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Tag: reads

a year in books

December 31, 2019January 2, 20202 Comments

The year is over and I'm so excited to share the 63 books I read in 2019!

February reads

February 28, 2019May 28, 2019Leave a comment

Including the book I recommend to EVERY college student and young adult I know and some helpful books for pastors and pastor's wives!

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Happy New Year from the Bowermans! Confession. I have a tendency towards discontent. I can so easily look back on the last year and see all the things I would change. Don't get me wrong, 2019 was filled with so many good and beautiful things, and I don't want to discount that. But it was also a heavy and dark year. And as the end of the year approached, I found myself thinking "thank goodness it's almost over." Along with that discontent comes a tendency to put big expectations on the new year, hoping desperately that all the things that went wrong last year - and all the things that are wrong with me - will change with the flip of a calendar page. Read more on the blog ☺️

After 9 wonderful days in the southern humidity with family and friends...we’re so very happy to be coming back home to these mountains today. 😍

Sometimes grief hits you unexpectedly. You're waiting in the fast food line and a rush of it hits you out of nowhere, causing you to rush off to compose yourself. A comment from a friend presses a painful spot in your heart, and you wince and have to withdraw yourself from the conversation. Sometimes grief lingers with you. It sticks to you stubbornly, refusing to leave you. You wake up morning after morning expecting it to be there, and there it is, a cloud of hovering, unwanted darkness. Sometimes grief is a piercing pain, and sometimes long days and months of grieving turn it into a dull ache, not always severe, but always there, always noticeable. Grief can feel exceptionally heavy and lonely. It can lead us to question ourselves and to question God. It can make us feel distant from God. It can cause us to cry out to God in confusion and hopelessness. It can feel natural, and oftentimes easier, to follow this spiral of despair. To allow our grief to drive us into hopelessness and disbelief in the promises and truths we know about God. But it's here that we must turn our lament heavenward. It is here that we must remember that God has not left us alone in our grief. More thoughts on grief and lament are on my blog. 💛

“And now you that are afraid about the future, rest with us in this sweet promise. How often do you and I stand star-gazing into the future, and trembling, because we think we see strange sights, which portend some future trouble. O child of God! leave the future to thy God. O leave everything that is to come in the hand of him to whom the future is already present, and who knows beforehand everything that shalt befall thee. Draw from the present living water with which to moisten the arid desert of the future; snatch from the altar-fires of today a torch with which to light up the darkness of that which is to come. Depend on it, that He who is today thy sun, shall be thy sun for ever—even in the darkest hour he shall shine upon thee; and he who is today thy shield shall be thy shield for evermore; and even in the thickest part of the battle he shall catch the dart, and thou shalt stand unharmed.” – Charles H. Spurgeon

This summer was beautiful, but also pretty heavy; we had some really dark days. Mental health is no joke, anxiety and depression are weighty things, and the biggest lie Satan will tell you is that you’re alone in it. But let me tell you, YOU’RE NOT ALONE. Find a trusted friend. Find a counselor (I can’t praise good counselors enough). Share where you are and know that God is not far from you, even when you’re in an impossibly heavy and dark place. He is near and he is kind. That said, praise God we’ve had a lot of wonderful days lately, and that’s something worth celebrating. Life is still very ordinary and normal, but our days are peppered with laughter and lightness, and that is truly something to be thankful for. I’m realizing more and more that in the good and in the bad God is abundantly faithful and kind.

One more fall picture because it’s so stinkin beautiful today! (and I don’t think you guys mind the fall overload 😉)

Fall mood. 🍁🍂

Just a friendly reminder to find some time this weekend to breathe in some fresh air, look at something beautiful, and be in awe of our magnificent Creator God. He’s pretty good at his job 😉🍁🍂

I’ve lived much of my life poised for change, waiting expectantly for the big adventurous next thing. Always looking ahead. Always restless. Always craving newness. I live my life leaning forward, eyes searching the horizon, glancing over what is right in front of me to gaze longingly at what is around the next bend. But it feels like lately the Lord has been urging me to view the changing of seasons differently. Excerpt from issue 5 of These Sacred Words.

In summer the aspens’ green leaves glitter when the wind blows. The tiny circular leaves look like silver dollar eucalyptus; the trunks like bleached driftwood. They’re my absolute favorite tree in Colorado. In fall the aspens’ tiny leaves turn an unbelievably brilliant yellow, fluttering like a thousand little coins. Stripes of gold and orange flash by the window as you drive. Splotches of yellow splashed across the sides of mountains, making the mountainside look like it’s on fire. I’ve always loved the changing of seasons; the shift in temperature signaling that something new is coming. Words from issue 5 of These Sacred Words.

And another one because these yellow leaves and driving through the mountains with him made me so giddy. ☺️

Words fail. 🍂🍁😍

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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more previous than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 1:3-4

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