Author Archives: Amanda Manney

About Amanda Manney

Hi friend, thanks for stopping by! I'm Amanda. I am a pastor's wife and a homeschooling mom who has a passion to encourage women to faithfully step every day into what God has for them.

A Disastrous Date and My God Problem

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Our Disastrous Date

Last week, Matt and I went to Chick-fil-A for our weekly breakfast date. I was really tired, and that’s not a great setup for a good date. Nevertheless, I pushed myself to get ready and get out the door, convinced I could make this work.

Well, you can probably see the handwriting on the wall. It didn’t go well. We started talking, and I started sharing. No matter what Matt said, no matter how he tried to encourage me, I was just not having it. Finally, he got frustrated because I obviously didn’t want to be pulled out of the dark hole I was in.

By the time our date finished, we hadn’t really solved anything; and both of us were discouraged and frustrated. The drive home was silent. When we got almost home, Matt pulled over. We both knew if we pulled up in front of the house, the kids would come running out. That would ruin any chance we had of trying to make things right. We talked for a few more minutes. Both of us apologized, and I told him I was really tired. I shouldn’t have even brought up some of the things I said because I wasn’t in a frame of mind for dealing with it.

My Meltdown

We came home after that. A few minutes later, I was swamped with school questions, fighting kids, and a messy house. I went upstairs to the bathroom to have a few minutes of peace, if I was lucky. (Moms, you know what I mean!)

I sat down on the toilet with the lid down and looked out the window, utterly dejected. After a few minutes, I prayed and told God how tired and frustrated I was and how I had made such a mess of things on our date. Sitting quietly for a moment, I waited; and God brought this thought to mind.

“Do you feel better? You shared your frustrations, fear, worry, and anger with Matt. Do you feel better for it?” I answered the rhetorical question. No. Ironically, I had done the exact same thing a few weeks ago. I hadn’t felt any better after that date either. So why did I do it again? Then this thought hit me. There are certain fears, worries, cares, concerns that you can only take to God. Once that thought hit me, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It suddenly seemed so clear. I was trying to get Matt to meet this deep inner need that he was never going to be able to meet.

My Struggle was with God

See the struggle I was having was with God. I was frustrated with God not coming through on things I thought he should. My faith was fragile that day. I was hurt and felt unloved by God. All of those things I was feeling should have been directed to and dealt with by God. Instead, I took them to my husband, expecting him to be able to do something about it.

God reminded me in the few silent minutes I carved out in the bathroom that there are certain needs I have that only God can fill. That emptiness, loneliness, hurt, and pain is a God-sized hole in our heart that only he can fill.

I’m not going to be a sadist and say that you need to go at it alone, that only God can meet your needs, and you don’t need other people. That’s absolutely not true, and God has really showed me over the last few years how incredibly much I need people in my life. But there are times, I believe, that only God can meet us in that dark place that we’re in. And if we try to tell other people about it or bring them into the darkness with us, it only makes things worse.

Finding God in the Darkness

So, if you find yourself in the boat I was in, if you feel like your heart is cracking. You’re struggling with your faith, hurt, and fears. You’ve tried to talk to other people, but no matter what they say, you can’t be encouraged, it may be that you have a God problem that only God can fix.

So stop getting frustrated with people who can’t fix you. Look up and talk to the only one who can really meet you in this dark place. Let him be the one to hear your burdens, fears, worries, and concerns. Remember I Peter 5: 7, one of my favorite verses.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
I Peter 5:7

If we can begin to understand this concept of taking our deepest fears and concerns to God instead of other people, we will find he is there for us. He’s been waiting all along to carry those burdens for us; he was just waiting for us to release them to him.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement along these lines, check out my post, Finding the Tenacity to Wrestle with God. A good book recommendation is Get Out of That Pit by Beth Moore. I read it a few years ago and need to read it again. It’s a really good book.

You Can’t Wait Until Life isn’t Hard to be Happy

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you can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy quote

Deciding to Be Happy

Matt tagged me in a post a few days ago. He told me to read the last line, that it was golden. It was a post about a girl who had passed away in February of this year. The last line of the article, written in her own words, was this line: “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy.”

