This book popped onto my radar on another blog probably before it was out, and after reading her review I KNEW I needed this book! I planned to add it to my cart through Amazon as soon as I made a purchase. Lucky me! I did not have to. Either later that day or the next I got an email offering this book for review – I was thrilled!!
So, A Million Little Ways is a book that will encourage you on many levels. It will help you to see that all those things you do, from the heart, for others, are a way that the Lord works through us. The way we make a yummy meal, pack a note in a lunch sack, tuck kids in at night – all these things they are the way we communicate love to others.
So often I find that we moms are struggling to do enough, to make sure our kids see all those things we “should” be doing – but really we are showing them far more than we realize.
Emily Freeman takes the reader on a journey to figure out the gifts and talents the Lord has gifted us with, but not through a personality test or something similar. Instead, Emily asks questions that cause us to dig deeper into who we are. She encourages us to remember the things that make us feel alive, the things we love to do, and to grab hold of those ideas.
Emily points out that the Lord has given us many ways to be who we are, yet we tend to squash down those desires in our busyness of life. She challenges you to remember, to grab hold and to make those things a part of your daily life now. If you had a dream, ask yourself what stopped you from accomplishing it?
Recently I read something that talked about a mom who was dying, she said that she wished she had not made homemade bread for her family – instead that she just bought it and had more time for her family. This has bounced around in my head since I read it. Making me wonder if I would feel that way, if what I do every day, if it is not the most important. After reading this book I realize that if I love to make bread for my family, then I need to do it – it is another way my children see god loving them through me. It is a form of art to create meals that wow my family.
It is art when we create a room that is fun to be in comfortable and inviting. This week I wrapped a sheet tacked to the ceiling around AG’s top bunk. Oh my! You’d think I offered her and E the world – they have been up playing in that bed for more hours than I can count. That is making art – living, touchable, fun art – the art of creativity to imagine and play with your best friend and brother.
I hope that as I wrap up my life on this Earth (whenever that is) that I will not dismiss all those things I did, the bread I made, the cookies, the granola – that I will remember that my children were loved through that food. That I made many moments matter in a way that will stay in their memories. That is what this book spoke into me.
We are all living, breathing art from the most amazing creator, he’s created us to be ART to the world, to show his love every day in a million little ways.
I enjoyed this book, I suspect it will be one I read more than just once! I recommend this book to encourage you to embrace who God has laid on your heart to be, to grab hold of those deep hidden desires to love others with your talents and gifts! Emily will help you figure out how to do just that!
NOTE : I received a copy of A Million Little Ways, at no cost, in exchange for an honest review by Revell Publishers.
Available November 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
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