Under the Sea Bible – Review & Giveaway!

The Under the Sea Holy Bible by Zondervan is just adorable. It’s small in size (perfect for little arms to hold) and the cover is shiny and sparkly and all kinds of fun for kiddos. This hardback Bible, which is in the New International Reader’s Version, seems to be a nod to the hugely popular Finding Nemo movie by Disney. While I’m not a huge fan of borrowing from pop culture in Christian marketing, I actually believe that using the familiar, fun and whimsical under the sea theme will be a great way to get kids interested in the Bible – which would be a huge win in my opinion. The cover of the Bible even has glittery sparkles, which is a sweet little touch!

The recommended ages for the Bible is 6-10 years old and I think that’s probably right on. I asked my seven and nine year old daughters what they thought of the Bible and here’s what they had to say:

My nine year old said, “I LOVE this cover! It’s so sparkly and it does look like Finding Nemo. I like how it has the books of the Bible listed in pretty colors at the beginning. I also like the little pictures in the Bible. I want to have this for myself…literally.”

My seven year old said, “I LOVE it! It’s amazing. Honestly I want it so much.”

I actually had a hard time getting it back from my nine year old because she just wanted to keep reading. Pretty high praise as far as I’m concerned.

Within the Bible, there are three double sided, full color pages on topics such as The Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, famous children of the Bible and the ABC’s of becoming a Christian. The words are big enough for kids to read especially considering the small size of the Bible. There is not a ton of color inside the Bible – just plain scripture pages and the pages are a bit thin as they are in most Bibles, except for the special insert pages which are much thicker. Here’s a picture of one of the inside pages.

I think any child would love to have this Bible even if just for the cover alone. My girls have yet to give it back to me, so I believe it would be a wonderful gift for any kiddo in your life!

Now for the Giveaway: FlyBy Promotions is graciously giving a copy of this sweet little Bible to one of my readers and all you have to do to enter is to leave a comment below telling me your favorite Bible verse. The winner will be announced and contacted on Monday, April 4th.

UPDATE: We had a bit of an emergency with our youngest this past week so I got delayed in posting this – so sorry! But my sweet little Finny helped me choose a winner. The winner is acsherfiel21!

“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”): Many thanks to Propeller Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post. Giveaways are valid only in the USA and Canada.

Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won a prize from our sponsor Propeller / FlyBy Promotions in the last 30 days, you are not eligible to win. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”

Two Things Have I Heard

One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 62. Here is a bit of it…

“My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” (v 1-2)

“My soul, wait in silence for God only, For my hope is fro Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, My stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (v 5-8)

“One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. Surely you will reward each person according to what he has done.” (v11-12)

The last part is my favorite. You, O God, are strong & You, O Lord, are loving. What a perfect combination. What if He was strong, but not loving? Think about it. What if He was loving, but not strong? What a wonderful thing for us all that He is both!

I am going to praise Him today because He is both strong AND loving. He is able to accomplish any task, to handle any situation, to take care of anything I need – and He loves me enough to do all of that. He will work everything out for good. He is able to do immeasurably more than I ask or imagine – and I can trust that He will. Praise God!

My prayer for you this week, sweet friends, is that you will experience God’s mighty strength this week – that you would recognize that HE IS ABLE – and that you would also experience His mighty love – that you would feel how deeply you are loved by the God of all creation.

Love you guys,

I Can Learn to Pray – A Book Review

I Can Learn to Pray by Holly Hawkins Shivers is a phenomenal resource for families, churches and especially homeschools. Besides the fact that it’s a beautiful hardcover book, it is filled with 52 weeks of devotions on the subject of prayer.

There are seven sections in the book covering topics such as how to pray, thankful prayers, sorry prayers, help prayers, and the prayers that Jesus prayed. I absolutely love how even the language of the sections is geared towards kids (such as “I’m Sorry” prayers). This sweet little devotional is filled with tons of ideas for kids to put what they’re learning throughout the book into practice (such as thanking God each day for a different person and sending them a note telling them they’re being prayed for – a wonderful idea for adults as well as kids!)

