Books Make Wonderful Gifts 3—Make a Better World—And Use Those Gift Cards
Books are always part of my Christmas giving—just ask my grandchildren!! In this third installment I am going to help you with your gifts to yourself with those wonderful gift cards. Here are some wonderful ideas to enable you to enrich your own life.
Part 1 focused on loving a prodigal. In Part 2 I offered you some books that will be life-changing for you. Part 3 will introduce you to books to help you make a better world.
Open Hands Willing Heart: Discover the Joy of Saying Yes to God by Vivian Mabuni
I’ve known Viv Mabuni for a lot of years—and I love her heart for learning and passing it on, as she did with her cancer journey in her first book, Warrior in Pink. She is passionate about God’s Word, and I especially appreciate her call to discover who God made you to be and what He made you to. The key, she wisely shares, is to have open hands to receive what God gives and a willing heart to be, to go, to do, to share with others.
No More Holding Back: Emboldening Women to Move Past Barriers, See Their Worth and Serve God Everywhere by Kat Armstrong
The day I met Jesus, He told me “I have something I want you to do.” That launched me on a life-long journey of discovering and doing what He had planned for me. I had some help along the way, but I am so grateful that Kat Armstrong has written this powerful guide for loving God and living out what He designed you for. She encourages us to not settle, but to challenge the limitations and pursue the person and purposes of God in your life.
Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence by Natalia Kohn, Noemi Vega Quinones, Kristy Garza Robinson.
In elementary school one of my best friends was Latina—I didn’t know we were different. My college roommate married a Latino man—friends over the years. My executive assistant for the past 20 years is Latina—and one of the most capable people I know.
As I have grown and known many more people, I’ve learned about the different expectations and challenges they have encountered. I have been especially grateful for these three Hermanas who have taken us to the Word of God, coupled with their own stories, to give greater understanding of women in the Bible and Latina women today. In their commonalities and their diversity, they reveal the same of people in God’s Word and the complexity of God Himself.
Placemaker: Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty and Peace by Christie Purifoy
My husband and I have lived in two houses in our almost 45 years of marriage. Both have been places of peace and beauty even as those years included the challenges of growing family and aging parents. My children, however, have each moved to a new home in the past few months, seeking a place to fit the next season of their lives.
I love Christie’s invitation “to reconsider your own relationship to the ground beneath your feet and the roof over your head.” In this book she calls us to places of peace and comfort, of growth and hard work, of community and hospitality.
Brave Souls: Experiencing the Audacious Power of Empathy by Belinda Bauman
I cry easily. At stories of moms and children, or someone extending kindness, or at sickness or loss, and yes, when my grandchildren say something sweet to me. I think I have a lot of empathy.
Then I read Belinda’s book and I meet people in very hard places, persevering through loss and danger, experiencing horrifying trauma. She lives out deep empathy and does something to alleviate pain and suffering. And she invites me to ask God to grow my empathy and to show me the more He has for me to do.
What about you? What book has touched your life in powerful ways?
C2019 Judy Douglass
P.S. All these books can be purchased or ordered from any bookstore, or purchased from any online vendor.