Book it!

When my children were in grade school, they participated in a program called “Book It!” which rewarded reading goals with personal pan pizzas. While they grew up enjoying reading and didn’t really need gastronomical incentives, we were grateful for the investment that local pizza parlors made!

Books are still big in our family’s life, but now that the kids are grown and on their own, Mom is the one who usually has a book in her hands. I’ve had the privilege of contributing to about thirty compilations over the years, including three recently published.

Lucinda Secrest McDowell oversaw the assembling of 30 Ways to Embrace Life: Wise Women Share Their Secrets (Quiet Waters Publications). A broad assembling of women have shared what they learned in change points of their lives. My essay is about simplifying your life.

The editors of Guideposts are publishing a series titled “True Stories of Extraordinary Answers to Prayers,” and the volume Praying Together has my essay on persevering group prayer. I tell about praying for missionary colleagues during the 232 days they were captives of the Viet Cong, and how participating in this prayer season gave me new insight into Psalm 126.

Finally, a smile. When Pam Farrel and Dawn Wilson were writing LOL With God: Devotional Messages of Hope and Humor for Women (Tyndale), they put out a call for funny happenings to which women could relate. I told about my dear friend who, learning I faced a surgical biopsy, phoned and offered to bring my family dinner after my autopsy. Uh, huh. I lived to eat it. The Farrel-Wilson book has a good format for women of the electronic age: a short essay, a reaction point, pertinent scriptures, and then that release of laughter to wrap it up.

Each of these books offers bite-size spiritual nourishment—something like those personal pan pizzas that fed my kids years ago. I include such books in my reading diet in addition to more challenging “reading menu” items. If you see me browsing at a thrift store, you’ll probably find me with my head cocked to the side, reading the titles off the spines of used books in search of a classic spiritual treasure.

And yes, from time to time, I spot one of my books among the discards. It keeps me humble!