This book could easily be added into homeschooling curriculum by covering one devotional each week. There are even little assignments within each devotional that are meaningful and easy to understand. Although the suggested ages for this book is 4-8, the younger kids might need a little help. I also think that my almost 10 year old would be thrilled with this book!

Holly Hawkins Shivers has also written another 52 week devotional for kids, I Can Learn the Bible, which looks just as wonderful as this one.

I highly recommend I Can Learn to Pray! What a wonderful resource for families to learn about prayer together!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Dearly Loved

I wrote this over a year ago when my littlest baby was still so very little. He is two now, and the other four babies in this house are even bigger than that, but I have to say that I still feel exactly this way about all of them:

From 2014:

As I write this I sit here on my big red couch holding a little baby boy. The sweetest and most adorable baby that ever was – except, of course, for the other four babies living in this house that came directly from God’s heart (and my belly). I am so enthralled with this child that I can hardly get another thing done in all my day. I’m not kidding. If I could get away with it I would snuggle this little thing every moment of every day. I love his tiny little smiley eyes. His big belly laughs. His sweet little hands. His crooked little ear. His sweet smelling baby breath. Everything about him. Every. Little. Thing. I want to squeeze him so very tightly that he becomes a physical part of me. For real.

That’s how much YOU are loved. That’s how much you are loved by GOD! Breathe that in for a minute. Just stop right now – whatever you are doing – and breathe that in.

You are loved and cherished just as deeply – by the God of all that is or ever was. He loves your sweet face. Your eyes. Your mouth. Your hands. Your heart. Everything about you. Every. Single. Thing. No matter what anyone else thinks of you – or even what you may think about yourself – you are a loved, cherished, coveted, precious child of God. He loves you so much that He doesn’t ever want to be parted with you. He wants to hold you so tightly that you become a part of Him – that HE becomes a part of YOU.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39

I pray that you realize today how deeply and wholly you are loved. I pray that God’s love for you increases your love for Him. I pray also that it increases our love for each other.

“God loves each of us as if there were only one of us.” – Augustine

“God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.” – Jerry Bridges

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. “ – 1 John 3:1-2

Love you guys,

Kim

25 Truths for New Moms

After 5 kids and over 15 years of mothering, I’ve learned a few things. And what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t pass along my wisdom to those coming along after me. So here you go. Consider it a public service announcement for new or newer mommas. You’re welcome.

1. Everyone will give you advice – especially people who don’t have kids and very little of it will actually be helpful.

2. People will compare your kids with their dogs.

3. Potty training is gonna be WAY harder than you can imagine.

4. You will be peed on, pooped on, snotted on and barfed on – and after the first few times it’s no big deal.

5. You will almost always feel like a failure in parenting.

6. You will very rarely have a clue what you are doing

7. You will end up sounding exactly like your mother.

8. Your body is no longer your own.

9. If you have more than 3 kids, complete strangers will comment on your sex life.

10. Sleep (or at least good, solid sleep) is a thing of the past.

11. You will hear the same exact question no less than 453,000 times a day until you lose it and scream your ever-loving head off. This will repeat every day for the next 18 years

12. Bath time will be both a method of torture and the best playtime ever depending on your moody child and there’s no way to predict which way it will go.

13. You will find peace and quiet in the bathroom. You will spend as much time there as you possibly can. The people in your house will think you have a medical problem. You will not care.

14. Most of your dishes will get broken. Then you will buy plastic dishes. They will get lost. Then you will give up and buy paper plates and bowls. Forget the environment, you just need dishes.

15. You will make lots of lists. You will make lists of your lists. You will lose every single one of them. But that’s okay because you can make new lists of the lists that you lost.

16. You will violently hate the impulse shelves at the checkout of the grocery store. “No you cannot have that candy. Or that toy. Or THAT candy. Or that Chapstick. Or that beef jerky.”

