Convicted

"Garbage in, garbage out." Remember that old saying? I haven't heard it in quite a while. The more I think about it, the more I feel that the phrase is quite out-of-date. Why? Because it seems like almost every form of media, whether that be magazines, books, newspapers, television, movies, webisodes, or etc., is FULL of garbage. Not just a little bit, but A LOT of make-your-grandmamma-cry garbage.

God's conviction can come in mysterious ways and in mysterious places. Reading a fellow blogger's post about The Women of Joy conference in San Antonio led me to Stephen Curtis Chapman's web site. There, I found out about his wife, Mary Beth Chapman's NYT bestseller, Choosing To See.

As I was reading part of the description and some reviews, God's Spirit moved in me. He made me think about what I've been reading lately. These aren't things that I just happen to see on TV, but things I'm intentionally choosing to read. Most of them would make my grandmother blush and are definitely garbage. They are not pleasing to God and should not be pleasing to me.

Philippians 4:8 tells us, "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." It doesn't take me long to figure out that my reading material does not reflect this advice from Paul and Timothy. I don't know what changes God has in store for me, but I do know that He does not want me to seek out anything other than what glorifies Him.

Based on that realization and conviction from above, I've decided that I will not read a single book by a non-Christian author from now until the end of the year, at the very least, be it fiction or non-fiction. I have already taken the first step to remove every secular book from my queue at Booksfree and replaced each one with a Christian work. Sending the cry out to my Facebook friends yeilded some wonderful suggestions from four awesome, intelligent people. I know I won't be disappointed with their suggestions. There are two sets of books at the house that will be back in the mail tomorrow and I am going to pack my to-be-read pile into the back of the closet for the time-being.

This will be a tough project for me, but I know that God's hand is in it. Quite frankly, I'm out of touch with Christian authors and will probably make some blunders along the way. Especially where non-fiction is concerned, I will seek out the advice and recommendations of my friends and family. I ask for your prayers as I seek to do what's honorable in what I read.



What has God convicted you of lately? Did it require a big change? How did you handle it?

Day Four: TBR

TBR. "To Be Read". Does your pile ever get out of control like mine has? I hate it when that happens. It makes me feel like a literary failure.



In all honesty, I have had a taller pile before, but that pile did NOT have The Tale of Genji as the end-point. Next on the agenda: more time for reading. I want to know what's between the covers of these books!!!


In other news, MM is sick, sick, sick and has been for the past six days. I urged him to go to the doctor on Monday, but he did the "man" thing and passed. Fast forward to last night when he was up (and keeping me up) with a pretty severe ear ache. He finally went to the doctor this morning and the verdict is a double-ear infection. Just peachy. I refrained from telling him that he would be on day THREE of antibiotics and feeling a lot better if he had listened to me Monday.

So that's life here. Lots of reading to do and nursing MM back to his grizzly self.

"Intelligent people are always ready to learn. Their ears are open for knowledge." - Proverbs 18:15, NLT

Day Thirteen; A Fictional Book

(FINALLY, another post!) :)

Hmmmm...this one is a hard one. I've really only been reading fiction lately. And it's mostly been fictional fluff. Somewhat cheap chic-lit and etc. I'll steer clear of those titles for now

If I had to pick one to post about, it would be Peony In Love by Lisa See. I really, really enjoyed this book. It's one of those ones I read through in a few nights because I just couldn't put it down. It takes place in seventeenth-century China and is a compelling tell of true love that even survives death. I really recommend it, but be prepared to be pulled in. This one is a good one.

Still here...

I'm still here. My internet access while at my work conference was extremely disappointing. Oh well. Can't have unlimited access everywhere! I promise that I will get back to my blogging soon. I'm dealing with some things right now that are a bit...unsettling. I hope to be back to normal soon!

On a side note, I read Stephanie Meyer's The Twilight Saga. I'm in love. All four books were FANTASTIC and I can't wait until tomorrow night when Jason takes me to see the movie. I'm going to try not to turn into some crazed fan, but it is hard. They were fabulous reads and I'm going to read the series start to finish several times over, I'm sure.

Well, hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later!