Reading and Writing with you ...

Fridays we write together, but before I get to our prompt, I wanted to also touch on two other themes I'm blogging about lately:  1. Book Review  2. Radically Simple

I finished My One Word this week, which I might not have had it not been that I wanted to complete it for a review here in the nest, as well as for the sake of Simple.  Yes, painful as it is, I'm simplifying my life by reading one book at a time!  *gasp*

This book is wonderfully balanced and theologically spot-on, as well as extremely relevant to our culture and our desires as a church to be more like Christ.  I appreciate how authors Mike Ashcroft and Rachel Olsen have included both personal experience and dozens of unique testimonials from MOW participants over the years.  They outline in practicality how God can change our lives and grow us to maturity if we will allow him to focus our intentions.  They describe not only how to choose your word (with the Spirit's guidance) and also how to follow through for an entire year on one concept rather than making several resolutions that will most likely fall flat.  Ashcroft and Olsen also detail how to make the most of your intentions and involve others in holding you accountable to the change you are aiming for and God is doing in and through you.  The writing is straightforward and concise, making it both an interesting and quick read, to have you off and running with your word.  I appreciate the way Scripture is woven throughout as confirmation to these ideas, and also how they allow voices of others to shine through as they explain their own words and experiences with the change ensued.  Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

"There's power in words. Beauty in words. Grace in words. Words create movement. They craft nations. They seal a marriage. They cast vision. They make us laugh. They focus our attention. They expand our horizons. They stimulate our creativity. And they script our possibilities."  [shocker]

[of the MOW FLOW] "It awakened something in me. Not a compulsive desire to change born out of being sick of the way I was, but a desire to live an authentic life that flowed from my relationship with Christ."

"We're so busy with the surface-level things of life that we forget to number our days and ted to our hearts. We become so preoccupied with getting our lives to a manageable point or a better future that we miss both the moment right now and the reality of a coming eternity"

"To claim we can make ourselves into anything we want is to deny that we are the created not the Creator. Reality is we are made by God, for his purposes. How much potential can we truly have apart form Him?"

"The aim is for you to use your one word to get into focused posture and remain there while you depend on Christ [to mold you]."

"Your reaction or mindless drift into temptation happens in a moment. You must create the space in that moment to see what is happening and then to make a decision. The key is to isolate and examine the specific thought or belief that's driving your desire in that moment. Take it captive; identify it. Then stack it up against the knowledge of God."

"When God delays, we will tend to distrust. We will lose focus. We fill int the suspicious gaps with what we would do if we were God."

"We try to live our lives from destination to destination, but the condition of our heart is measured in the moments in between."

I hope you'll enjoy My One Word too!

And now for our writing prompt, since it is Friday, after all!

photo credit: google images

When my grandchildren ask about me and my generation, I would like to tell them ...



“A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.” 
― Maya Angelou