Gravel Road Musings

Stepping into the role you were made for. Allison performed hundreds of live performances of Grease on Broadway, so she knows a little about acting. She takes lessons learned from theater and translates them into real life. Are we standing on the stage that God has for us or are we trying to hide in a corner or play another role completely, one that we're not equipped for? She talks about being an understudy and learning from older and more experienced actors and how much she could learn from them. How like life when we allow ourselves to be mentored and taught by those older than us or when we delve into the Word of God and let Him teach us. She also talks about how an actor needs to learn to stand in the spotlight and to be at the right place and the right time so the light illuminates the main part of the story. Again, in real life, we need to stand in the light God has called us to. That may not always be easy, it might be calling us to share a difficult part of our stor...

Build Stronger Communication and Deeper Connections In a day and age when it seems like books are about how to talk so people will listen, this book comes as a stark contrast. This is not a book about selling yourself or your product in such a dynamic way that everyone wants to buy it. Instead it's about how to sacrifice your own interest in talking so that people will confide in you and trust you and really talk to you. How often do we find ourselves checking social media, email, or otherwise zoning out when someone is talking? How often do we finish  the other person's sentences? Or think about what we're going to say in response to what they're saying or how we can one up their story? This book offers practical, helpful tips to overcoming those tendencies and becoming a listener that actually listens and hears and asks thoughtful questions. I was challenged and convicted to be intentional in my conversations, to listen to what people are saying, to draw out...

Embracing the Everyday Moments of Motherhood Life is made up of moments, but too often we miss the moments in our attempts to grab onto the big things. The next thing we know, we've missed living life because we were always looking out ahead. Nichole challenges us to look in the here and now, to enjoy the moment we're in and to treasure each day. "Creating a table with joy at the center has very little to do with what's being served." "Holding on too tightly to relics and memorabilia can fool me into remembering things inaccurately. Everything was beautiful and easy. The babies slept soundly beneath the moon. I pureed organic carrots. What? Not even close." "Sometimes the only thing that turns an ordinary event into a special tradition is just calling it one." Besides being  a good reminder to cherish the moments, the book itself is beautiful. A little hardback gift book size book with beautiful photographs of the cutest little chil...

Set in Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains during the time of the Frontier Nursing Service and the end of World War II comes a story that features love, adventure, and caring compassion. The Frontier Nursing Service was established by Mary Breckinridge and it still serves southeastern Kentucky and the midwifery school continues to train nurse-midwives. I really like when fiction books incorporate true history into their stories. Francine Howard comes to the Frontier Nursing Service to run away from a botched relationship back home and, of course, you know what happens. The book is more than that though too. There are tales of treating a moonshiner's accidental gunshot wound, Granny Em with her herbs and wisdom, a baby being born on the back of a truck in the middle of winter enroute to the hospital, and so on. Francine embraces the mountain people, seeks to understand them and develops rich friendships because of that. She gets hopelessly lost very quickly in the mountain...

Living out the beauty of the Gospel Together Many of you might know her as Nancy Leigh DeMoss, or as the founder, I believe, of Revive our Hearts. She has written a number of books, of which I have read very few. Right now I can't think of any other ones I have read. But I have listened to her broadcasts and inspired and challenged by what she has to say. This book was no different. Taken from Titus 2: 1-5, 10, this is Paul's challenge for the older women to be "reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine." Then they are to teach the younger women "to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands." That is what Adorned is about, talking about each of these characteristics and encouraging the older women to get involved in the life of a younger woman, to not check out and think their work is done, but to mentor and teach. And to the younger woman, the encourageme...

This story is set in the late 1800's and is based on a true story. Jennie is a young woman married to an alcoholic. He divorces her and she goes to work as a caregiver/nurse for an older lady in failing health. In a bizarre turn of events, after the lady dies, her husband, a 64 year old man and Jennie, a 26-year old, fall in love and get married. She goes on to become a doctor and to say much more would be to give away some of the story line.  From what I was able to gather in the author's notes is that this is all true. Knowing that this book was based on a true story does help the story line a bit, but I will have to say the book had a hard time pulling me in. There really seemed to be no plot, nothing that just grabbed my attention. The references to God were somewhat minimal, it didn't seem like a real relationship with God. There was a piece about guilt, where Jennie's friend would have said, you need to confess your failings to God, then forgive yourself, and ...

Illustrated by Lisa Manuzak A little dog with a big heart. This is a hardback children's book that is beautifully illustrated and tells a true story. It's a standard hardback size, maybe around a 10x12 with a cover jacket. I'm not sure what kind of illustrations they are. The people are not real to life and yet they are not caricatures either or I wouldn't call them that anyway. The story is about Dion's run through the Gobi Desert. On the second day of the race, a little stray desert dog finds the runners and attaches himself to Dion and runs the remainder of the race with him. Dion doesn't have extra food, but he shares a little with the dog. Other runners also share food with Gobi from their own stashes. The dog wants to stick with Dion and be his forever friend. This is challenged when Dion goes to run through a river and the dog knows he couldn't make it. Just in time, Dion remembers and comes back and carries the dog across the river. It...

Due to some spamming comments, I have changed the ability to comment. You now cannot comment anonymously, but need to have a Google ID and will have to do a word verification. Not that I get that many comments, but it has been very frustrating to have all these spam comments, some of which are very inappropriate. Why would people want to spam my blog? I mean really, I am so active on it and it is such a money-making account and reaches so many people..... Okay, that's all. I just wanted to rant a little on it. Oh and if you ever need some risque comment ideas, you can check with me I can help you out.

100 stories and 100 songs Created by Stephen Elkins Illustrated by Tim O'Connor 100 Bible stories that are short and easy to understand and can be read in five minutes or less. Each story is accompanied by a song that goes along with the story. The book seems to be pretty comprehensive as far as capturing the popular Bible stories: Creation, Noah, Job, four stories about David, Jonah, birth of Jesus, some parables and miracles and ending with heaven. Some of the songs include Amazing Grace to go with the Beatitudes, Be Kind to go with the story of David and Mephibosheth, He is Lord with the story of Samson and so on. In paging through the book, a lot of the songs look familiar to me and I am guessing you could find the music on YouTube for the ones that you don't know. I would wish there was either music to go with the songs, not just the lyrics or that there was a CD with all the songs on it. If someone doesn't know a lot of Bible songs or hasn't had a two yea...