That’s a powerful line, especially when it comes from someone whose life backs it up. I’ve been thinking a lot about that phrase lately, especially after I saw that a girl I follow on social media passed away on March 1.

Brooklyn’s Faith

Brooklyn wasn’t someone I ever had the privilege of meeting, but I followed her online when I heard about her story. She was upfront and direct about the fact that she she was dying, and there was nothing anything could do about it. Brooklyn had chronic illness and all sorts of health problems, and she was very open about them. She had every reason to be miserable. Yet, if you followed her online and read any of her posts, she always had the biggest smile and was upbeat in her posts. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking to watch at the same time. These were some of the words of the last post she wrote before going to be with Jesus.

As I wait for my last breaths, I’ve been reading through the gospels. The Apostle’s description of Jesus’ crucifixion are a gut punch for anyone. Now dying myself, the description of how my Savior died is so much more potent. It leaves me in awe of a God who was born into flesh, willing to die in brutality and rise agin for the sin of humanity.
Brooklyn Salisbury

The Brokenness All Around Us

The world around us is broken. From the war in Ukraine, to the suffering of persecuted Christians, to kids dying from cancer, it can feel utterly and completely hopeless. Yet, somehow we’re supposed to reconcile all this with the life that Jesus wants us to—one of hope, faith, and love.

I read this verse in Proverbs this week, and it made me stop and consider.

For the despondent, every day brings trouble;
for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.
Proverbs 15:16 NLT

We can’t control what happens around us, but we can control how we respond to it. Have you ever noticed, some of the people that have the most horrible things happen to them are the most joyful people? How is that? They’ve chosen to have a happy heart.

I struggle with Having a Happy Heart

I am not a super emotional person, but I can be a super pessimistic person. Because I am a realist and see life in black and white, I can often see life on the cup-is-half-full side of life. That helps me be a little more even-keeled in life, but the downside is that I have a hard time choosing happiness.

I need to remind myself often that how much joy I get out of life is determined by me. God has blessed me with so much good. His faithfulness and unfailing love surround me.

But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry andfilled with unfailing love and faithfulness.
Psalm 86:15 NLT

So then choosing happiness becomes like all other hard things in life. It becomes a discipline. The more we do it, the better we get at it.

So for today, I choose to be happy. I choose to see life as a continual feast. I choose to find the good. And the more I do that, the easier it will become.

For More Encouragment

learning to be happy in the midst of life's hard

One of the hardest but best books I have ever read along these lines is The Hardest Peace: Expecting God’s Grace in the Midst of Hard by Kara Tippetts. I will warn you, you need to have a box of tissues handy when you read it, but it’s an amazing book that I think every Christian should read.

Another resource is my book, The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. I wrote this during a very dark time in my life, when I had to come to grips with my faith and what I knew of God when that clashed with my circumstances.

You can also read my post, Our Week in the ICU and God’s Grace for Every Moment.

Want to Join Our 40 Days of Faith Booster?

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The Disciples’ Storm

In the Gospels, we read about a storm that took place when Jesus was in the boat with his disciples. He was exhausted from his early mornings and late night ministering to people, so when he got into the boat, he promptly fell asleep. While he slept, a huge storm built and soon wreaked havoc with their boat. It must have been some storm for these seasoned fishermen to be afraid! They wake up Jesus in a panic. “Don’t you care that we’re going to drown?!”

Jesus simply looks out at the wind and the waves and the tempest, and commands it to stop. The storm instantly stops, and the seas become peaceful once again. Then Jesus turns to his disciples. Don’t miss this part; don’t miss what he says when he looks each of them in the eye. He says this, “Why were you so afraid? Do you not have faith?”

Growing Faith that is Stronger than Your Struggle

Those words are still an indictment to us today. The world becomes a chaotic storm around us, and we panic and run to Jesus. “Don’t you know what’s going on? Have you seen what’s happening?! Where are you, God?” God simply looks at us and says, “My beloved child, don’t you have any faith?”

I don’t know about you, but I want to have the faith that Jesus expects me to have. I don’t want to fall apart when the path before me gets a little rocky, when the storms start swelling around me.

