So... I've had several ladies ask if I could pass on my book list to them. I am including it here along with my the notes from my break out session for the retreat. For those of you that follow my blog, you will recognize some of the content from the past year. For those that know me well, you will recognize some of the content from my endless ramblings...
Living Life on Purpose 2014:
Hi!
I’m Lisa. I’m a PW. Which really just stands for Pastor’s
Wife but makes me feel all covert like I’m a PI or work for the FBI or CIA or
something. Don’t get too excited, I’m not what you might expect. I can’t play
piano even though I took eleven years of lessons. I shouldn’t sing, except for
in the shower or in the car with the radio turned up to thirty. I don’t teach
Sunday school, mostly cause I stink at crowd control & the sound of my
Minnie mouse voice whips small children up into a frenzy. But I love, love,
love little babies with their tiny rosebud lips & their wide eyed wonder. I
don’t work in the church office cause I have a little ADD & organization is
not my thing. So if you catch me at church & try to set up a time we can
get together for coffee or need me to relay something important to Hubs, I will
likely have forgotten it by the time I get home. It’s not that I don’t like you
or am trying to be insensitive. I just have a hard time keeping things strait in
my mind. Shoot me a reminder email or text later. Trust me I will NOT be
offended. Ever. Let’s see… I’m super laid back & hate dumb things like
rules, grades, politics & conflict. Because I’m totally an introvert, I
struggle with friendships, have to work really hard at things like small talk
& I’m really best in my own living room sipping a cup of tea in a pair of
old sweatpants… or maybe in a blanket fort.
So… welcome to my blanket fort. Please feel free to get all
comfy. Kick your shoes off. Have a little popcorn. Pretend it’s just us in my
living room. That’s what I’ll be doing… instead of envisioning you all in your
underwear.
Ok. So… I digress. Back to the whole PW thing.
I have to admit, I was in the beginning, a reluctant PW at
best & while it’s not really the life I thought I’d have, it’s mine &
I’ve learned to love it.
This is my Hubs. He’s a burn-the-barn-down hottie. I’ve been
his girl since I was fifteen years old.
This is my family. They are all kinds of spectacular.
This is our oldest son Joshua & his beautiful wife
Kristen. Josh is a youth pastor & Kristen a social worker who works with
high risk kids. They live on the gulf coast of Florida where this picture was
taken, with my two grand-dogs. Which I don’t have a picture of here but if you
are interested in a photo I have approximately one hundred & seventy two on
my iPhone. Hit me up later.
This is our son Caleb & his fiancé Courtney. The live in
Fargo North Dakota where there is only one tree but where the sky kisses the
ground & there is always a breeze. They are in their third years at NDSU
& Moorhead respectively & are pursuing degrees in construction
management & elementary education. They recently adopted a kitten who
currently resides with Courtney & will officially become a Pelkey on June 13th
of 2015. I also have pictures of that guy. Just sayin’.
& this is our super spicy daughter Hani who is the only
one brave enough to still live with me. She dances & sings & runs like the wind & continues to remind me of who I am & what is important every
day of life.
I know some people look at me from the outside & think
because of who I am or maybe even who I’m married to, that my life would be
easy or perfect but it’s not.
Sometimes life just happens… & sometimes I bring it upon
myself.
Today I want to share with you part of my story. The part
where God is still working & moving & growing me.
In early 2014, a precious friend of mine challenged me,
instead of making a New Year’s resolution, to choose one word on which to focus
for the year. Because of where I was in my life at the time—I’ll unpack a
little more of this later—I chose the word Abide.
It is from this place that am feeling God asking me to share
John 15:4 with you… “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In
the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only by being joined
to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with me.”
Stuff:
A few years ago I found myself in the strangest place. We
were living a comfortable life. An American life. A nice big house. Two kids in
college. Four cars. A family vacation once a year.
But thru some circumstances & some things I had been
reading, God began working on me & I became super uncomfortable. Never in
my life had I been so convicted about my Christian walk. Not just in the way I
study the Bible, share my faith with others or even my commitments to our
church family, but rather in the way I live my every-day life, how I spent my
time, my money, my energy.
