A Treasure Trove

"I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life. That's it—eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift." Ecclesiastes 3:13 (The Message)

Thank you, God, for the pleasure of reading. There are often days that I get to the end of where I can do nothing but fall into the couch or a bed and sleep. I am exhausted. There are also days where I spend my mornings running errands, driving kids to and from school, cleaning the house, where I LOVE to take the afternoon for myself reading. Books are one of God's special gifts to me.

Last weekend, we had another Bag Day Book Sale at the library. I love these! I will literally plan around this sale. Nothing can keep me from it. This time the selection was a bit sparse and I had to search for my treasure more carefully. The first time walking through I found one book! Every book I took home, with the exception of one, I've never read before. That makes it truly a treasure hunt.

Before I leave for the sale, I always tell myself I'm not going to post the books on my blog. Everyone must be tired of reading those posts. Then as soon as I get home from the sale, I can't wait to take pictures and share them. So for the sake of myself, I cannot contain my enthusiasm, here are the treasures I have found.

The book with quotations I am really excited about. When I write certain lengthy blog posts I love to add a quote at the beginning or end, or even in the middle. I'm constantly Googling things. This book is full of scriptures and quotes. The scriptures are all in King James Version, but I can easily look them up on BibleGateway and get the version that says it best. The verse at the beginning of this post came from a suggestion in this book.

Grace is something I can always use more of in my life, for myself and for me to extend to others. Right now our pastor has been spending the past several Wednesday nights talking about the book of Romans. I have found it so interesting! I'm motivated to see what this book has to say about Ephesians.

Anna Karenina is the one book I've read, but it was years ago. I can't remember anything about the book except for the sad part. Titus and I have always had the dream of having a room full of books in our home, our very own library. We've talked of owning the old classic books. We are on our way of making that dream come true.

A Man Called Peter is written by Catherine Marshall about her husband. I look forward to this one! She is the author of a couple books I loved when I was in junior high. This is going to sound funny, but I remember reading her book Christy for the first in the bathtub when I was learning to shave my legs. I felt so grown up reading a book relaxing in the tub. (It's probably because that's what my mother always does.)

I've never read these two, but I am familiar with the authors. I thought I would give them a try.

I have no clue about the next two. Ariel was helping me choose books this time since she didn't raise enough money to buy herself a bag. She knew I liked Mary Higgins Clark, and Mary Jane Clark is very similar. I thought it was cute, and took the book anyways. Funny thing, Mary Jane Clark appears to be a murder mystery author also. We'll see if she's a "clean" author.

This book cracked me up! I grabbed it because it was Max Lucado and he's pretty good. The funny part, there is a dedication in it to "Dear Amanda" and it's signed from a "J Vaughn." It's also a book for graduations and it's not too far off from the year I graduated high school, 2000. (Our youth pastor is Josh Vaughn so you can understand the humor in it.)

I couldn't wait to give these books a try. This week I already finished both of the Mary Higgins Clark ones. I really enjoyed The Cradle Will Fall. She does a wonderful job on the creepy factor.

All three of these are Christmas stories. I don't care if it's 100 degrees outside in the middle of summer, I love Christmas. I read Christmas books all year long!

These next two books might surprise you, and then they might not. I have a Jehovah Witness who has been visiting me since we bought this house 7 years ago. She comes faithfully every month or two, I think. I don't actually pay attention to how frequently it is. I just know it feels like a lot. I never quite know how to answer her, or talk to her. She knows where I go to church; in fact I've invited her before. I'm hoping this book will give me a little bit of insight. It was not written by a Jehovah Witness; it was written about Jehovah Witnesses. We'll see...

The Gospel of Gabriel I chose for two different reasons. Number one, it's my son's name and I knew he would be thrilled to see it because it had a picture of Jesus on the cross. Gabriel is obsessed with crosses and anything that appears "spiritual" to him. When we go to Hobby Lobby he will stand and stare at the pictures of Jesus and the crosses, most of the time begging me to buy one for his room.

My second reason, Titus loves to read stuff like this. He has read several of the Gnostic Gospels. Titus loves to gather information. If he hears something is controversial, he always wants to know why. And rather than take some other person's word for it, he figures it out for himself.

The first book I had to laugh when I read the title because it reminded me of my most dreaded movie, Titus' favorite, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The title When God Doesn't Make Sense seemed liked it would go perfectly in that movie. I am certain the book I chose will be nothing like the books the movie is referring to. Here's the quote I'm talking about from the movie:

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. More popular, certainly more successful than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty-Three More Things to do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway?"

Randy Alcorn is an amazing author. I read a series of his awhile back and it completely changed my perspective on heaven. Of course, I've wanted to go there, but it was never my intent to go right now. I wanted to go much much later. His book I read gets you excited enough to drop everything here and take the next flight in to heaven. He describes it better than anyone I have ever met!! I can't wait to read this book. I've seen it several times at Lifeway but didn't have the funds to take it home with me. Now I've got it!