Uncertainty, Unrest, and Fear

It seems like everywhere you turn right now, there is unrest, uncertainty, and fear. What do we to combat that? The best way to combat our fear and uncertainty is to double down on our faith. How can we do that? How can we grow our faith?

Well, for our church, that means doing a spiritual growth campaign that is a 40-day booster for our faith. I invite you to join us.

What Is It?

It’s a forty-day study on faith that our church is leading. There are three parts to it.

The Sermon Series. Matt will be preaching every Sunday morning at 11:00 EST a series entitled, Growing Faith that’s Stronger than Your Struggle. You can catch those sermons on our Greater Philly Church Facebook Page. You can watch them live or watch the replay.
Weekly Small Group Study. We will meet in our small groups during the week and work through the accompanying 40 Days of Faith Study Guide. If you are interested, you can snag a copy of the study guide from Amazon and use it to start your own group. There are QR codes inside the study guide for links to the corresponding videos for this series that are free on YouTube.
Daily Devotional Study. For the final element our our forty days of faith, we will be working through our Faith for the Impossible 30-Day Devotional.

We all could use something positive to focus on right now. If we can do that and grow in our walk with God at the same time, then that’s a win in my book. I’m looking forward to this study to be able to do just that.

If you want to join in, use the links above to snag a devotional and a study guide, and be sure to check out our Facebook page on Sunday mornings.

If you aren’t really interested in joining us but still want the benefits of the study, I encourage you to grab a devotional and work through it by yourself at home. It will help you grow in your faith these next thirty days and take your focus off of yourself and your circumstances and put your focus back on God.

For More Encouragement

If this hits home with you, especially with the crisis in Ukraine, read my post, Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times.

Finding Peace in Non-peaceful Times

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The Lack of Peace

The lack of peace in our world right now can be terrifying. My kids saw my husband and I watching the news on Ukraine last night and had hundreds of questions before bed. My little girls wanted to know if Colorado was close to Russia, because that’s where their grandparents live. I reassured them that it wasn’t. Matt and I told our kids when we finished talking that our goal was not to scare them but to help them to have a heart to pray for the people in Ukraine.

Our Response

It’s hard to know what to do in times like these when peace feels so far out of reach. It feels wrong to continue with normal life—to go see a movie or to go to bed when the other side of the world is in turmoil. It feels wrong to go about our lives when so much destruction is happening. Yet, we have to get up tomorrow and go to work and deal with all the things that we have to deal with. We sort of want to put a pause on life, yet life keeps moving forward.

Then, there’s the fear. We lie in bed at night and wonder what’s going to happen next. We fear for our safety, for the safety of our country. Thoughts of war run through our heads, and we can’t shut it down and sleep.

How do we respond? How do we find peace in the midst of turmoil? Here’s a few things that I thought of in response to what’s happening in Ukraine.

1. Pray

Pray for peace and for the people of Ukraine. I believe God gives us a heart of empathy that doesn’t let us turn away and just go about our normal day-to-day affairs after hearing and seeing what is going on in another part of the world. I think he does that, so those images will impress upon our hearts the burden to pray. There is evil in this world. Satan is still alive and well and wreaking havoc in this world, and he took a third of heaven’s angels with him when he fell. It would be foolish to think that they are not at work. The Bible tells us there are principalities and powers of darkness in this world. We have the power in our hands to be able to overcome the dark, and that power is through prayer.

We can teach our kids the same thing. The best response is to spend time together as a family and pray.

2. Give

If you want to actively get involved, Saddleback Church in California has a Ukraine Relief Fund and is actively working with pastors in Ukraine to get them the help they need. If God has blessed you with the means to be able to give, this is a great way to help.

3. Love

During times like these, we are reminded of what really matters. For the dear people in Ukraine, it doesn’t matter what kind of house they have, what kind of car they drive, what possessions they have accumulated. What matters to them now is the safety of their loved ones. These times remind us to love on our family. Make right relationships that need to be made right. Spend time loving on your kids; check in with extended family members and neighbors. These are times that people are more open, so capitalize on it and spread love.

4. Hope

Find hope in the only One who can bring hope. Pick a verse or two below to dwell on. When you can’t sleep at night because of the fear in your heart, repeat the verse to God in prayer.