In the end I felt duped… & a little bit angry. There was
no doubt that I had bought many of the lies that my American culture, as well
as my Christian culture had told me. I had become so engaged in the quest for
the house, the job, the church & the relationships that I thought I had to
have; that I found that I'd spent much of my life’s energy focusing on a
lot of things that just don’t matter. At least not in the spiritual sense. I had
forgotten that people are the only thing I can take with me.
When I realized that I had it all wrong, I was devastated… I
was humbled... I was moved to do… something.
But to be quite honest, the idea of starting my whole life
over, to retrain my brain to accept everything that God was teaching me &
then to actually do something about it, was so overwhelming that I didn’t know
where to begin. I mean, what if Jesus really meant it when He said, “If you
want to give it all you've got, go sell your possessions; give everything to
the poor. All your wealth will then be in heaven. Then come follow me.”
–Matthew 19:21
As Hubs & began to really talk & pray about what God
wanted us to do with our lives & ministry, we began to feel very strongly
that we needed to decrease our lifestyle so we could increase giving to those
in need around us. The first part of following in this conviction is that we
decided to sell our house; to downsize from our four bed, three bath home &
move into a much smaller rental. I want to make clear that this is NOT
something God calls everyone to do & it wasn’t a decision we took lightly.
It was a decision we made out of obedience to God & the realization that obedience
isn’t a lack of fear. It’s just doing it scared.
I’d love to tell you that we had some time to get our heads
around this idea of downsizing our stuff but in real life, we had about three
weeks. Cause that’s exactly how long it took to sell our house. When our real
estate agent called to tell us, Hubs & I looked at each other & began
to laugh. For the first time in 23 years of marriage we had absolutely no
idea what we were doing or where we were going next. It seemed completely crazy
& yet… we had an amazing sense of peace about it.
During this time I remember one of our elders asking me what
would be the worst case scenario for me… I quickly replied, “To be in an
apartment that wouldn’t allow us to keep our dogs & that wouldn’t have
laundry in our unit.” Of course you know… we wound up in an apartment. No dogs.
No laundry.
I want to tell you that I handled everything perfectly, but
I didn’t. In fact the first week we were in the apartment I was so heartbroken
over all we had given up & was missing my dogs so much I found myself
buying three bottles of cheap wine at the liquor store in my snowflake pajamas.
I’m not proud of it. I just want you to know when it comes to ‘obedience’, I am
so far from perfect.
But God kept moving in my soul & kept bringing me back
to Romans 12:1-2
‘So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and
walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God
does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted
to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what
he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you,
always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of
you, develops well-formed maturity in you.’
This life change became something much bigger than a change
of living space. It began a journey into the world of the divine.
Cause here’s the deal ladies, as the ‘stuff’ began to take
up less & less space in our lives, other more important things pushed their
way to the front.
The first thing was a conviction of the way we chose to
spend our time… our seeming glorification of busy.
Did you know?
That one study found that eighty percent of Americans work
the equivalent of a second workday after leaving the office?
We’re doing plenty of work inside our office walls too.
Nearly ten million Americans worked more than sixty hours per week last year.
We work longer hours than almost every other advanced country.
Fifty-seven percent of Americans have up to two weeks of
unused vacation at the end of the each year.
We’re too busy to sleep. More than one-third of working
Americans sleep less than six hours per night. That means there are
forty-million of us suffering from chronic sleep deprivation.
One-third of us are living with extreme stress daily &
half of us are regularly lying awake at night because of our stress.
If I get right to it, what I am really saying is that we are
so busy girls… we hurt.
A couple of years ago now, our son Joshua got married.
Actually, he managed to do the following in about two weeks: He graduated from
college. He packed up everything he owned in his little car & he & his bride-to-be,
drove 1787.2 miles to Florida
where they were to be married & begin their life together. The following
week he applied for, interviewed & was hired for a youth pastor position at
a church near their home, married the love of his life, headed out on a two
week honeymoon & came home to a new apartment, a new job (praise God), a
beautiful wife & a whole new life.
As I watched this all play out in front of my eyes, I found
myself strangely grieving... not grieving because my son had gotten married. I love love love my daughter-in-law. She's by far, the best thing that has ever happened to my son... but I was stuck. So stuck that I found myself on the verge of an all-out
meltdown. In the wake of this change in our family, I just couldn’t shake the
overwhelming weariness of my day to day life.
