Category: Mental Health and Wellness

Health and wellness for the mind

My 2020 Book List Part 1

kimbrown1615

 

Walking With Purpose

Seven Priorities That Make Life Work

By Lisa Brenninkmeyer


I received this book from the Priest at my son’s school. It was being read as part of a parish wide book study. I wasn’t able to join but decided to read the book anyway. It is written by a Catholic woman, but don’t let that scare you away if you aren’t Catholic.  It is really a book for any denomination.

This is a great book for women, especially those striving for a life of balance. I don’t actually know many women that have mastered this tricky balancing act!

In the beginning of the book, we are reminded a very basic truth. “There simply isn’t enough time in the day to do everything that your loved ones tell you is important and the things that our culture values, and still do the things that God is calling you to do.”  Yup. Amen to that.

Some of my favorite parts 


“The opposite of pride is faith. Pride sees everything through our own point of view. Faith sees it all through God’s perspective. Pride places us at the center. Faith makes God at the center of our lives, and makes pleasing him and doing what he desires our greatest goal.”

I turn 40 this year, and it has taken me all these years to learn I should be living for an audience of ONE. And even though I feel like I have a good grasp on this, old habits die hard and some days I care way too much what others think.

“When we seek security and worth in other people’s opinions of us, we are deficient of love. We’re not experiencing the depth of unconditional love that God wants us to experience. We are hoping that the approval and affirmation of people around us will fill us up, but it never will. Only as we understand the depths of God’s unconditional love will we be able to let go of the need to please people at all costs-only then can we be free of the tyranny of the opinion of others.”

She talks a lot about the use of our time. God gives us enough time to accomplish what we are supposed to. If we are frazzled, hurried, or overwhelmed, maybe we are doing things that He is not asking us to do?

She goes on to say “When we open our hearts to God, He promises to ‘teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.’ Psalm 90:12

“A wise heart will help us to identify priorities. Once they are identified, we’ll have a better idea of what should be done first, most often, or not at all. They will help us recognize the activities that we need to say no to.”

Prioritizing is so important. In one section she talks about how her massive laundry pile almost prevented her from having a heart to heart during a time of need for her daughter. Been there. Done that. Things get in the way of people. However, those people need clean clothes to wear! The struggle is real.

The overall theme: Put God first and everything else will fall into place. It may not be easy to do, but it is worth it.

Orange Jumpsuit

By Tara-leigh Cobble


As part of my daily Bible reading, I listen to The Bible Recap podcast, led by the author of this book.

This was a quick read, about 3 days. It was during my break from Facebook so that helped!

She is clearly a girl who loves God. It was an inspiring book and I thought it was very easy to read. 

We all put on that unnecessary jumpsuit from time to time. Maybe it is a jumpsuit of worry or fear, comparison, or perfection.  I have worn those ALL from time to time!

The Unwinding of the Miracle

By Julie Yip-Williams


I saw this book on Amazon’s best of 2019. I reluctantly picked it up from the library. 

Julie Yip-Williams tells her story of being born blind, avoiding the death wish of her grandmother, coming to America and getting some sight restored, getting married, having kids, and being diagnosed with cancer. The beginning of her life is quite the story and a miracle itself!

She traveled, typically solo, to all 7 continents by the time she was 30. Oh, and don’t forget she was visually impaired! Amazing. I get stressed when I have to travel to Toledo alone.

Her raw honesty is hard to read, probably because her words explain how I would feel if I was in her shoes.

A few times I almost stopped reading it, because it was painfully sad! Cancer’s devastation within a family is  beyond terrible.

But I think one of the saddest parts for me is in her entire journey, she never came to know God.  She was born in a different country and not raised in a Christian home. Throughout the book she mentions God, but refers to God as “not the one depicted in any religious teachings but rather to a being that may very well be a force comprised of all the life that has been and is and will be, a force that is incomprehensible to the mind but perhaps perceptible to the soul.” At the request of her young daughter, they did attend church. But she never found the God that I know.

Perhaps finding Him would have eased the pain of her journey?

She passed away in March 2018.

If you read this, have tissues on hand. You have been warned.

Rhythms of Renewal

By Rebekah Lyons


This book was part of an online study I did with my friend Erin.

The main ideas of this book are 4 rhythms in which we live:

Rest
Restore
Connect
Create

I agree with this concept, but still struggle with putting all 4 of these into place in my life!

