Beautifully Poor

A Spectacle of Glory  by Joni Eareckson Tada with Larry Libby is a daily devotional that is meant to be encouraging, especially to those living in hard times or going through them. Each day starts off with a verse to look up and read, followed by the author's take on it or a story relating to it and then a short prayer.  I found that a lot of these have come from Joni Eareckson Tada's own life experiences. If you don't know anything about her, she is a quadriplegic and is founder and CEO of Joni and Friends, a Christian organization that is an outreach to the disabled community. She is a great inspiration seeing all that she has been up against in life and I find great respect in her ability to overcome the obstacles that have been thrown her way. The devotionals don't really inspire deep thought and are very simple and to the point. The short prayers are also more her prayers, which I would suggest saying a prayer that means something to you, these just he...

I thoroughly enjoy devotionals that make me think.  Devotions For A Deeper Life by Oswald Chambers  does just that. The author, Oswald Chambers, is a world renowned theologian and well known for his other book, My Utmost for His Highest , which is also a great read.  Devotions For A Deeper Life by Oswald Chambers  is a beautiful hardcover devotional book with an attached ribbon book mark for keeping one's page very easily. This is a daily devotional, starting with January 1st and ending on December 31st. Each devotion starts with a scripture, followed by a short devotional and ending with a prayer thought and suggested reading from the Bible. Whether keeping for yourself as a beautiful devotional, or giving as a gift, I really think anyone looking for a great devotional would enjoy this as much as I do. It really is gift ready and perfect for the nightstand, whether doing devotions in the morning or evening. You can purchase it here  Zondervan Publ...

Losing a child is one of the worst experiences anyone can face. It is one of the most lonely losses because people don't remember with you or grieve with you unlike when an older child or person in general passes. They all have memories too; where as a small child, those are not there. Most people forget quite quickly what has happened to you and it is easy to leave it and downplay your own sorrow. But dealing with it is much smarter and will help you heal much quicker. How do I know? Because I've been there; twice. The first time was extremely hard and took me almost 2 years to recover from emotionally. This second time is so recent (November 2015) that I am still in the healing process. It started with denial and is now finally coming to a place where I can handle it. I was very happy to run into this book on a website. I didn't want to read it but knew I just had to. I needed help. I needed to not feel so alone. And most of all I needed God to help me through it...