To be honest, I was so busy that I just didn’t have the time
to stop & process it.
Let’s stop a minute here & unpack this a little bit…
let’s take a look at what busyness isn’t.
Busyness is not productivity. Study after study have shown
that all the working we are doing just puts us on a hamster wheel. Just because
you are working more does not actually mean that you are doing more.
Too many of us work for show. We say things like, “Look how
productive I am! Look how hard I work! Look how full my calendar is!” But we
are just building an illusion. We’re not really getting much done.
Work is good. The Bible esteems hard work. In fact the Bible
mentions the value of hard work somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty times.
Sabbath rest however, is mentioned closer to a hundred & fifty times.
Doesn’t it seem like we have our wires crossed?
Busyness is not indicative of your value. We all seem to
have swallowed the Kool-Aid that we are busy because we are important & we
are important because we are busy. A nasty side effect is that we are
embarrassed if we read a book cover to cover, spend the afternoon watching old
movies, take a nap or in my case, stop a moment to process that my oldest
child, had just moved 1787.2 miles away to begin his adult
life. Yes I know, I’m still little stuck on that one.
Anyhoo… because I was so caught up in the busyness of life,
the weariness I felt was really beginning to take a toll on me. Worst yet,
other people were beginning to notice. Least of all my family, who was kinda at
a loss of what to actually do with me. So, at my husband's gentle prompting, I
went away on a silent retreat. Actually, I came here & stayed just up there
in the guest house.
Just me.
My Bible.
My camera.
My journal.
& a whole mess of pencils.
It was truly the best thing I've ever done for myself.
I took long walks.
I prayed.
I spent the afternoon in a kayak.
I mulled over the scriptures.
I took lots of pictures of simple things.
I ate popcorn for dinner.
I cried.
I laughed.
I poured out my heart to the One who knows me best.
When I finally wandered home on Sunday night my heart was
full of renewed hope & a sense of purpose.
As I look back on that time I realize that I had become worn out from a lack of
the sacred. A synonym for sacred is untouchable. There was no part of my day untouchable
to the demands of everyday life. Without regular moments of sacred, life had
started to fly by at an unbearable place. I had to stop this thing. I needed to
make time for God to come & fill my soul.
I cannot express enough how important it is for us to make
time to be alone with God. We’ve got to find a way to take a step away from all
that’s on our plates & walk toward peace. Psalm 46:10 is a verse many of us
know well, but perhaps it’s become so familiar we’ve started to ignore it. “Be
still & know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will
exalted in the earth!”
Be. Still.
Slow down.
Tell the “to-do’s” to take a chill pill. Because God is God
& you are not.
If you don’t get it all done, or make it to every church
function, or have the planet’s most well-rounded children, the world will keep
spinning. Making it a priority to spend time alone with the Father will fill you
up. When you are full you are able to pour out.
Since we are sitting here in a blanket fort & I’m
feeling super comfortable, I’d like to suggest that for the sake of ourselves
& our families that we put ourselves in a great BIG time out:
I’m going to give it to you strait—when it comes to
scheduling our families, we’ve all gone crazy. I could go on & on & on
about this but because I have to start somewhere & this is something Hubs
& I have long struggled with in our own home, let’s just use sports as an
obvious example.
Did you know:
In a study of sixteen declining congregations in the U.S.
& Canada, the number one reason cited by clergy & church members for
failing attendance was the “secularization of Sunday.” Many church members
cited their kids’ sports as being the most critical factor.
More than one-third of congregants in a separate study said
school & sports-related activities were “quite a bit of an issue” when
considering church attendance.
About two-third of “Christmas-Easter Christians” polled said they
attend church only twice a year because they are too busy with other
commitments including kids sports programs.
Shouldn’t someone throw a red flag here? Isn’t it time we
noticed that sports are pulling Christians out of the pews? There is bound to
be a ripple effect. Church isn’t just something we do. Church is the artery
that pumps the necessary blood through our bodies to run the race of faith
well. It can also be the birthplace for some of our deepest, most meaningful
relationships.
