Passion & Purity

Just finished reading Elisabeth Elliott's Passion & Purity for the third or fourth time. At each reading I discover some new insight or challenge. Self-sacrifice...yuck, a hard one.

Self-sacrifice is such a foreign concept in today's culture. Yet that is what God calls us to do...love as He loved us. "Greater love has no man than this, to lay down his life for his friend." What does that look like in my daily living? At my job? Among my friends? At church?

I am struggling with this.

Struggles

Attended a women's church retreat last week and have been playing catch-up since. However, that has not stopped me from starting on several books.

Current reading list:
Dante's Inferno
Dare to Dream by John Maxwell
A Godward Life by John Piper
John 3:16 by Max Lucado

These are all in various stages of completion.

Do you ever struggle to get through a book?

I'm finding A Godward Life to be extremely difficult to get into. I feel bad about it because some dear friends gave it to me on my college graduation. I've read the first three chapters many times and can't seem to get beyond that.

Maybe if I put it down and come back to it for the tenth time it will be easier! :)

Bright April

The calendar says it is suppose to be spring but the snowstorm over the weekend tells me otherwise.

One book that isn't on my bookshelf yet is Bright April by Marguerite De Angeli. I don't remember when I first read it but I do remember wanting to join the Girl Scouts afterwards. :)

I suppose we read the book out loud because my sister's name is April.

Anyway, it is a excellent read while waiting for spring. The story starts with the snow just melting and progresses through the seasons while we watch April grow and overcome the challenges of being African-American in the 1940's.