What’s in My Book Basket: Fall 2023

Here are some books I have been enjoying lately in the fall sunshine out on my back deck.

Where the Light Fell: A Memoir by Phillip Yancey

This was so good, I finished it in one day! Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear.

“I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”

Click to purchase: Where the Light Fell: A Memoir by Phillip Yancey

Rest for Your Soul: A Bible Study on Solitude, Silence, & Prayer

This is the newest Bible study by my friend and Proverbs 31 Ministries co-laborer, Wendy Blight. Wendy has one of the deepest Christian faiths of anyone I know. This book will help your faith to deep in as well. Rest for Your Soul meets you in the middle of your overwhelmed life. Join Wendy as she walks you through how to find your way back to the peace and calm you’ve been searching for so that you can feel “normal” again. She will encourage and equip you to creatively connect with God through three holy habits—solitude, silence, and prayer. Habits that will shift your perspective, take your eyes off your unsettledness, and fix them on God—the only One who can bring you peace through His powerful, healing, life-transforming Word.

Click to purchase: Rest for Your Soul: A Bible Study on Solitude, Silence, & Prayer

Managing Your Emojis: 100 Devotions for Navigating Your Feelings

Managing Your Emojis, for boys and girls ages 8–12:

• Teaches kids they can accept and manage their God-given emotions.
• Refers to specific Scriptures that speak to our emotions and help children realize God accepts all their emotions.
• Creates freedom in families to discuss emotions and know they are part of God’s design.
• Includes stories that present a problem, a Scripture that provides a solution, a practical application, and a closing prayer.
• Is written by my friend and Proverbs 31 author Lynn Cowell and licensed professional counselor Michelle Nietert.

Managing Your Emojis will empower your child to find acceptance and approval from God as they come to know that God made them just as they are; intense emotions and all.

Click to purchase: Managing Your Emojis: 100 Devotions for Navigating Your Feelings

The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Whitmel Earley

ECPA Christian Book Award Finalist
Christianity Today Book of the Year Award
Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year

Habits form us more than we form them.

The modern world is a machine of a thousand invisible habits, forming us into anxious, busy, and depressed people. We yearn for the freedom and peace of the gospel, but remain addicted to our technology, shackled by our screens, and exhausted by our routines. But because our habits are the water we swim in, they are almost invisible to us. What can we do about it?

The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices, such as a daily hour of phoneless presence or a weekly conversation with a friend.

Click to purchase: The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Whitmel Earley

Sweet Relief: How the Gospel Frees Us from a Life of Striving by Kaitlin Garrison

“I am not enough.”

Embrace the power of these four words that can free you from a lifestyle of striving.

There are many areas in life where we strive to be enough: jobs, relationships, personal disciplines?the list goes on. In a culture that celebrates and encourages a work-to-earn mentality, it is no surprise that this same, formulaic pattern has bled into our faith. It is easy to become trapped in the exhausting cycle of trying to be good enough for God. But God is not after our well-polished performance but rather our full assurance in the sufficiency of his Son! In Sweet Relief, Kaitlin tackles four prevalent false gospels that can keep us stuck in our cycles of striving. She reintroduces us to the simple gospel that banks on the grace of God rather than our own sufficiency. The reader will walk away confident that their standing with God is not centered on the good things they can do for him but on the finished work of Jesus who has already won it all on their behalf.

Click here to purchase: Sweet Relief: How the Gospel Frees Us from a Life of Striving by Kaitlin Garrison