Listen it’s not my intention to pack your bags for a guilt
trip. I’m just suggesting that instead of cramming more into our schedules or
into our children’s schedules that we take our lives back.
This past spring, this was weighing heavy on my heart. Especially
with our daughter Hannah who was just entering the awkward & precarious
tween years.
We were fortunate to be able to take a family vacation to
Florida where I made the conscious choice to come apart & rest awhile. What
happened that week changed how I view my relationships with my family… particularly
when it comes to Han.
Here’s what happened:
I pretty much lived in my swimsuit & flip flops for a
week. Make up didn’t matter... messy hair didn’t matter... the fact that
my nose was covered with freckles & my front two teeth are crooked didn’t
matter.
The cruel inner voice I sometimes battle was silent & the poor self-image
that sometimes rears its ugly head was quiet...
Because what DID matter was happening right then. In that moment.
It happened while I had coffee with Hubs in my sweatpants on our cottage porch.
In holding his hand as we walked down the beach at sunrise. In sharing our
deepest thoughts & dreams as we listened to the ocean breeze in bed at
night.
It happened while swimming in the pool with my daughter
& not caring what I look liked in a swimsuit. In picking up seashells with
her on the beach & shopping for souvenirs for her girlfriends in the little
shops downtown. In having ice cream & laughing when we lost half of it on
the sidewalk. In the way she pressed into me for a hug or grabbed my hand as we
walked.
It happened while I watched our boys play together & laugh together even
though they are mostly grown... Ok... So they are grown... I may be a little
bit in denial.
It was having precious time with my parents, being able to really talk with
them in person. It happened while I listened to my daughter-in-law as she shared
her faith story with my mom & seeing them both talk & laugh with their
grandchildren.
It was watching our son read scripture in the church where he & our
daughter-in-law minister. In seeing their new apartment & playing with
their dogs. It was seeing the way my daughter-in-law looks at my son & the
way he loves her.
It was witnessing our younger son's engagement & celebrating this new
relationship with him & his fiancé. It was knowing that he is at peace with
his life & his path.
It happened in many precious little moments I might have missed had I not truly
left the cares of my real life behind.
As our vacation came to a close, I felt real sadness come
over me. While I knew that vacation can’t last forever, I found myself asking
myself… why can’t this sense of intentional living carry over into my for real
life?
In those final moments, I committed to be more intentional
with our daughter. As our family dynamics have drastically changed over the
last couple of years, parenting her has become a new kind of challenge. When
her brothers were at home we were very intentional about our family time. It
was important to us to have deep relationships with them that would grow &
change as they did… There were never TVs or computers in their bedrooms &
we set time limits on both. & while they both played football &
were active at school & church, we were very careful to have dinner at the
table together every night. We were deliberate about our evening times together
as well. We’d gather after supper in the living room where we would talk, play
games, watch movies & spend time just being a family. Our home was filled
with their friends & their noise & their laughter.
With Hannah it’s different. She’s become an only child.
While I find that her social & extracurricular schedule is a little busier
than that of her brothers, with dance & guitar & her small group, I
have also found that when we are home, she is happy to pull out the iPad to
play a game or watch a movie or curl up with in her bed with a book. With her
‘occupied’, I’ve had more time to myself to read, blog & fill up the white
space of my calendar with church lady stuff. While these things aren’t bad in
& of themselves, over time, they have developed into distractions that keep
me away from my child & that is not what I want.
You see, being on vacation with our whole family made me
realize something. Our intentionality while our boys were at home, has not only
strengthened the bond we have with them as they have become adults but it
readied the ground on which more mature friendships with them have grown. I
know our boys. I really KNOW them.
I want this with my daughter. She deserves to have a
present, engaging & hands on mama. So I made some commitments to God &
to her in my heart while we were away.
I should have known that making this kind of decision would
open me up to the enemy. Satan would rather our family be fragmented… have us
continue to each do our own thing & ultimately have us feel alone,
unsupported & disconnected.
The night before we were to fly home, Hannah developed some
kind of tummy thing that had she & I up most of the night in the bathroom.
