Hello, friends!✨
October was so full of good things…
The measure of our love is the measure of our willingness to be inconvenienced.
Elisabeth elliot
Things worth remembering…
- watching God open unforeseen doors
- going to a new coffeeshop with a friend
- finding another four-leaf clover
- walks/bike rides with the youngest sister
- dear cousins in town…
- therefore walks, Dutch Blitz, talks, and a shopping trip
- so much music
- trying a new soup recipe (it was delish)
- taking senior pictures for my sister
- watching sessions from Revive Our Hearts’ True Woman Conference with some dear ladies
- Farm and Fleet and burgers with a brother
- a helpful webinar from Glory Writers
- checking trail cams and climbing round bales
Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart…
Ephesians 6:6-7
What I’ve been reading…
Delighting in the Trinity – Michael Reeves
And that is the God revealed by Jesus Christ. Before He ever created, before He ever ruled the world, before anything else, this God was a Father loving His Son.
AHHHHH!!! Read this book!!! I’ve known the Lord since childhood, but this book digs so deeply into the triune nature of God and what it says about Him (and consequently about our relationship with Him), I feel like I’m meeting and falling in love with Him for the first time all over again.✨
Jo’s Boys – Louisa May Alcott
Prosperity suits some people, and they blossom best in a glow of sunshine; others need the shade, and are the sweeter for a touch of frost.
This one was so good, even though my favorite boy didn’t get his happy ending…
Now and Not Yet – Ruth Chou Simons
Gardening is one part labor of our hands and one part God’s sovereign care through creation. It’s a reminder to us that God often chooses to provide at the intersection of our just get started and His watch me do this.
Hands down one of the very best books I’ve read this year. I came to it expecting a recipe for surviving unwanted circumstances and came away challenged to thrive in the pieces and seasons of life I wouldn’t have chosen. It was also an encouragement to me to stop moping at the doors God’s closed to me and instead start asking Him to show me the doors He’s opening and give me the courage to walk through them. If you’re struggling with discontentment or restlessness, read this book if you can.
Before I Called You Mine – Nicole Deese
“The way to shape a child’s heart is through love. And the way to shape a child’s mind is through literature. When you read to a child, you accomplish both.”
Romance still isn’t my genre, hehe, but I so enjoy Nicole Deese’s writing style and endearing characters. I listened to the audiobook after my sister read the book, and it was so much fun to discuss it with her. I’d recommend this book if you enjoy the clean contemporary romance genre, fun-loving male MCs (think a hilarious dinosaur obsession), parts of the story told through text threads, and some adorable kids.
Loving Your Husband Before You Even Have One – Kim Vollendorf
Character is shaped by the level of God’s control in our lives.
This one popped up as a recommended audiobook on Spotify, and, to be honest, I was skeptical but in possession of lots of audiobook hours to use before the end of the month, so…I started it. I haven’t listened to much of it, but I’ve been so pleasantly surprised. Thus far it’s been a convicting and encouraging listen.
A New Song – Jan Karon
“‘Snickers has ear mites, I hope Barnabas is doin’ fine in all those sandspurs, I hope to th’ Lord you’ll check his paws on a regular basis.’ Emma was running her straw around the bottom of the cup and sucking with great expectation, but not finding much. He turned the volume down on the answering machine.”
Continuing the Mitford series…as always, it’s a lighthearted yet touching read.
Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,
Psalm 119:37
And revive me in Your way.
From the journal…
Help me to treasure and see as weighty the gaze of Your eyes alone.
I laugh in wonderstruck delight
at the order You have settled in the heavens:
the way You set Earth in its orbit
just close enough to smile at the rays of the sun.
and yet I worry that I – a trillionth of a speck
on the face of North America –
missed something that You wanted me to find,
and now it can never be recovered.
Your sovereignty, O Lord,
has taken into consideration my clumsiness…
Ever heighten my sensitivity to sin in my own life and root it out, but ever deepen my comprehension of the depth of Your grace. Don’t let Satan wield my awareness of sin (confessed and repented-of sin) to drive me deep into despair and a sense of worthlessness…show me Your glory and Your mercy!
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
titus 2:11-14
What made your October memorable?
❤ Laurel
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Laurel Luehmann 