17. People will continuously tell you how full your hands are as if you won’t already know.

18. Your house will never, ever be clean again – in fact, you’ll dream of burning it all down and starting over fresh just so you don’t have to do one more load of dirty laundry

19. Speaking of laundry, you will wash the same clean clothes over and over again without ever seeing anyone actually wear them.

20. If you have 1 or 2 kids, you will probably still manage to wear matching socks. But If you have 3 or 4 kids, you’ll consider it a win if you at least find two socks that both belong to you. If you have 5+ kids, you’ll just be glad to find socks.

21. You’ll have to get used to your drinks having crumbs and spit in them.

22. You will protect nap time like a ninja warrior princess. If anyone messes with nap time, you will want to mess. them. up.

23. Rocks, sticks, leaves and weeds will be your gifts for the next several years. You will treasure them.

24. You will need to increase your icloud storage because of the 6200 photos you’ll be taking every single day of every single thing that your kid does. You will show these pictures to everyone. They will roll their eyes. This will not stop you.

25. You will never regret a single day of this mom life. Every day is better than the day before. You will do the very best you can and it will all be okay. You’ll be amazing and you’ll look back 15 years from now and be so very thankful for these kiddos, and this life and all of the memories. Take a deep breath. You got this.

Becoming in Worship

“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will [come] out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Emerson was a pastor in a Christian church early in his life. He then lost his wife and began to pull away from the church. Eventually he spearheaded the Transcendental movement in the 19th century. I wonder at what point in his life he wrote this.

I have read this quote many times and each time I am struck by how exactly right it is.

We all worship something.

What we worship determines who we are.

I especially love the last line…what we are worshipping we are becoming.

I pray that is true of me.
I believe that is the true goal of

worship:
To become more like Christ.

If we are not becoming more like Christ …
we probably should be asking the question …

what are we really worshiping?

Love Comes First

I was raised in a Christian home and was in church from the time I was four. I grew up in a small Southern Baptist Church in the DFW area and, although I know that everyone has a different experience of church – no matter the denomination, my experience in church was overall a very positive and affirming one. I was loved, cared for, taught and encouraged. I was also admonished when I needed to be, but with love and kindness. When I think back on my experience in church growing up, I feel very blessed. The people of my church were my family. They taught me things. They helped me become who I am. Without them I cannot imagine where I’d be.

Richard taught me how to love people no matter what they looked like by loving me just as I was and no matter how I dressed. Nita and Ginger taught me about missionaries and what it looks like to serve God in other places. Johnny taught me about worship and later he and his wife, Leona, taught me about marriage and parenthood. Miss Rose taught me about Jesus. Miss Bessie taught me about faithfulness. My friend, Chris, taught me about loyalty and about unconditional love. Paul taught me about evangelism and his wife, Christy, taught me about modesty. Pattie, though she may not know this, inspired my dream of becoming a worship leader.

Later in my life and ministry Eric and Paul Michael taught me about what ministry really looks like and they both encouraged me and believed in me enough to help me find my own. Dennis taught me about myself, who God made me to be, and that I didn’t need to be afraid of it. After over ten years of ministry in churches, I’m still learning from the people who I serve with. Lee is teaching me about grace – not only through his words, but mostly by his example. Rachel is forever teaching me about forgiveness and courage. Amy is teaching me about joy and friendship. I cannot count the number of people who have spoken love and life to me over the years. These people are all church people. These people are all my people. We speak the same language. We think the same thoughts. We have the same burning passion for Jesus and for people to know Jesus. Church is meaningful to me. Church people are meaningful to me.