Normally, any kind of sickness (day or night) falls on my husband. He’s so much
better with that kind of stuff than I am but because I am working on turning
over a new leaf & be engaging even if it’s WAAY out of my comfort zone, I
found myself kneeling beside her on the cold tile in the middle of the night,
holding her hair & rubbing her back. At one point, she thanked me for being
there& apologized for keeping me awake. It pierced my heart. Of course I
should be there. I want to be there. I’m her mumma after all.
I’d love to say that she was fully recovered by the time we
got on the plane in the morning but she wasn’t. It made for a long traveling
day for everyone. When we finally arrived home, I prescribed a quiet pajama
movie night for all & curled up with her on the couch. We could unpack&
grocery shop tomorrow.
But, just when it seemed as if all was well. It wasn’t.
Between the fever & the crazy dreams, Hannah popped up by the side of my
bed several times after I lay down, begging for one thing or another. Finally,
around 3am, I gave up, grabbed my pillow & went & crawled into bed with
her. At least there all she’d have to do was touch my shoulder & ask me for
something.
As I lay there staring at the ceiling & listening to her
breathing, I began to wonder if all of this was a test of my will. To see if I
would stick with my commitment to live in the present & not worry about
everything I have to do when I’m not on vacation.
I’m sharing this piece with you because intentionality is
not the easy way… but I know that if I choose to be intentional with my
children & with others God has put in my life, they will see through me the
heart of Christ.
You know, valuing people means adopting an overt willingness
to be inconvenienced. It means doing things that cannot be measured. It means
developing relationships based on who people really are & not who we want
them to be.
In our former church, Hubs & I started a small group with
two other couples in our home. Every Friday night our families got together to
make pizza& talk about the Bible. As time went on we got together more
frequently. Always for a meal. Sometimes we studied a passage in the Bible…
sometimes we just played cards & talked about how God was working in our
lives. As our kids played night games & built blanket forts & watched
movies & played video games, we shared what we were reading, what God was
teaching us, we laughed together & cried together. Those the eight years we
had living in community with them changed how we view 'church' for the good.
Church is not a building. It's not programming or the worship band or the
pastors. It is the people... living in true community together.
Let me be clear, it is not convenient.
Meeting together regularly interrupts our schedules. It
interferers with extracurricular activities & bed times. It takes effort to
care for each other. Needs rarely pop up on weekends & evenings. But that’s
what valuing people looks like. It means accepting a dirty house because people
have been loved, cared for, & entertained within the walls of your home. It
means accepting a schedule in flux because you are determined to make time for
others whenever necessary. It means considering the tasks of your to-do list as
less important than the people you’re doing them for. It means measuring
success through relationships—not how neat & tidy your life looks.
Being known won’t fit onto a checklist. Christian community
has become a buzzword for something we do, something we can put into our day
planner, but that’s not true community.
Jesus knew all about this. His community was no cakewalk.
Judas betrayed Him. Peter denied Him. Paul persecuted His flock & yet…
Jesus pursued a relationship with them.
If you want to be known you must be willing to get messy
& you’ve got to the ditch the idol of convenience our culture worships so
freely. I’m being super blunt right now because I want you to know it’s not an
easy an easy road. But it is on that God has always walked, & it leads to a
life more meaningful & connected than you could ever dream up yourself.
Unplugging:
Since I have your attention for just a little bit longer, I
want to share with you one last thing about intentionality. It’s a super touchy
subject… like how much your Hubs spent on your engagement ring or who you voted
for in the last election or how much you put in the offering plate at church or
whatever.
It’s not easy to come clean about it so I’ll go first. Truth
is I’m addicted to my iPhone. Yeah I said it. I love that little thing. I love
the texting. I love the Instagramming. I love the Facebooking. I love the
blogging. I love all the things.
Did you know?
That seventy percent of Americans sleep with their cell
phones within arm’s length. One-third of us get online before getting out of
bed.
Sixty-one percent of us check our phones every hour.
Adults spend at least eight to twelve hours per day staring
at screens. That’s more time than we spend on any other activity, including
sleeping.
Despite the fact that most young people have an average of
243 Facebook friends, it’s not translating into real-life friendships.
Researchers theorize that we are spending so much time online, that we no
longer have time to go out with our non-Facebook friends.
I’m embarrassed to say that I can relate to three out of
those four things.