5. Encourage

When we feel helpless, scared, fearful, uncertain, one of the best things we can do is choose to bring hope to someone else. Instead of focusing on me and my fears, find somebody that I can focus on instead.

Take cookies to your neighbor, invite a family over for dinner, send flowers to somebody, check in with your loved ones, call a friend, wave at the crossing guard, smile. Do what you can to encourage somebody else today.

We all can play a small part in making our world a better place today, tomorrow, and the next day. Choose to do something today to work towards that goal and let God’s peace fill you when you do.

More Encouragement

For more encouragement, check out my post When God Finds Us. Here’s a song to bring peace to your heart today, as well. Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr.

How Knowing the Names of God Can Help Me Today

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The Power of a Name

Names are so incredibly powerful. I didn’t really understand that concept until I began writing fiction books. It’s amazing the difference a name can make. I spend a lot of time thinking of names for my characters, because I have in mind everything about the character and I have to find the perfect name to suite them.

For instance, if I want a strong, male protector sort of a character in a fantasy world with swords and castles and horses, the name Bob is just not going to work in this context. There’s nothing wrong with the name Bob; it just isn’t going to work. The name Braenin works so much better in this instance. (I may or may not be working on my next fiction book; which is where I got this name.)

There is incredible power behind a name, especially the names of God. One of the goals Matt and I have is to create a devotional of the names of God. There is something about studying the names of God, especially in their original Hebrew language, that helps us to better understand God and his relationship with us.

The Names of God

I was reading in II Samuel a few weeks ago and read a few of God’s names with descriptions. I love it when God’s word defines itself.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior ;my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.
He is my refuge, my savior, the one who saves me from violence. I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.
II Samuel 22:2-4

When we get overwhelmed or feel alone, we need to remember that God is everything we need. His names represent that. In these verses, he is our protection, place of safety, and our promise of good to come.

A great practice to do as a part of your morning time routine is to do a study on the names of God and focus on one for each day. Here’s a list of the names of God to start with.

For More Encouragement

If this resonates with you and you would like to dig deeper, My father-in-law told us about 52 Hebrew Words Every Christian Ought to Know. He’s really enjoying it, and I think it would be great for further study. If you are weary today and need encouragement, read my post Encouragement for the Weary Soul.

God Uses Broken People

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Kintsugi Art

Kintsugi is a popular way of fixing cracked or broken pottery. Kintsugi finds its root in Japanese culture. When a piece of pottery cracks or even breaks, they use gold lacquer to fill in the cracks. The piece becomes usable once again, and the piece ends up being more beautiful than it was in its original form. Not only that, but it creates a unique, one-of-a-kind piece of art.

This type of art reflects how the Japanese feel about life and humanity. The Japanese use Kintsugi as a metaphor for life. They see people as beautiful even if flawed.

A Metaphor for Life

Kintsugi is such a great metaphor for the Christian life. We often feel like we can’t be used by God because we are too broken, yet broken is exactly the kinds of people God uses. God not only can use broken people, he actually chooses broken people to use.

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
I Corinthians 1:26-29 NLT

God Uses Broken People

God doesn’t choose to use those who have it all together. He doesn’t choose the wealthy, the successful, the strong, the smart…No, he chooses broken people who simply know that they need him more than anything.

Going through the motions doesn’t please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you. I learned God-worship when my pride was shattered. Heart-shattered lives ready for love don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.
Psalm 51:16,17 MSG

If you feel broken today, I have good news for you. God can use you. If you feel shattered, God can put you back together. God is looking for people who want to be used even with imperfections to be a source of light and beauty to the world around them.

For More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my post When Broken Leads to Blessed or check out Matthew West’s song, Broken Things and let the words encourage your heart.

Waiting on God to Write Your Story

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choose to wait for the story that's still being written

Copying Someone Else’s Story

Sometimes it seems like life would be easier if we could just write our own story, or copy somebody else’s story for our life. Instead of waiting, if we could just force God’s hand to make things happen, surely that would be better than what we’re stuck with right now.

We know that God writes our story. We know the verses, we know the sayings…but when push comes to shove, life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. It’s really hard to see how it’s all going to work together for good.