I never understood the enormous difference between my experience with church and the experiences of the people around me that seemed to be so negative. That was, until I had some negative experiences of my own. It’s amazing how completely oblivious we are to the world around us until we get a taste of it ourselves. I have been deeply hurt by church people, too. I carry deep scars that may never fully heal from people who follow after Jesus. And I’ve left scars of my own too. And I think that’s the part that hurts the very most. Church is supposed to be a place where broken, hurting people can come to be healed and loved by Jesus and supported and encouraged by each other. And sometimes we’re great at that. But sometimes we’re not. Sometimes I think we’ve missed the point entirely.

Christians spend so much time trying to stand out from the world as “holy” or “set apart” and that’s exactly what we should be. But I often wonder if we’re trying harder to ACT holy than we are trying to BE holy.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:34-35

Love comes first. That’s how they know that we follow Jesus – by how we love each other. Christian to Christian. Christ follower to Christ follower. Believer to Believer. How we love each other matters to the people around us. When they see us bickering over stupid things, arguing over theology, fighting over semantics it makes it look as though we hate each other. The world is having a hard time believing that following Jesus is worth anything because even His followers can’t get along. Forget about how we treat the rest of the world – although that’s enormous too – we can’t even get along with each other!

Think about that. We’re part of a family that has something incredible to offer. We desperately want the world to know what we have to give. What we have to give is good and real and life-giving and FREE! So we stand up and start telling everyone how wrong and stupid and awful all our family members are. Then we tell all of those people how horrible and unlovable they are too. And we cannot figure out for the life of us why they aren’t interested in our offer. It’s ludicrous. It really is.

The world needs Jesus. Desperately. He is the source of love, peace, mercy, grace, forgiveness, healing and everlasting life with a perfect, holy and loving God. But the world won’t ever see Him in bickering Christians, or prideful pastors. When we spend all our effort and energy on “defending the Gospel” instead of living the Gospel we’ve entirely missed the point. I don’t believe that the Gospel needs defending anyway. What if instead of boldly proclaiming the truth (as we understand it) we were graciously living the love of Christ? Instead of boldly proclaiming … graciously living. Wouldn’t that make the world stop and take a look?

In his book, Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians debate, Justin Lee said this: “Jesus radiated grace and compassion in such a way that people came to him to hear his views on things. By contrast, we Christians were so focused on preaching our views on things that we were driving people away, turning them off to church, Jesus, and everything we had to say.”

I believe that the way that we treat each other as Christians greatly affects the way people around us view Christianity. I know that it is such hard work to find common ground with people you vehemently disagree with, but if we are to be Christ’s love to a hurting world we have to try. We have the ultimate common ground: grace.

“Grace sees people for what makes them uniquely beautiful to God, not for all the ways they’re flawed or all the ways I disagree with them. That kind of grace is what enables loving bridges to be built over the strongest disagreements. Gracious dialogue is hard work. It requires effort and patience, and it’s tempting to put it off. All of us have busy lives and a lot of other issues to address. But for anyone who cares about the future of the church, this can’t be put off. The next generation is watching how we handle these questions, and they’re using that to determine how they should treat people and whether this Christianity business is something they want to be involved in.” – Justin Lee (Torn, pg 252)

I couldn’t agree more. If the world is ever going to care what we have to say, they need to know how much we care about them – and how much we care for each other.

Love comes first.

PS: If you’re at all interested in helping to bridge the divide between gays and the church, please go buy and read Justin’s book. It affected me deeply. You can also find his blog here.

21 Seconds to Change Your World – A Book Review

Restore your soul through prayer. Those are the words on the back cover. I have to admit that I went into this book a skeptic. I expected something along the lines of Prayer of Jabez or some other rote prayer that claims to bring you health and wealth. That is NOT this book. 21 Seconds to Change Your World, by Dr. Mark Rutland, walks through the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 in an exegetical fashion, comparing the words, thoughts and intentions of the authors of each text.

The Book is broken up into three parts: The Journey Begins, which explains the intent of the book and the importance of these two prayers; The Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23, the meatiest section in which both of the prayers are examined thoroughly and compared to one another; and the third section, To Change Your World, gives the reader ideas and thoughts about how to use these two prayers to your personal benefit and to impact the community and world around you.

