Gravel Road Musings

Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God's Grand Story "Holy sexuality: chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage." This definition is repeated multiple times throughout the book. "This term holy sexuality is meant to simplify and disentangle the complex and confusing conversation around sexuality. The truth is that God's standard for everyone is holy sexuality: chastity in singleness and faithfulness in marriage. Different expectations for different people are not only unfair; they're unbiblical." Christopher Yuan is a Christian who struggles with same-sex attraction. He and his mother wrote a book together called "Out of a Far Country" which gives the story of his journey through the gay lifestyle and his conversion to Christianity, along with the journey of the mother who prayed for eight years for his salvation. Now Chris is back with a book about what the Bible has to say about sexuality. First off, Christopher helps ...

One Marriage, One Family Under God This book is the novelization of a movie and is based on true events. Darren and Heather Turner, a couple committed to God and country and each other, but when life throws them a curve ball they are a little unprepared to handle it. Darren is a Army Chaplain and sent to Iraq for 15 months. Heather holds down the fort at home and gets involved with support groups etc. for army wives, especially the group that provides support after a wife receives news of the death of her husband. All this is done while living on pins and needles, always wondering when the knock will happen at your door that rips your life apart. So while I'm not a proponent of war, the substance of this book is very, very good. Regardless, we are in a spiritual war where Satan is waiting to trip us up and destroy us and our families. And in this book, he was using the scars and the battle wounds worn internally on Darren to do it. And he nearly succeeds, but not quite. And...

I realized something this week and it's kind of bothering me. I think I'm a "No" mom. A asks me if she can do something like her water paints or play with her train, things that will make a mess or cause a fight with her brother and my reaction is "No, not now, it's too close to supper, to bed, to naptime. L will just fight with you." And on and on go my excuses. Why? I mean really, how hard would it be to let her? So I don't want to deal with the mess, but which is actually messier, cleaning up the chocolate milk that was spilled about 20 seconds after I poured it or helping her get some water so she can paint a picture? Or how about this, letting her get out the play food box that keeps both children entertained for hours versus just saying no? Let me add this, letting her get that food box out was a great decision. I was able to sew for about 2.5 hours yesterday after their naps. That's pretty much unheard of and I was so very happy and bles...

Set in the year 1908 in Jersey City, this is the fictional account of an historical event. I am learning I like historical fiction and the sometimes obscure history that comes to life in books like these. Granted, the historical component of the book can sometimes be a side glance or an after thought, but still there is history to be learned. Doctor Rosalind Werner was orphaned at age 10 from a cholera epidemic. Now, she is desperate to create safe drinking water for everyone. And this is the fictional story surrounding the real Dr. Leal and George Fuller and their work on chlorinated water. They actually tested chlorinated water on the population without the public knowing. It's interesting to me because now it's just normal for city water to have chlorine in it. So enough of spoilers, I don't apologize for it either, because I like to know what's true and what's not when I read the book. Sometimes, like in this book, I will stop in the middle and go back and...

This is book number six in the Montana Rescue Series and from what I gathered, this is the last book in the series. I think this is the third one I read, so you don't have to read them in order to get the story being told, but I'm thinking there would be some things that would make more sense if you did read them in order from the prequel through book six. This book, Wait for Me, was a little over the edge for me. The whole book took place in less than a week and was pretty much full of sappy love scenes (nothing R rated) and full out running away from the bad guy. I don't like to give spoilers, so I will just say I found it a little hard to believe that everything that happened in this book could actually happen to a person and they all would survive. I think, for me, this book seemed a bit unrealistic and a little too much romance.  But I haven't tried to survive in the wilderness and I know the fight for survival is definitely strong, so I don't want to say ...

This is the third in the Under the Northern Skies series and I am really enjoying this series. It's about a family that immigrated from Norway, first Rune and Signe and their children, then Rune's brother and sister, Ivar and Nilda, and then finally Rune's mom. To me, this series is book about real life. Bad stuff happens. When Rune's family gets there, they are shocked and dismayed at the conditions they are subjected to, but it gets better. It's a lot of hard work, but fun and laughter also come. This third book is more about Nilda than the rest of the family. Honestly, if you read the second paragraph in the description of the book, it sounds like this is a love story. Here it is: The only thing missing from Nilda's life is love. But though she has two suitors--a quiet schoolteacher and a handsome lumberjack--Nilda feels hesitant. A terrifying experience in Norway has made her cautious where men are concerned. When she thinks she sees the man in question...