Hard Conversations

I’ve had a few conversations with friends lately that were painful…conversations nobody wants to have. Hard conversations. Things like—what do you do when your spouse withholds his love from you? What do you do when your spouse cheats on you? How do you keep going forward when nothing seems to be working out? How do you trust God when it seems like he keeps failing you?

I used to think I had all the answers; that was before I learned what real life looked like. Real life is dirty and messy and full of questions. It’s not all neat and wrapped up with a bow that has a neatly transcribed verse on the side of the box and a pithy saying like “let go and let God” written on the top. No, life is full of mistakes, regrets, failures, and messes. It doesn’t always work out the way we think it should.

Things Don’t Always Work Out

No matter how much we pray, sometimes we still lose the job, we can’t pay the bill, we don’t have enough money for that present, the breakup still happens, our spouse still hurts us, a friend breaks our heart, the loved one still dies, and on and on the list goes.

I’m sure you could add your own heartbreak. Often, it feels like life would be easier if we could just force our own breakthrough. If we could superimpose God’s will for our will and get things moving, it would really help.

People Who Didn’t Wait

I can’t help but think about the people in the Bible who simply gave up too early. If only they could have waited just a little bit longer.

I think of Saul. He waited and waited for Samuel to show up to offer the sacrifice, but Samuel was late. Saul got impatient and decided to do it himself. The Bible says that as he was offering the sacrifice, Samuel showed up. If Saul would have waited just a few minutes longer, he wouldn’t have missed God’s best. What did it cost him? The kingdom. God was so displeased with Saul’s disobedience that he took the kingship from him and gave it to David.

Another example is Abraham. God told him he would have a son, but he wasn’t content to wait on God. He decided to write his own breakthrough into the story and royally messed up all of history. Because he didn’t wait for God to bless him and Sara with a baby but instead slept with Sara’s servant, Ishmael was born. A few years later, Abraham and Sara had Isaac. Ishmael’s descendants and Isaac’s descendants are still at war today.

Those Who Waited

Conversely, we see God’s hand of blessing on Joseph who waited through years of bad treatment and harsh consequences before God broke through. In the end, God wrote a beautiful story for him.

David waited for nearly fifteen years from the time he was anointed king to when he actually became king of Israel. He stayed faithful to God and didn’t waver from God’s path. In the end, his story played out beautifully.

Wait for God to Write Your Story

We get impatient and want to write our own story, but we can’t. Our story won’t look nearly as beautiful as the one God is writing; it will simply be a copy and pasted version of somebody else’s story.

We have to choose to wait for God to write our story. Wait for him to give us our own. I promise it will be more beautiful than anything we could have written for ourselves.

For More Encouragement

For more on this topic, check out my husband’s book, Breakthrough: Transforming the Death of a Dream to the Birth of a Breakthrough or read my post Choosing Hope: The Best is Yet to Come.

A song that’s really been encouraging my heart lately is Weary Traveler by Jordan St. Cyr. Give it a listen and let it encourage your heart.

Word of the Year Gift Ideas/Keepsakes

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Gift Ideas

I wanted to share with you a great gift idea. You may remember a few weeks ago when I posted a blog post about choosing a word of the year. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, you can read that post HERE. I took the quiz and chose fulfilled for my word for the year. My daughter took the quiz as well; her word for the year is beloved.

When we went to my sister-in-law’s house this past Sunday, she gave Madison and I each a gift. Madison’s gift was a metal bookmark with the word beloved engraved on it. It’s beautiful and perfect, because Madison loves to read but is always losing her spot in her books. Consequently, I am forever telling her to use a bookmark.

My gift was a beautiful mug with the word fulfilled on it. I instantly loved it. It’s perfect! It’s the newest component of my morning time routine. Coffee every morning is a must, and drinking that coffee from a mug that has my word to focus on for the year? Perfection.

I asked for the links from her to be able to share with my friends. This is the link for the bookmark, and this is the link for the mug.

These are just neat ideas to help us keep our word of the year before our eyes all year long. They also make great gifts.

