Expanding on the July reads

I talked to you yesterday a little about reading A Wrinkle in Time so today I wanted to share about the other books I read in July.

Technically one was a Bible Study that covered June and July, but I have decided that I read it so…there you go. I really liked the Truthfilled Study by Ruth Chou Simons and have been going back over it.

The study is based on the idea that we need to preach truth to ourselves. Just reading and knowing Scripture is not the same as activating it in our personal lives.

One of the common themes I found as I answered questions and have gone back over it to review was that the times when I lose my footing tend to happen when there is too much happening at once and I don’t have time to process. It can be too much hard stuff or too much good stuff, but when things come at me fast and furious I tend to either overreact or shut down.

I forget who I am in Christ and feel I am drowning in overwhelm. Again…this can be too many good things or too many hard things. I found the study to be helpful to me in realizing there are always going to be seasons. The study was a good discipline refresher for me. Preaching Scripture to myself on the daily keeps me grounded. She also reminded us that this is a “practice” so it is something we do with regularity – not always getting it right, but continuing to do it as a part of our faith walk. Like “practicing” and instrument or a skill…we get better, we grow, we make mistakes, we learn.

Another book you may have noticed is A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie. This book was mentioned by Priscilla Shirer in the Elijah Study. In one of the sessions she said she has two books she uses for her daily prayers. One was the Valley of Vision, which you all know is a standard for me. I decided I needed to check out this one as well.

I ordered the book and have been praying through the daily prayers for several months now. So technically I read the whole book a few months ago, but decided to share it with you in this month’s list.

There is a morning and evening prayer for 31 days and then a special Sunday set of morning and evening prayers. The thoughts and ideas to pray have touched my heart and I find myself praying bits of them throughout the day. The prayers are not only for other people but for a deeper growth in the ways of following Jesus personally.

The last book in the stack is Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend.

I have started this book numerous times and never made it past the first chapter. It opens with the account of a woman with no boundaries and it was exhausting to read her story so I would quit.

But this time I pressed on and I am so glad I did. There were many good points brought up. The concept that boundaries help define what is mine and what is not mine was a big help to me. I also learned that saying no and risking a momentary hurting of feelings is better than saying yes and then doing things with resentment.

I made a gazillion notes in the margin and really need to go back through and solidify my takeaways. This is one that will be going back on the shelf and I will be revisiting for sure!

We may be hearing more from this one before it’s all said and done.

I actually have a little personal application story to go with this last book but will save for our Friday message. I would love to share a recap with you of some of our travels so get ready for that tomorrow…

Hope you have a good day <3