident. And so I kept asking and waiting for the beauty to be revealed on my terms.”

When God doesn’t behave how Katie begs him to, she concludes, “This reality left me with two choices: either God is not actually who He says He is or He is and I needed to relearn how to know Him even in hardship.” This is one of the stand out quotes from the book.

As Katie shares stories of brokenness, she weaves them together with various Scripture passages including Jacob wrestling with God, God providing a ram for Abraham when he’s asked to sacrifice Isaac, and the book of Habakkuk. As Katie wrestles with these scriptures, she learns, “A faith that trusts Him only when the ending is good is a fickle faith. A faith that trusts Him regardless of the outcome is real.”

Some of the most powerful stories Katie shares in Daring to Hope are those that involve her in someone else’s healing. In her words, “Jesus was to bring about my own healing by drawing me into someone else’s.” Here is some of the beauty in our walk with God.

As Katie walks with others, she realizes, “Maybe we are not called to alleviate suffering (as I had once imagined) as much as we are called to enter into the suffering of others and walk with them through it. We mourn with those who mourn, we weep with those who weep, we cry out with them for something better.” Katie goes on to explain, “The most powerful thing we can do for another person is not to try to fix his or her pain or make it go away but to acknowledge it. I cannot heal… But I can be a witness.”

This is a heart stirrer. I cried, I loved, I was with her when her friend died. She has a gift for describing her own pain, but she also has a real gift for describing hope in dire circumstances and still coming to the conclusion that God is good and gives good gifts.

And on that note, this would make a great gift for the friends and family that are bookworms! This gift of a book deserves to be shared.

And much love to Ann Voskamp for writing the forward! These two women have hearts that beat for God and all the good that He can and does do for others.

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The Lord Words

The Wonder Years

On Reading Aloud and Great Picture Books

The Brilliance of Sally LLoyd Jones

Daring to Hope

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