Five Minute Friday :: Rest

Wrestling.
Churning.
Analyzing.
Longing.

Hurt.
Afraid.
Wounded.
Alone.

Rage.
Fight.
War.
Explode.

Breathe.
Deep.
Down.
Low.

Fill.
Up.
Your.
Lungs.

Find
Rest
In
Him.

Bow.
Low.

Bow.
Out.

Bow.
Down.

Anxiety.
Fear.
Hatred.
Pride.

Give.
Up.

Give.
In.

Give.
Out.

Take.
Heart.

Take.
Courage.

Come.
Boldly.

Ask.
Knowingly.

Knock.
Loudly.

Run.
Walk.
Climb.
Reach.

Hands.
Down.
Wrap.
Around.

Grabbing.
Grasping.
Holding.
Clinging.
Drawing.

You.
Close.
To.
His.
Heart.

Close.
To.
His.
Breast.

Safe.

Rest.

The One Good Thing {book review and giveaway}

Nathan Steen is a very unique man. Every day he carries a handful of stones in his pocket and looks for opportunities to do random acts of kindness as he moves one stone from one pocket to the other. Many lives have been impacted by Nathan Steen's life, but he has a secret that he has kept for over twenty years, from his parents, his children, even from his wife. This secret threatens to shatter the very fabric of the reputation that Nathan has maintained almost his whole life.

The One Good Thing tops the list as my new favorite fictional read in the past few years. Kevin Alan Milne explores themes of friendship, death, bullying, kindness, humanity, and redemption plus so much more. Written from the perspective of a different character in every chapter, the reader can truly understand the struggles and feelings of each family member. I found myself asking, "How far would I go to help someone in need?" and "Do I daily .... or even weekly ....  approach my life looking at how I can not only help but also truly make a difference in someone's day...or even someone's life?"

I loved this book so much that it is my GREAT delight to be able to offer to YOU a chance to win this book for your very own!

Yay, right?!?!

There are A LOT of entries available. Just fill out the rafflecoptor below.

And you can buy this book on Amazon today!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received The One Good Thing from Center Street as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Maybe Hope

Today has been a melancholy day.

I sort of woke up that way.
I may have gone to sleep with those feelings last night, but tiredness reigned and the morning dawned with a sadness in my soul, even as I swept the cobwebs from my sleepy brain.

For the momma who may lose custody of all five of her children due to extended incarceration.
For those young hearts and minds who WILL find a forever home, but at a deeply emotional cost.
For the boy whose past has been a whirlwind and finds himself in trouble...AGAIN...today at school.
For my own body, aching intensely for the third morning in a row.
For the vulnerability that my heart feels when my physical weaknesses are exposed to new ears and I wonder, "Do they really understand?"
For the feelings of trepidation that making new friends and wondering if I can really be myself brings.
For the future of my granny, her care, and how that affects my mom, my whole family.
For a hundred things that my mind and my heart and my soul cannot grasp and contain.

I know that tears are just brimming below the surface and they are felt more deeply than words can truly capture. Although I have shared reasons and potential whys, the deep that cries out to deep senses that I have only scratched the surface of this gloomy reverie.

So here I sit, in my favorite cafe, writing out my heart....squeezed in the minutes between going here and there to purge the recesses of my soul believing for resolution, absolution, or maybe just peace in the convolution.

Maybe the brokenness in my own soul is making me more aware and alive and in tune to the cries of the downtrodden.

Maybe the weakness in me today is necessary to move forward in this haphazardly beautiful journey like Much-Afraid in her pilgrimage of "becoming."

Maybe my heart's tenderness is causing me to smell deep as I walk out my door and pause to remember, "Spring is coming...it's almost here...don't give up....wait a little longer."

Maybe...just maybe....
Hope is here.
Hope is alive.
Hope will come again.

The Return of Cassandra Todd {book review}

When Cassandra Todd was in high school, she had it all -- the looks, the captain of the cheerleading squad, and the boyfriend who was quaterback of the football team. At least, that is how Turner Caldwell saw it from afar as he idolized her and suffered the consequences of her boyfriend and his bully friends. Almost a decade later, when Cassandra rolls back into town, Turner fights the torrent of emotions that wreak havoc in his already-wounded soul.  In that moment, he could not have guessed the journey that God would take him on, meshing his past disappointments and experiences together in a way that make the reader realize how truly God does work everything together for his purpose.

The Return of Cassandra Todd invites you in from the prologue through a pilgrimage of two very different people whose lives intersection result in eternal repercussions for them both. I love how Darrel Nelson endears the reader to the characters immediately. Capturing their flaws as well as their strengths enables the reader to see themselves throughout Cassandra and Turner's intense odyssey of forgiveness, trust, security, and hope for the future. The Return of Cassandra Todd engaged my senses and found me quickly longing to know the end of the story. I would heartily recommend this book to the story lover at heart as well as to those who have known brokenness and redemption.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received The Return of Cassandra Todd from Glass Road Media Management as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Dear God-Sized Dreamer

Dear God-Sized Dreamer,

seasonswithsoul

Psst...that's you!
Yes...you...right there...reading this RIGHT now!

YOU have a God-sized dream or dreams inside of you just bursting to get out!

Oh yes you do! I promise.
Seriously.
I know.
I truly do.

How you ask?
Because I know how He made you...how He made me.
I know that He wired us with something so amazing inside of us that if we do not do it, we think we might burst. You know what I am talking about now...don't you?

I know.
I can hear you now.
I can't do that! or That's impossible for me!

I have felt that way too.
{Secret -- I still do some days...many days!}

But that is JUST the thing....
YOU cannot do it
And
It IS impossible for you.

That is why it is God-sized.
Made with beauty and purpose
and bigger than our human hands and hearts can wrap around.

Your God-sized dream whispers to you in the dark....You were made for this.
In the secrets of the wind and waves, it beckons....Don't give up...
As the seasons change and winter falls into spring you hear....He makes all things new...including you!

So sister, dream bigger and wider and larger than you think is possible.
Brother, go deeper and when you think you have hit rock bottom, plumb deeper still.
Friends, hold fast to the world-changing dream He is birthing in your heart because no matter how large or small or important or insignificant it may seem to you, it is God-sized...making it just right, Goldilocks style.

You were born for this...this season...this moment...this time....this generation.
Please do not give up or give in!
We need you.
Truly.
We really do!

Your voice is breath-taking.
Let nothing make it small.
Let nothing hold you back.
Let your God-sized dream soar.

Teri Lynne Underwood

"You cannot find security in what God is doing 

because He commits you to the impossible; 

He asks you to see the invisible; 

He calls you to do the outrageous. 

There is no security in that place. 

There is no security in what God is doing. 

There is only security in who God is."

~Graham Cooke