I stood there folding laundry while my chatty daughter stood beside me, peppering me with questions. Maybe not even question so much as this. "Mom?" "Yes, dear." "...." "Mommy."  "Mmhmm" I've digressed to just a mumble hoping against hope a three year old can catch a hint that I have had enough questions for the day, my brain is begging for some silence and my patience is hanging on my the merest of threads.  Then again, here it comes, "Mom?" "Yes." "Always choose joy."  Oh wow, it hits me, coming straight out of the blue like that. Yes, it is her sheep verse we call it and we have been learning it for over two weeks now, but why now? Why would she pop it off now when I am folding laundry and trying to be grateful for the extroverted daughter who doesn't understand yet the "need" her introverted mother has for silence. It's been several weeks since that episode by the dryer, but it k...

Putting Overwhelmed in its place in a Do-All, Be-All World I read a lot of books, especially and mostly to review, so my library of books, or should I say my boxes of books continues to increase. It's a sad fact that I don't own near enough bookshelves to display all my books. And so the thought keeps niggling at my mind, "You need to get rid of some." Along with that, was the realization as stated in the last book I read that you have to read a lot of books to find the true gems and that brings me here. You may wonder what all that was about, but it's this. This book is that gem. This book is the book that will not be downsized and removed from my boxes or bookshelves. This book is staying and it's probably a book I should put in a list to reread every couple of years. I've also started a book journal this fall and this was one of those books that didn't have even a full page of quotes. Basically, you just need to read the book. This is a book a...

The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life This was a pretty gift-sized book, meaning it's smaller than your average book, filled with fun little chapters about books and reading. In many ways, I would almost call it a collection of essays, because I feel like you could pretty much pick up any chapter and read it as a stand-alone. Now maybe if I tried that, I would disagree with myself, but that is my opinion at this point.  The chapters are short and can easily be read in just a few minutes.  There is a chapter dedicated to how to decorate your bookshelves, a chapter to quotes from the acknowledgements section of books, section Anne encourages you never to miss reading, and there's a chapter on the ways your reading style changes over time. One of the most interesting and intriguing ideas Anne mentioned was having a library history, a way to go back and see all the books you ever borrowed from the library. I find that a fascinating idea. She does encourage everyone...

How God Displays His Power to Ordinary People Taking the prayers of seven Biblical characters: Eliezer, Hannah, Jonah, Habakkuk, David, Daniel and Mary, Michael provides a formula maybe for a good prayer life. Let me start with a quote from the chapter on Mary, a prayer of praise for the way God was blessing her. And in reality, in her day and culture, blessed is probably not the way most people would have described her life. And yet, she gave thanks and praised God in the midst of that. That says a lot for Mary and I think it says a lot for her parents as well, especially since Mary is believed to have been a pretty young teenager. "Show me a person whose prayer life is focused on magnifying the Lord, and I will show you a person who is contented and full of joy. Show me a person whose prayer life is consumed with glorifying God, and  I will show you a truly happy person. Show me a person whose prayer life is focused on seeking the righteousness of God, and I  will sh...

Ha, this book was so the opposite of the last book I read. This book was fluffy and fun and did not require any brain stretching. Two people, desperately needing money are looking for a treasure and, of course, they find each other.  There was more to the story, but that is the gist of it. There were a couple pages of some good solid advice from the grandma who was in and out of dementia and I will write some quotes from her at the end, but mostly it was the story of the hunt for the treasure and excerpts from the journals that guided them to the right spot. Now, I don't want to give away any more spoilers about what, if anything, the treasure contained. I will say the reading was easy, not extremely thought provoking, so it was a nice read while exercising or around my children because I didn't need to concentrate. If I had anything negative to say it was that the book was a little too romanced focused maybe and too concerned about how the romance books did it and how th...

Raw is the first word that comes to mind when I think of how to define this book. Wrestle might be the second word. You get the feeling that author is wrestling with the title of this book most of the time he is writing it. He's fighting cancer, his wife's having surgery, his insurance company tries to cancel his health insurance, friends are fighting their own battles, and he's trying to figure out a God who isn't following the happy Gospel so many modern Christians are ascribing to. I'm not even really sure how to describe this book in a few succinct sentences. Part of me wrestled with the fact that Dr. Crabb still seemed to be wrestling with this issue at 70 plus years of age. I mean aren't we supposed to have life figured out by then? And the other part of me appreciated the raw honesty that he expressed in the words of this book as he himself wrestled with who God is and how to define His Sovereignty. Basically, I would say read the book. It's def...