More Ideas

I was thinking and came up with a few more neat ideas of personalized products you could make for the year with your theme word on it.

tshirt
a poster
magnet for the fridge
wristband
cell phone cover
a tumbler

I think all of these would be fun. If you end up creating a word of the year product, be sure to let me know! Give me a shout-out on social media!

What You Can Do About the Future Right Now

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The Future Seems So Far Away

Sometimes the future seems so far away. I read this quote from The Next Right Thing by Emily Freeman. “It’s a slow work building a life. But the future always comes.” We look at our kids, at whatever age they are now, and feel like the future when they leave us is so incredibly far away. Yet, we know in our hearts that it will be here and gone in the blink of an eye.

Barbies, legos, trucks and cars, crayons and markers will give way to phones, wallets, keys, and textbooks. It’s hard to see that right now when I step on a lego in the middle of the night or when I can’t see the floor in my girls’ room because it’s covered in the world that they’ve created for their Barbies. Little girls twirling around and giggling in princess dresses will give way to running out the door in a uniform for work. Master lego building by my boy will give way to long work hours and college classes.

Just to keep it real, this is the photo I snapped when I went into my girls’ room this morning. Yikes! (See, all the Barbie mentions are not metaphorical)

Looking Past What’s Before Me

These moments won’t last forever, and I try to remind myself of that. Because in the here and now, it’s easy to lose sight of that. In the here and now, it seems so much more important to get my kids to pick up their room, to make them finish their math homework, to get them to stop fighting and arguing, to get them to leave me alone for just five minutes so I can go to the bathroom or take a shower. Right now, all I can see is the mess before my eyes that wasn’t there ten minutes ago.

Yet, these precious few years are the gift God’s given to me. Yes, it’s a gift; even though it may not feel like that on a Tuesday morning when the laundry’s overflowing, the kids are late to start school, there’s endless fighting, tears over schoolwork, no milk in the fridge for cereal, and a mess everywhere I look. It’s in these moments that the future seems so incredibly far away. It seems so intangible. Yet, it won’t always be that way.

Don’t Look at What’s Before You

Soon, my kids will leave our home one by one. They will head off in different directions, some of them never to live at home again. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that in those days when it’s quiet and the house is perfectly clean that I will long for the crazy chaos that is my kids. That mess of Barbies all over the floor? I will wish for that once more. I will wish for my table to be covered in the latest Lego masterpiece. The quiet will make me long for the sounds of my kids because it’s the sound of love, of family.

So, if you’re feeling weary today, young Mom. If you’re feeling like your house will never be clean. The kids will never learn to pick up after themselves or stop fighting. You will never be caught up on laundry in this life or the next, and you would give anything for just an hour of uninterrupted quiet time…Then let me encourage you today. Don’t see things for how they are right now. Don’t focus on the mess, the noise, the chaos, the frustration, and all the things that are wrong. Instead, focus on the faces in front of you. Count down how many years you have left with each of those precious faces and choose to make today count.

The Days Are Long, but the Years are Short

I’m saying this to myself today, because it’s January. The days are long and cold, my kids are cooped up inside and have been cranky and fighting with each other every day, all day long. Attitudes have been raging, and frustrations have been mounting. I need to be reminded of what’s really important. I’ve heard this said about child-rearing. “The days are long, but the years are short.” Oh how much wisdom there is in that saying!

What’s really important to remember is that I have six years left with my oldest. That’s 72 weeks or 2,291 days. When put like that, I might be able to overlook his intense frustration for Math today and just help him get through it. I can focus more on hugging him and letting him know I love him, rather than correcting his bad handwriting. When I run the numbers for each of my kids, they are surprisingly small. Six years, seven years, eleven years, and twelve years don’t seem nearly long enough. So I must choose to make the most of today. That’s all I can do, yet that’s the greatest thing I can do today.

The Future Isn’t So Far Away

The future looks so far away when I look at today, but it will be here before I can blink an eye. The future isn’t all that far away. “Building a life is a slow work. But the future always comes.” It will be here before we know it. Will I look back on these years with my kids with regret? Will I wish we would have taken more trips to the park, played more games together, laughed more, talked more, done more crazy fun stuff? Or will I look back and nod and say, “We built an amazing life together.”

For More Encouragement

For more encouragement on this topic, check out The Hands-Free Mama by Rachel Stafford or check out my post, Keep Going, Mama.