It did give me some inspiration to make some time for Rest (I am actually getting better at this one every day)

The idea of connecting with others and creating are harder for me to put into practice. Time. Not enough of it. Blah, blah, blah. It is the same story – not enough time. So I am working these things as I can – but stressing about the lack of time to do them is counter productive, so I won’t allow myself to do that.

She is a good writer and has had some anxiety and claustrophobia struggles that I could TOTALLY relate to! 

Praying Women

By Sheila Walsh



I listened to this audio book, which broke my own cardinal rule of reading real books, but it was free on Hoopla. I love her accent so that made it more fun to listen to!

Sometimes my mind wanders during audio books and I can’t underline or reference parts to listen to, because I am usually driving while listening.


Despite that, I do have some good takeaways from this book. 

She tells a story about her pregnancy with her son. I won’t give you any spoilers, but WOW!!!! Totally made me cry. 

I also enjoyed the concept of praying the Psalms and that is something I am attempting to put into practice. 

The story of Angus and his wife was another one of my favorite parts. 

Worth the read! Whether you are new to prayer or a seasoned prayer warrior, I think it had helpful info for all! 

Wrapping up Part 1


I am excited that is it only February and I have tackled 5 books already, and that doesn’t count another one I am almost done reading! My music loving friends might enjoy that one – stay tuned for Part 2. 

During Lent this year, I will be taking a social media break and trying to put my phone down a little more, so I expect a decent sized list for Part 2 as well. 

Send me your suggestions! 

Books! Books! Books!

kimbrown1615Leave a comment

Whoa. It’s 2020.

2019 is over and my book list is unfinished. Tragedy, I know.

Despite falling short, I do feel very accomplished and have some great takeaways from each book. I went at a much slower pace the second half of the year, and one book is to blame. I will explain. But first, before we go any further, here is a link to my first book list from 2019 in case you missed it.

These first two books were not part of my original plan, but they were recommendations from my sister in law’s mom (love her) so they moved to the top of the list!

Barking to the Choir

THE POWER OF RADICAL KINSHIP

By Gregory Boyle

Gregory Boyle started Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the world. This book made me laugh and cry, but mostly cry.

Probably the biggest takeaway for me:

DON’T BE JUDGY!

You simply do NOT know what people have been through. Reading some of these stories made me change the way I look at others. It’s so easy to label people. We’re all humans, some dealt a better hand than others. It’s really about what you do with the hand you are dealt. This organization helps them turn their lives around by dealing with their issues and telling their stories.

“When we label folks scum, it makes it all right to do anything we want to them. Who doesn’t belong? We try and imagine Jesus and God compiling a list of those who should not make the cut, but we come up short. We can’t think of anybody. The minute we accept this to be true, we will see racism, demonizing, and scapegoating dissipate in the wind like sand on a blustery day. The great Jesuit Howard Gray said: ‘God has no enemies and neither should I.’”

One story hit me especially hard, probably because the boy was 7 years old, the same age as my son.

Even retelling the story here makes my cringe.

“One morning,” he recounted, “as my mom was packing up our few belongings and the tarp we used for shelter, I watched a bunch of kids waiting to get on a school bus. I wanted, more than anything, to go with them. My mom told me that if I went, she wouldn’t be here when I got back. I followed that bus to school, but apparently you can’t just show up at school. You sort of need a parent, and to be enrolled, so I left. When I got back to Skid Row, my family was gone. I looked everywhere. I wandered the streets all night and never found my mom or my family. I realized, that night, I was on my own. I was seven years old.” It took several years for the “system” to find Jamal, and once it did, he began a new life in foster care. By the time he reached high school age, he had been raised by several surrogate parents, who were so abusive that they would wake him up in the middle of the night just to beat him and lock him out of the house for hours on end. He joined a gang at thirteen and was subsequently kicked out of 5 schools. He was locked up for two long stints before he was eighteen, and returned to jail again for seven years. It was during that time he started to rethink things. He started to read books and got his GED. ‘In the end, I gave in,’ he later wrote about his experience. ‘I gave in to the sadness of all those years of neglect and abandonment. I gave in to the terror I never let myself feel – as I watched people being beaten, thrown out of windows, and killed on Skid Row. I gave in to, I realize, not sadness and fear but anger. I learned the word ‘schizophrenia’ and came to terms with the fact that my mom did not hurt me on purpose.’ Today his mother is still alive and lives under a bridge in Los Angeles. ‘I hope that one day I can help her find her way home.’

