Gravel Road Musings

Finding freedom in God's commands. The Ten Commandments, huh? Old Testament? Easy, peasy. I can keep all those. I don't swear. I don't have an idols in my house. I only worship God. I take Sundays off. I honor my father and mother. I don't steal, kill, lie, commit adultery or outwardly covet. So I'm good right? Wrong. Colin views the Ten Commandments as lines on a railroad track and while the end station may be outright stealing or outright adultery, etc. what about all the lines leading up to the station? Ah, that might be what trips you up. And if nothing else trips you up, what about coveting? That's in inward struggle that nobody can see, but is sure to get us. Colin takes these Ten Commandments and calls them our greatest struggles: Your struggle with God Your struggle with Worship Your struggle with Religion Your struggle with Time Your struggle with Authority Your struggle for Peace Your struggle for Purity Your struggle for Integrity You...

The Music, the Memories, and the Miles Between Mark Lee is a founding member of the music group, Third Day, an award winning Christian rock band. I have never listened to them, I don't believe as I don't listen to rock music, but I found his story interesting. This book is less about his music, though it's a prominent place, and more about God's leading and direction in his life. The writing is simple with no pretention. He really has almost nothing to say about their performances or life on the road. The book is about his journey to becoming a musician and his desire to follow Jesus first, a commitment he made the summer after high school. Mark lost his dad at age 16 to brain cancer. It was a hard journey for him. Hit by a truck a couple years before that, he had some injuries to recover from there as well. The last chapter kind of recaps the book in a way and I want to quote a few lines from there that give the gist of the story better than I can. "Thes...

Illustrated by David Hohn This is the story of a wolf kid who is an only child and he is trying to figure out why some families are big and he is only one. His parents are explaining that families come in all sizes. There is the family with lots of children, the family where the cubs are raised by the grandparents and the family that is raised by the mother and only see the dad in the summer. Then the wolf family goes to a family reunion and the cub realizes that all these other wolves make up his pack/his family and while sometimes they are annoying, they can also be fun to play with. The storyline is cute. I hesitate at the hint of a divorced family and yet I realize that is the culture we live in and my children are going to be exposed to it at some point. And also, this could indicate a family where the dad works away and is only able to come home on weekends or monthly, etc. If there was no indication of a dad, I would take it to mean a spouse has died, but I don't thi...

Getting Real about Getting Close Relationships--so vital and so hard. Why do we fear being real? Why do we try to hide behind a fake facade, attempting to be whoever we think the other person wants us to be? John explores getting real and really experiencing intimacy. This applies not just to a spouse, but to all close relationships. We were born to bond. That's why attachment and bonding is so important as babies. We need that so we can thrive as adults "God's primary goal for us is character, not innocence. Innocence means I haven't done anything wrong. Character means I am habitually devoted to doing what is right. Babies are innocent. Saints have character." It is this character that allows us to experience intimacy with those around us. "People who are skilled at intimacy look for opportunities to create joy for other people." It's an outward focused thing, how can I best help the other person, rather than a me focus. John talks abou...

The Napalm Girl's Journey through the Horrors of War to Faith, Forgiveness, and Peace. June 8, 1972, at eight years old, Kim Phuc's life changed forever. That was the day the Napalm bomb was dropped on her village of Trang Bang. I do not fully understand these types of bombs, but they work by burning. It's a sticky substance and sticks to whatever it touches. It also burns at 5,000 degrees F. The fire chased her, burned her clothes right off of her and deeply burned 30% of her body. She was taken to a hospital and placed in the morgue where her mother found her three days later. Interestingly enough, and I hope I'm not giving away too much of the storyline, Kim always wondered and struggled with why she had been left for dead when she was still breathing, but because of the way napalm worked, other victims who were taken to the hospital and well-meaning nurses would remove the bandages, they would immediately catch on fire again and die. Napalm needs oxygen. By bein...

This is the third in the series Heart of the Frontier. I am thinking it is the last as Mercy was the youngest sister Mercy lived up to her name. In the previous two books as everyone dealt with the after effects of the Whitman Mission Massacre, Mercy wanted love and forgiveness to prevail. She wasn't after revenge. That theme didn't come out quite as strong in this book, but it was definitely there. She was once again put in some life threatening situations and her earnest desire was for peace. While this was a purely fiction book, it did open my eyes to the fighting and wars between the whites and Indians and I'm sure there was a lot more truth in the fiction than I ever realized, as far as the hatred the whites had for the Indians. It was a good book. I like Tracie's books. It was also rather predictable as we might assume. There was a little twist in the plot involving a little girl, but I'm not going to give away any spoilers here. I received this book...

A Prayer for When You Wish You Were Brave This is a nice hardcover book with a dust jacket suitable for ages 2 and up or any age where they will sit and listen to a story. Even as an adult, I can stand to remember this story. It's the story of a cat who thinks he's a big, strong cat and not a scaredy cat, but turns out he's scared about a lot of things like sprinkles on his doughnut.  When fear strikes though, there is a prayer to pray. "God, you are good. God, you are near. God, you are here! And, God, you love me." These words, are repeated throughout the book and are so very, very true. God is good, He is near and He hears me. I need to remember this when I want to allow fear to overtake me. My daughter loves this book and had her daddy read it twice back to back as soon as the box was open. I hope she too can remember to go to God when she is scared. I really like this book and the lesson it teaches. I will say for those who have read Max Luca...