My Top 10 Christian/Inspirational Reads of 2021

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Books of 2021

I read some great books in 2021, and I also read a few duds. I haven’t started a non-fiction book and not finished it in a while; but this year, I did that with two books. I used to feel like I couldn’t do that, especially when I bought the book. But I have realized that life is too short to read bad books. Right? There is nothing worse than getting slogged down in a book that does nothing for you. So now, I give myself permission to not finish the book. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, the next book is usually great and I get right back at it.

My Favorite Read of 2021

I read so many amazing books, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be The Turquoise Table by Kristin School. Not only is the concept so good and something that Matt and I are putting into practice, the book itself is beautiful. It’s hardcover and full-color. It has beautiful pictures and recipes as well. It’s a win all-around and is written so well. It’s all about hospitality and how you can use hospitality to reach out to your neighbors, specifically by being front-yard neighbors. I highly recommend this book and am calling it my favorite read of 2021.

My Second Most Favorite Read of 2021

My second most favorite book was When Woman Pray by T. D. Jakes. I love books by T. D. Jakes; they are so inspirational and moving, as well as convicting. But this book was a little different in that it was almost like a Bible study as well. He dives into the lives of ten different women from the Bible and really pulls out details that we miss often miss. I loved this book and highly recommend it.

Those are my top two reads; here’s the rest of them.

My Top Ten Reads of 2021

Creative

A Million Little Ways by Emily Freeman. This book is great for any creative. It took a little while to get going, but I really enjoyed it after that. It’s all about being wired for creativity, and I love that.

The Turquoise Table by Kristin Schell. This is a great book with hospitality tips and tricks, recipes, and ideas for doing things with and for your neighbors.

Spiritual/Inspirational

You are the Girl for the Job by Jess Connolly. This is a great inspirational read if you need to be reminded of God’s purpose for your life. Jess doesn’t pull any punches, and I love that. This book challenges you to be reminded that God chose you for a purpose, and you need to step into that purpose.

Kind is the New Classy by Candace Cameron Bure. Candace is such a classy person, and that obviously comes through in her book. I enjoyed reading about her life and being reminded how just being kind can make all the difference in the world.

When Woman Pray by T. D. Jakes is an in-depth look into the lives of ten women from the Bible.

Practical

Rhythms of Renewal by Rebekah Lyons. This book surprised me. I actually thought it might be a little boring, but it definitely wasn’t. I love all her practical advice on the rhythms of life like sabbath day, eating, exercising, schedules, purpose, and more.

Books with Lots of Stories

Have More Fun by Mandy Arioto. As you can probably guess from the title, this was just a fun read overall. I really enjoyed her writing as she covers ways we can have more fun in every area of our lives. She also has great ideas in breakout boxes.

Love Lives Here by Maria Goff. I love books by the infamous Bob Goff, Maria’s husband. So when this book came out, I knew I would love it. I wasn’t wrong. It’s written with vulnerability and comes straight from a Mama’s heart. It’s heart-warming and thought-provoking.

Dealing with Our Thoughts

Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. This is such a needed book in today’s world. Jennie’s encouragement to us to get out of our heads and start living the life God has for us is both challenging and encouraging.

Don’t Overthink It by Anne Bogel. This book is great on a practical level. Someone bought it for me as a gift, and I really didn’t think I needed to read it. But boy was I wrong; I didn’t realize how much of my life I spent overthinking things instead of accomplishing things.

Fitting in More Reading

If you want to read more books this year but don’t know how to bring that plan to fruition, here’s the system I use to fit reading into my daily routine. I simply read for ten minutes a day after I read my Bible, journal, and pray. I do this as a part of my morning time routine. You can read my post, but here’s the simple system I use every morning for Bible reading, journaling, praying, and reading books. Matt and I call it 30-to-THRIVE.

It’s that simple. In just thirty minutes a day, you can do all of those things—read your Bible or devotional, journal, pray, and read. If you stick with that system even just five days a week, you will be amazed at how many books you read by the end of the year!

For More Encouragement

Looking for even more great books? Be sure to visit Manney Resources to check out the books my husband and I have written.