Four Feelings, Four Books.

Let me start by saying that while I love books and have often found them very helpful in my life, I do believe we must be careful not to substitute them for prayer and Bible reading.  It is tempting to run to a bookstore to get a good book to help us through a tough time or a particular issue when what we really need to do is first run to God in prayer.  That said, I do love books, and I've found many to be very helpful to me.  This is my current reading, and I will tell you why:

1.  Loneliness.  I got a book on loneliness because I felt lonely.  (Shocking, I know.)  Yes, I am married to a wonderful and loving guy, but I still felt lonely.  I started reading that, and I thought to myself, "Self, this is silly.  You have the indwelling Spirit of God, you have a wonderful husband, a superb family, and great friends.  Why in the world should you feel lonely?"  I thought about my words, and I agreed that yes, I am married, and I should be rejoicing in that, and working to maintain the love and friendship with my husband.  So I got a book on . . .

2.  Marriage.  Mr. M and I are reading this together, and discussing it.  We want to keep our love fresh, and not drift into taking each other for granted.  We want to stay sweethearts.  It's all about prevention.  The book caused me to look back into why I felt that we should read it.  It started with loneliness; but what caused me to feel lonely in the first place?  It was . . .

3.  Fear.  I fell into the ridiculous thought that I knew my future, and that it was bleak.  Of course, I don't know my future (as you don't know yours).  I was living as though a bleak future was a given.  I was living with the thoughts of an unknown future rather than dealing with my present reality.  So I got another book on . . .

4.  Marriage.  This one is about reality versus expectations.  I need to live in my reality and all that that entails.  I need to deal with the trials in my life and accept them for the reality (unpleasant as it is) that they are, and I also need to rejoice in the blessings in my life and see them for the blessings they are.  This is actually where all this began.  I felt hopeless for a while, and the reason was that I was focusing only on the trials in my life while turning a blind eye to the blessings.