There are so many things about this book that make it worth reading. First, the unpacking of both the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23. I have both of these prayers memorized and have for most of my life. However, after reading the chapters in the second section of this book, I have a much deeper understanding of the intentions of their authors and a much greater appreciation for the beauty of their words. The author is obviously very knowledgeable and well-studied on the topics, but he is also so humble and kind in his style of writing. I felt as though I was listening to my own pastor, whom I thoroughly love and respect. Another reason this book is worth reading is the last few chapters. These chapters are the “what to do next” chapters. After studying the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 in the previous 19 chapters, the last five chapters gave me some practical ways to use these beautiful, Biblical prayers to help me in so many different ways – inner healing, intimacy with God, deliverance from temptations, just to name a few.

Over the last week or so since I finished this book, I have been reciting the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23 regularly (21 seconds a day) and the impact in my own heart and life has been real and measurable. I am more calm. My priorities are easier to determine. My fears have been more manageable. My stress is lower. I have even been able to walk away from temptation multiple times a day (I have a massive addiction to soda and sweets). This book is not a magic formula in and of itself. But it does have wonderful instruction on how to use scripture to become more committed to Jesus, more in tune with the Holy Spirit and more effective in life and in ministry. I whole-heartedly recommend that everyone read this book!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Baker Books Bloggers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Remarkable – A Book Review

I was excited about the concept of this book – a leadership book written as a story with tons of analogies along the way. The idea is brilliant. However, I failed to notice that the analogies used were pretty much exclusively male relatable analogies: mostly cars and sports. There were a few parenting analogies, but most of the book focused on cars and sports. There was definitely really wonderful leadership thoughts and advice throughout the book, but I had to work really hard just to understand the analogies.

I understand that a homeschooling, worship-leading, mom of five (who hates cars and sports) is probably not the targeted reader for this book. However, I had no way of knowing that this book was intended for men (or super awesome sports-loving, car-loving women) until I read chapter after chapter about the inner workings of a car and how that applied to leadership.

I did manage to get some wonderful tidbits throughout this book, but I would have very much preferred to spend my reading time on a book that didn’t make me feel grumpy and stupid most of the time. In fact, I would have missed the good stuff altogether if I had known the content ahead of time because I simply wouldn’t have read it.

This would be a wonderful book for any man looking to improve his leading abilities- the content and tips are wonderful – but if you’re a woman looking to improve your leadership skills, you might skip this one.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Baker Books Bloggers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

The Gift of Friendship – A Book Review

This lovely book is like a conference in book form. The chapters are short but poignant, and each are written by sweet women who bear their hearts and souls with their words. I laughed, I cried, I highlighted – what more could I possibly ask for. This isn’t my regular non-fiction, self-help book. It’s remarkably different both in style and in content. This is a book that makes you feel in the deepest places within yourself. As I read through the stories contained in this book (which are as varied as the women who wrote them), I found myself thinking of my own stories of friendship and looking forward to many more stories of my own in the future.

If there’s one major thing I took from the book, it’s the desire to be more intentional about creating and nurturing relationships. This compilation of friendship stories made me appreciate the few friendships I have, and long for other life-giving relationships with the women around me.

There are nine categories represented in this book and each has 5-7 stories that put their respective category into real-life situations. Building Community, Hospitality, Vulnerability and Friendship on Purpose are some of the topics covered in this compilation-style book. Stories of joy, heartache, fear, forgiveness, hurt and so much more are represented in these pages. Multiple ages and stages are also represented.

I was surprised at how many practical, bullet-point style tips are present within this publication. I highlighted more than I thought I would, for sure. I related to some of the writers more than others, but all of the stories were well-written, thoughtful and enjoyable to read. This would be a good nightstand book to read a few chapters each morning or each evening as you are getting ready for sleep. It would also make an especially great gift for a friend!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book through Baker Books Bloggers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.