Our Summer Read Along - Interrupted!

"These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NIV

Thank you for joining me on the summer read along!  I apologize for being MIA on the blog, but the summer has not gone as planned and 'my time' was almost non-existent!  I hope you enjoyed the book. What did you like most?  Have you explored any other writing by Suzanne Woods Fisher?  I now follow her on Twitter and Instagram and always enjoy her posts.

Unfortunately, I have yet to locate my missing book, so I am at a loss to talk about the last section.  I'm sure it's around here somewhere...  Please share your thoughts about the last part of the book (or the entire book, for that matter) in the Comment section below.  Don't forget, if you're reading this in your e-mail, click here to go to the blog to leave your comment.  I can't wait to read what you discovered in the pages of our book!

One of the aspects of Amish life that resonates with me is the idea that their faith is not a separate part of their lives.  They live their faith every day - it's in their homes, their work, their relationships - it's a natural part of the fabric of their lives and their community.  It's not to say that they don't have troubles, flaws, or questions, they have many of the same personal struggles and temptations we do.
It reminds me of Deuteronomy 6: 6-7 (the opening verse).  Grab your Bible (or your Bible app) and look up the verse to see more fully the context in which it is spoken.  Moses is speaking to the people of Israel just after he gives them the Ten Commandments.  He's telling them, and us, that we are to obey God all day, every day.  Not just when we are in trouble or on the Sabbath, but always.  Our faith is within us and is to be within everything we do and say and how we live.

When God's word is in our hearts and blankets our lives, we are often able to see and hear God in everyday situations.  Here's a link to a Proverb's 31 devotion that is a wonderful example of how an everyday situation revealed God's word in the author's life.  Have you ever encountered a faith moment in the grocery store line?  How about in a song, not a hymn or Christian song, a secular song?  Or a novel?  I have an aunt, uncle, and cousin who think the Harry Potter books are satanic because their pastor told them they were.  I, however, devoured them (and the movies) and read them to my children.  We own all the books, movies, and even a few wands, and are planning our second trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because I saw lessons of the great power of Love, Faith, and Forgiveness in the pages of those books.  When my family talks about the books we are reading or the music we listen to, we talk about the message that is being conveyed and how that fits into our family's values & our faith.  It's never anything fancy or pious, just regular conversations.  It's what works for us and how, as a parent, I follow Moses' advice.

It's paramount to be a part of a faith community, to attend church on Sunday, to meet regularly together to learn and discuss the Word of God with each other and to be the Body of Christ.  But it is important too, to have the commands of God written on our hearts, to teach them and talk about them daily, to knit them into the fabric of our lives, and to be open to seeing God and hearing God every day.

How do you see and hear God every day?  And how do you pass this on to the young people in your life?  Sharing how you do this will encourage all of us and give us new ideas on how to live our faith and follow God's commands every day.

Thank you all for your patience and understanding of my erratic posting and total derailment (through misplacing my book) of the summer read-along.  Truly, I hope you enjoyed the book.  This was my second reading, and even so, I am disappointed that I could not finish reading it this time around.

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!  I will be announcing our Fall study as soon as I figure out what it is (yes, I'm THAT far behind)!

Your Partner in Ministry,

Shelly
Warrior

"Kind words are like honey - sweet to the soul and healthy for the body."  Proverbs 16:24