So in preparation for this talk. I decided to unplug from all
social media on my iPhone for a week. It lasted all of one day before I took a
less aggressive approach & designated just one day a week to unplug. Yes I
know this isn’t the best case scenario but remember… I’m addicted.
The first day, I found myself reaching for my phone every
twenty minutes. It was a reminder that I am spending far too much time on that
thing. & because I was feeling guilt & shame over my iPhone use, I
chose to take the experiment one step further & take a little break from
social media on my computer as well. That evens out my lack of commitment
right?
Anyhoo… I can’t begin to tell you how hard it is to be
typing away on my computer & not be checking all the updates. I know that
my addiction to all this stuff stems partly from my kids being so far away (or
at least this is my most used excuse-but it’s a bad one since my gone kids
don’t really even go on there much anymore). Mostly I think I check my updates
because of two things:
The first is my insatiable desire to know all the things. I
really should have been a private investigator. I can’t stand not knowing
everything that is going on everywhere.
The second is the science of my brain. Scientists have
discovered that every time we get a technological ‘ping’ such as a text or
email alert, our brain gets a hit of dopamine.
Here’s a crash course in that science. Dopamine is a
neurotransmitter that runs the brain’s reward & pleasure centers—BTW this
is not something I made up on my own to excuse my ridiculous behavior. This is
for real science.—So… dopamine also regulates our emotional responses &
helps us take action toward rewards. When someone shoots us an email, or sends
us a friend request, or makes something we did or wrote go viral, our brains
get all tingly. That feels like a reward & our brains want more of it.
Brain researchers say that when we get low levels of
dopamine, we are prone to addiction. Yes our technology makes us feel good, but
chemically speaking warm fuzzies are seeping in at such a low level that we’re
all left wanting more.
& there are other things happening in our brains as we
click away. When we stare at a screen our heart rate slows. Our brain vessels
dilate. Blood flows away from our major muscles. In other words, our body
starts to relax. But the constant flow of visual stimuli can shift our
orienting responses into overdrive, eventually leading to fatigue & a sense
of depletion.
What’s more, we are feeling more & more insecure. One
Today Show survey revealed that seven thousand mothers worry that they are not
crafty or creative enough. Some admitted that they stay up all night looking at
Pinterst because they’re unable to stop the negative comparison. Some women
admitted to developing body image issues after comparing themselves to others
online. Never mind that we all know that no one really looks like their profile
pic. Somehow, the constant parade of other’s achievements & happy moments
is messing us up.
Listen, again it is not my intention to pack your bags for a
guilt trip. It is possible to use technology as a means to enhance our best
relationships. We don’t have to be addicted. We can live modern lives with real
relationships. But it requires us to put down the iPhone or whatever else
ensnares you & to enter the restaurant, or church, or coffee shop or blanket
fort or family, where real people live & real life is happening.
So remember my verse at the beginning of this twisty turny
talk? That’s OK. I’ll be bringing it back around now:
John 15:4 says, “Live in me. Make your home in me just as I
do in you. In the same way that a branch can’t bear grapes by itself but only
by being joined to the vine, you can’t bear fruit unless you are joined with
me.”
Do you see that this is really the key to living life on
purpose? If we choose to live in Christ, make our homes in Him. If we submit our time, talent & treasure
to His leading. If we lay our day to day schedules, our relationships & yes
even our technology at His feet there will be no doubt of who we are &
whose we are.
& that is what God desires most.
Let’s pray.
Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan
Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt
Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus by Kyle Idleman
Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan
Seven: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker
Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture by Brandon Hatmaker
Everything: What You Give and What You Gain to Become Like Jesus by Mary DeMuth
Hands Free Mama: A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters by Rachel Macy Stafford
Connected: Curing the Pandemic of Everyone Feeling Alone Together by Erin Davis
*NOT Pictured because they are currently being lent out:
Your Beautiful Purpose: Discovering and Enjoying What God Can Do Through You by Susie Larson
One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp
**NOT Pictured because it's in my purse (I don't go anywhere without it)
The Message Bible
***A special thanks to my dad for passing me '7'... to my
friend Greta Jarrett for passing me 'Hands Free Mama'... & to Erin
Davis for writing 'Connected' & putting words to everything that I
couldn't.
