Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle

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Church of the Small Things - By: Melanie Shankle

The Million Little Pieces That Make Up a Life

If you've never read Melanie Shankle, you need to go do that. Now, just go to Amazon and order it. Or borrow it from the library or something. Only do this if you enjoy humor and little nuggets of truth all mixed up together. Only if you enjoy exaggerated stories and life lessons intermingled. She has written four books now: Sparkly Green Earrings, The Antelope in the Living Room, Nobody's Cuter than You, and now this one. And it looks like she has a devotional coming out entitled Everyday holy, scheduled to release in March of 2018. I haven't read Nobody's Cuter than You and I'm not sure how I missed it, but anyway.

Melanie seems to have a flare for the dramatic. I am not sure what she would have been like to parent, but her books are a lot of fun to read. Interestingly enough, she portrays herself very much as an introvert. I find that interesting, because her writing screams extrovert, center of attention, but I'm not sure that is really who she is in real life, but her writing is not hindered by that. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to say I don't think introverts can write good books. I very much believe they can. I consider myself an introvert and I enjoy writing. Okay, I need to just stop with this line of thought and move on.

Let me start by quoting extensively from her second to last paragraph in the book. I think it sums up both the book and life quite nicely.  "In that funny way life has of teaching you as you go, I learned over the years that it's usually not the big moment that make up a life as much as it is the small ones. It's not going to college and setting up a dorm room that makes you an adult but the discipline of showing up for class....It's not the wedding ceremony that makes you a married couple, but the daily commitment to stay in love even when someone is seemingly incapable of throwing away the wrappers from the York Peppermint Patties he eats every night and asks every year if Valentine's Day is the second Tuesday in February. It's not giving birth or signing adoption papers that makes you a mom, but braiding hair and kissing scraped knees and walking the floor at night with a feverish baby in your arms as you whisper a silent prayer.....I've learned that the best way to live is to look for God in the church of small things. The church of small things is where God does his best work. The church of small things is where the majority of us live every single day."

Another thing she talks about that I can so relate to is this thing of worry, fear, and anxiety. She talks of how social media has taken fear and anxiety to a whole new level by all the "information" that gets shared around. As Melanie so aptly says, "One quick question: where can we send the bill for the medication we have to take every night in the hopes of turning off our brains long enough to get some sleep without worrying about all the ways we and our loved ones could possibly die?"

So as I said, she's a good mix of funny and truth. My takeaway from this book is one that I repeat to myself a lot. Enjoy the little moments. It's not the big moments the ultimately define a life, though they may, but it's the little mundane moment, the thousand whys from your toddler and your response to them, the shared looks that remind you of why you fell in love with your husband in the first place, the coffee dates with tried and true friends, and the list goes on. Look for God in the small moments. He is there.

I received this book from Book Look Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.

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