Seriously. Wow. And we think we have it rough sometimes?

The author also shared another story of loss of one man. During the funeral for his sons (yes, sons, plural, can’t imagine) he said “Don’t lose one day. Don’t let a day go by that you don’t pay attention to your kids. Don’t waste time. Our children are loaned to us. They belong to God, and they will return to God. Don’t waste one day not loving them.”

Father Gregory Boyle takes a lot of his staff, former drug addicts, convicts, and gang members, to speak at events across the country.

And a cool side note – he is donating all his net proceeds from this book to Homeboy Industries. Pick up a copy!

Searching For Sunday

By Rachel Held Evans

I could relate to many parts of this book and had a lot of the same questions she had, wondering if there is a “right” answer.

“As reports of collateral damage slid across the crawler, it occurred to me that the women and children killed in Iraq’s civil war were mostly Muslims, not so much by choice, but by birth. They were Muslims because they were born in a predominately Muslim country to Muslim parents, just as I was a Christian because I’d been born in a predominantly Christian country to Christian parents. Was I supposed to believe the same suicide bomb that sent a terrorist to hell sent his victims to hell too? Because they weren’t evangelical Christians like me? Because they were born at the wrong place at the wrong time? And did this fate await the majority of my fellow human beings, including the millions who never even heard of Jesus to begin with?”

I have asked these very same questions many times. What if they never knew Jesus? Is the blame then transferred from them to us for not making that introduction?

I broke my own cardinal rule and read the electronic version because it was free on Hoopla. I managed to stay focused and found myself bookmarking a lot of pages. So many pages, in fact, that I would rewrite half the book if I repeated them all. So I have done my best to hit my most favorite ones! Here they are:

“We could not become like God, so God became like us. God showed us how to heal instead of kill, how to mend instead of destroy, how to love instead of hate, how to live instead of long for more. “

“We think church is for taking spiritual Instagrams and putting on our best performances. We think church is for the healthy, even though Jesus told us time and again he came to minister to the sick. We think church is for ‘good’ people, not resurrected people.”

“Christians don’t get to send our lives through the rinse cycle before showing up to church. We come as we are-no hiding, no acting, no fear.”

Sadly the author passed away shortly before I started reading this book. Knowing this gave me a weird vibe, but I have no regret in reading this book. She wrote about so many questions and things to ponder. Now she is in heaven with all the answers.

Defined

Who God Says You Are

By Stephen and Alex Kendrick

This is it.

The book.

The book that brought my book list to a halt. It took me months to read. This book felt short, yet also felt like it should be the size of 3 phone books because it was packed with great content.

One of my most and least favorite sections was the Heart Check. It was a pretty painful self examination based on the 10 commandments, which may seem very archaic, but I promise they are not!

Some of the questions:

Is there anything God would say I’m putting before Him right now? (Ouch, yes)

Do I honor God with my mouth?(eh, most of the time)

Is there anyone I hate? (Um, sometimes)

Am I a gossip? (Well, I try not to be)

Is there anyone I’m really envious and jealous of? (Shoot, at times)

Another part that really hit me:

“What are you honestly trusting right now as the most reliable source to help you understand your life? Yourself? Your family? Your experiences from the past? Or the God of the universe, who made you in His image, who cannot lie, who is giving you every next breath, and who holds your eternity in the palm of His hand?”

Well, when you put it that way it sounds so simple. God of course!

If you have even the most teenie, tiny bit of self doubt or worry, this book is for you!

“When our foundation is not strong, we will likely not stand firm when the toughest storms beat down on us. If we’ve been basing our lives and the perception of our identity on changing things, then we’ve been setting a trap for our own feet.”

“If we’re looking to our self-help efforts as being our path to growth-trying harder, being more disciplined, being more committed-we won’t change at the heart level and will only be modifying the fruit, not fixing the root. We’ll keep fighting the same battles, over and over again, and not see any long-term genuine transformation.”

SO. TRUE.

These are just a few of the sections I noted. By the way, do you read with a pencil? If you don’t, I highly suggest you start!

So, there you have it, the rest of my 2019 reading list.

My reading goal for 2020? Finish reading the Bible plus read 10 books. I am on a chronological Bible reading plan and should finish around October.

If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them!