Longing for Paris by Sarah Mae

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Product Details

One woman's search for joy, beauty, and adventure--right where she is.

Wow, this is a really great book.  I'm not finished reading it, in fact I'm not even half way through the book, but I just need to talk about it.  This is the story/journey of Sarah Mae to living intentionally. That's my term for it.  Sarah wants to go to Paris, but her family's budget has no room for such trips right now and so she has endeavored to make her own Paris right in her own hometown in Lancaster County, PA.  To keep herself from going stir-crazy, she is seeking to live out her dreams while still caring for and providing for her family.

One thing she has done is to go and search out the best croissant (croissants are French) in her area. She likes to stop and savor her food, close her eyes and taste her food with all her senses.  She is endeavoring to learn to meditate, to spend time with God, to feel Him close and to ponder what He is saying.  And that is as far as I have gotten in the book, but I have been so challenged and excited to live intentionally.

And now I have finished the book and I have renewed vision to live out of the person God has created me to be, to live fully and to live alive and to live with eternity in view, because after all that is the ultimate of our longings. As Sarah brings out in the last chapter of her book, we are made for HOME--for eternity, for our heavenly abode.  The beauty that we see here and taste and enjoy is but a foretaste and can often leave us longing for more.  We were made for more than this life has to offer, but we need to live this life well while we wait.

I want to share a few things that stuck out to me from her chapter entitled: "Holy DNA".

"Get used to who you are.

"There is so much freedom in stretching into yourself, being comfortable in who you are and how God made you. It's not only freeing, but it's really just lovely to settle into the you God made you to be.

"Don't try to be somebody else; that's no fun at all! Plus it's one of the fastest ways to dislike your life! Accept who you are. If you don't know who you are, start figuring it out. Consider it an adventure! Have fun with it. Explore!

"The color in us--our dreams and desires and longings - can be from God, and I would say that they are all from God; they just can get twisted or misplaced sometimes. We are all susceptible to that.

"...the grace of release is being able to give our dreams back to God and trust Him with them. Because remember, He cares about us and He cares about our dreams. It doesn't mean all of our dreams will bloom the way we want them to, but it does mean He will make His love evident to us through them all."

Okay that is enough, it may not make sense just reading snippets here and there, but I have been challenged and stimulated to try and live me life to the fullest.  This week my goal is to severely limit my mindless surfing-of-the-web time and to use that time to work on projects and ideas and to hold my baby and to see beauty and to enjoy life.

So, yes, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for more out of life than just mindless hum-drum living.  Life is an adventure to be lived and I want to live it being fully me and fully alive and fully the person God wants me to be.

This book was given me by Tyndale House for the purpose of reading and writing a review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

You can learn more about Sarah Mae here

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