Dancing With My father, a review and a giveaway

She moved us with The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Child’s Heart for Eternity and The Ministry of Motherhood: Following Christ’s Example in Reaching the Hearts of Our Children, among others, and she has done it again. Moved me, that is.

Her latest book, Dancing with My Father: How God Leads Us into a Life of Grace and Joy, has been a timely read for me. Coming through another long Frozen Tundra winter, and still grieving our latest miscarriage, a life of joy is not coming all that naturally for me. Naturally, I’m tired and emotionally worn, discouraged often with days threatening hopelessness, and yet I know that He loves me, that He’s right here with me in my valley, and that He wants me to experience the true grace and joy that comes only from Him.

“Somewhere during those dark times I realized that God is not so much concerned with my immediate gratification as he is with the development of my soul. I had a choice to trust God…”

Why is that choice so hard to make? Well, I suppose if it were an easy choice, it wouldn’t mean nearly as much, would it?

“The key to joy in the midst of trials is in knowing and believing that God is always good. Always.”

God is good, all the time. We need to say it more. More than that we need to believe it. The more we get to know our God- through His Word, through good preaching, through our walking closer to and recognizing Him more each day, the more we will believe it. How could we not?

“Ours is not a culture that values tests but one that values the ease of life. Consequently, we deprive human beings of the dignity that comes from exhibiting strength of character.”

I had never thought about it from that angle before, of depriving someone of the dignity of exhibiting strength of character. That speaks volumes to this ordinary mom’s heart…

I loved Ann Voskamp‘s comment inside the front cover- “Dancing With My Father invites the soul-hungry, the joy-lame, and the spirit-weary to come to the soiree and stay.” When I read that, before reading the book, I identified on every point. I am sometimes soul-hungry. I am too often joy-lame. I seem to so easily become spirit-weary. I dug into the book with underlining pencil in hand and it wasn’t long before that pencil went to work.

“Joy comes in following where he leads me, choosing to believe that his way is good… I quench this joy when I resist him… To grow in this joy, I have to move where he leads.”

Where He leads me, I will follow… I sing it, but how much do I do it? May I do it more and more! Oh, that I would do it always!

I have a few more pages to read- I’ve found the latter half of this book to move slower for me simply because my heart has been stirred so much that I find myself slowing down to think and evaluate at almost every page. My heart’s prayer this past couple weeks has been that I would remember the stirring, and live out the stirring, that those around me would know the moment I enter a room that my heart has been stirred, my character has been refined, that my joy has been made full.

And now for the giveaway- Sally’s publicist was kind enough to send me an extra copy of the book to give away (thanks again!!) All you have to do is comment on this post (be sure to leave you e-mail address if it isn’t automatically linked to your comment) to be entered to win!

For extra entries, 1 entry each-

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So many chances to enter!! I’ll pick a winner (via Random.org) next Monday night (April 19th) @ approx 10pm (cst) and announce on Tuesday!