Friday, September 29, 2017

I just flat enjoy

Melanie Shankle's down-to-earth writing -
 [LOVED hearing her speak LIVE and IN PERSON in Guntersville last year!]

 I've read all of her books and love how I feel like I'm sitting with her enjoying 
a cup of coffee as she shares her wit and wisdom.
 Her newest book, Church of Small Things is coming out soon, and I was honored to have the opportunity to read it a few weeks back* - 
and I'm telling you, you're going to want to read it too. 
 
She perfectly sums up what I've been thinking for a while now - 
God works [mightily] in the little things of our daily lives -  
You know we always hear - "God has great plans for her," etc. 
And we think great BIG things - 
[or I do anyway. Am I the only one?]
But I KNOW He often really works big things in small ways in our daily lives 
when we're doing the faithful thing. 
He can use the smallest thing in such a mighty way -
And you know what?  
He can use ANYTHING 
[and ANYONE] to accomplish His purpose - 
There are so many nuggets of wisdom in this book that help me realize that the things the world might view as small, God uses in such wonderful ways 
when we are walking with Him daily.
  I especially enjoyed when she talked about parenting -
"We can't prepare them for the real world 
if we're constantly protecting them from the real world. 
We can't teach them to be brave
 if all they see from us is that we are scared."
 Such truth in her words!
I had lunch with friends the other day and we talked about this same idea - about how we want to protect our kids from EV. ER. Y .THING.  
-  When, really, we need to be helping them learn coping skills 
to navigate this world we live in today -   
And we can do that in the small every day things we share with them.
Because -  
"The bottom line is, life is going to come with hard times, disappointments, challenges, and all those other things that we all know are the very things that end up shaping our character."
So, I hope that I can live faithfully in the small things, walking with God in my day-by-day, so that when the things of this ole world hit me hard [and they do, they have, and they will] I'll be able to handle it, because I know that my God who loves me and walks with me in the small things can surely walk with me in the big things.
Church of Small Things is such an encouraging book, full of laughter and sweet stories as Melanie shares candidly about her life, and her family, and her relationship with God. 
I encourage you to go ahead and grab your copy now!
You can get a copy at Amazon or Barnes and Noble 
and if you pre-order before October 3rd you can go here: ChurchOfTheSmallThings.com 
to get all of these bonuses! [SO FUN!]
 *Yes - I was provided a free copy of this book to review - but the reviews are totally mine - 
and I love it, what can I say? I'm reading it again already!

1 comment:

DonzaMama said...

Error 404 trying to get to link to order