Top 10 "Helps"

My faith has changed so much this past year, I think in large part because of our adoption journey, and in part because of a whole bunch of really good "helps" that I've found to "flesh out" my faith, if you will. If your faith is in need of a challenge and you are looking for new ways to seek Him, here are my Top 10 recommendations:

1) Devotional Classics - a devotional book based on excerpts from many, many Christ-followers of all backgrounds and from various times in history. Extremely challenging, meaty stuff that has recently become one of my all-time favorites.

2) Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions - a list of 70 "resolutions" written in the 1700s, still incredibly applicable today. My personal favorites are No. 8 and No. 56.

3) Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions - I'd always thought/been taught that you had to make up a prayer in your own words for God to hear you/to make it personal, but these beautiful, deeply-felt prayers written by Christ's followers years and years ago express what I am feeling perfectly at times. At first it takes some practice to get beyond the "thees" and "thous," but if you can bare with the antiquated language, I believe you will be richly blessed by the content.

4) My gratitude journal - This isn't an Amazon book or anything, just a journal with blank pages I picked up wherever. I was inspired by an amazing, "ordinary" woman's website (see "help #5 below) to be intentional about writing down God's blessings in my life every day. At first I thought, "What a pointless exercise; I'll just write - 'my husband, my children, my house, food, etc.' day after day after day, and what's the point of that?" But, let me tell you: As I have practiced this discipline (not 100% faithfully, mind you) I have learned/am learning to see blessings even in the midst of seemingly bad things. For instance, "Thank you, Lord, for letting my daughter's poop be of solid consistency when she had that accident in her undies at the park" and "Thank you, Lord, that no one hurt themselves when that glass hit the floor and shattered into a million pieces after lunch today." Prior to my gratitude journal days, my thoughts would have been more like, "Why do I have to clean more poop up today? Why can't we just go to the park and have fun like everyone else? Why isn't she pottytrained YET?!?" and "As if I didn't have enough to do today - now I have to sweep up all this glass and vacuum the kitchen floor! Girls, get out of my way already! Don't you know I have things to do?!?" See, the difference. :)

5) The website: aholyexperience.com - As I mentioned above, this woman and her great blog inspired my gratitude journaling to begin with. She homeschools her 6 kiddos, and helps her husband farm, and she does an absolutely amazing job at seeking God in the ORDINARY. She writes beautifully, and takes beautiful photos. A lot of insight here that has really begun to shape me. This post that I linked, in particular, touched me this day.

6)My Utmost For His Highest - daily devotions written by Oswald Chambers. These are very short, but very "meaty" too. As a mama with little kiddos, I usually use these for my morning time with the Lord. They give me just enough to "chew on" without totally overwhelming me first thing in the morning. (Sometimes I even read them aloud, and my girls (seem to be) listening...)

7)KP Yohannan and Gospel for Asia - I couldn't limit myself to just one of this guy's books/booklets. Among my favorites are: 'Revolution in World Missions', 'Against the Wind', and 'Broken For A Purpose'. He puts a lot of emphasis on humans' weakness and frailty, and God's greatness and power, helps put a lot into perspective for me. This ministry, Gospel for Asia, is also worth taking a look at, and supporting.

8) Celebration of Discipline - This book, written by Richard Foster, is another of those that is becoming a "mainstay" for me. If you're like me and wondered, "What else should I be doing to grow as a Christian besides reading the Bible and praying" (not that either of those are wrong, but I always thought that there must be more...), then this book is for you! It talks about other disciplines that can/should be present in a Christian's life including things like fasting, meditation, simplicity (yes, this is a discipline), confession, solitude, and more. Really, really good stuff. Highly recommended.

9) A Diary of Private Prayer - Written by John Baillie, this book provides both a morning and evening prayer for each day of the month, 31 altogether. And, again, like the Valley of Vision book mentioned above, if you can get beyond the old-fashioned language and the idea of praying a written-out prayer, I can tell you the contents of this book will bless you. Focused on getting past oneself, and one's own wants, needs, life. Very good.

10) Crazy Love - Ok, here's my one "more modern" book to share with you. I just recently finished reading it, and it's definitely been one to challenge me. It's an "easy read" in the sense that it's written with easy-to-read language, and can be read fairly quickly. However, I would not call it an "easy read" in terms of content in that, once you read this, you will likely be enormously convicted about your life - thought life, financial life, entertainment life, how-you-spend-your-time-in-general life. It basically calls out American Christians, calls us to examine whether we're really living in a way that is pleasing to God, or if we're just happily living a life of blessing without thought of anyone or anything else. You should only read this if the Spirit is convicting you to do so, if He's already prompting you to change, and if you can commit to reading it without becoming defensive or angry. Do I have your attention yet?!?

So, there you have it. I don't know if these will be helpful to anyone else, but they have been of enormous help to me on my journey thus far. If you have books/ideas that are "helps" to you, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on those.

His best to you, whoever you are.