by Alaina | Jun 27, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
Philippians 4:12
Contentment- it is harder than learning patience! I fought against anything having to do with contentment for a while because in my mind contentment equaled complacency and I didn’t want to be complacent. As if. There was very little chance of this happening as my natural tendency is quite the opposite direction of complacency! I needed to learn the secret of being content.
There was a seemingly never ending stretch in my work life in which I was very unhappy. Like absolutely miserable. I was unhappy with the work I was doing, unhappy with the amount of money I was making, unhappy with the hours it was necessary for me to work. I thought if I just had a 9-5 job and didn’t have to work evenings anymore I would be so happy. I thought if I could make just a little more money every paycheck that would help out so much. I thought, I thought, I thought…. Now intellectually I knew that things would not make me happier. More money is always nice but all of my needs, and many of my wants, were met. So I knew that this stuff wouldn’t make me content, but I wanted it anyway.
Fast forward a few years and my situation has changed, I have a job that I love, I work hours that I like, and yes the money could still be more, but I have come to fully appreciate that it always can be more. I am happy in my day to day life while still wanting more eventually, but God has taught me, and I’m sure will continue to teach me, how desiring to grow and do more in life mustn’t steal the joy from our everyday life.
I was sitting in church a few weeks ago and our Pastor mentioned a verse that I have heard many times but this time I had a perspective shift. The verse is Philippians 4:12, Paul is writing and he says, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
Now I had always looked at this verse as Paul saying he had learned how to be content in having nothing after he had been used to living in plenty. But I don’t think that that is all this verse is saying. In fact if you take out that little section in the commas it would read, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether living in plenty or in want.” He had learned to be content living in plenty. He had learned. He wasn’t content because he had plenty. He still had to learn to be content while having plenty. This is the thing about plenty, the more you have, the more you realize you could have. The desire for more doesn’t turn off once we have more than we once did. It’s a job, a process, something we have to invite the Lord into our hearts to fix. Because the desire for more was planted within us by Him, we are filled with a desire for another world, and so often we try to fill that desire with things of this world. C.S Lewis said it well, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” The desire for more is a craving only He can satisfy.
This doesn’t mean we don’t ever desire more, but I think it means that even while desiring more we still are grateful for everything we have now. When we focus first on Him, our priorities will fall into place. He will fill up our hearts with contentment when we remember to focus on what, and Who, matters most.
by Alaina | Jun 24, 2021 | Book Nook, Uncategorized
Summer is here and that means longer days stretching out into beautiful evenings (we hope!). For me that sounds like the perfect reading paradise! If your reading list is a little lackluster this summer or, if you are like me, are simply looking for a new historical fiction title to add to your summer reading list, here are a few of my favorite historical fiction reads that I have recently enjoyed.
The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
If you read Ms. Cleeton’s other books you won’t be disappointed by this one either! Instead of Cuba, this historical fiction story is set in the Florida Keys right before a catastrophic hurricane that hit the Keys during Labor Day weekend of 1935.
This story follows three women, each from different walks of life. Helen, a Keys native, is in the late stages of pregnancy and has been married to an abusive husband for nine years. With the baby’s arrival so close at hand, Helen feels a strong desire to protect her baby and escape the abuse—but is now the right time?
Next we meet Elizabeth, the spoiled daughter of one of New York’s social elite but since the crash her family has fallen from the high-up social circles of the day. With Elizabeth’s father and brother gone, and her mother mentally unwell, it falls to Elizabeth to fix the family’s financial situation which includes debts to one of New York’s most notorious men. Trying to find a different option than the one readily in front of her, Elizabeth goes to the Keys to find the only person she has left—her older half-brother. If she can find him, he may be able to save her—but will she be able to find him?
Then there is Mirta, a Cuba native, who finds herself quickly married off to an American man who has many secrets. Mirta is trying to navigate what a marriage with this man will look like—will it look like her parents’ marriage or will it be different? And what of all his secrets? Is Mirta supposed to live in the dark her whole life or is it possible to have a marriage of equals with this man?
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
This book was so well done! Indigo Girl is the true story of Eliza Lucas, a 16 year old girl left to run her father’s three plantations in South Carolina in 1739. The family’s finances are not looking good, her father has borrowed against their land to advance his military career, leaving Eliza with a mess on her hands. She needs to find a cash crop quickly or risk losing her family’s land—and her freedom when she is forced to wed to relieve the family’s financial burdens.
Growing up in Antigua, Eliza has seen the process of indigo making and knows it to be a very tricky process, but it could be just what she needs to save herself and her family. Will she be able to pull it off in time? Fans of America’s First Daughter and My Dear Hamilton will love this historical fiction work .
Rebel Spy by Veronica Rossi
This story kicks off in Grand Bahama where the main character, Frannie Tasker, has grown up. She has been living there under the hand of her cruel stepfather, and has been dreaming of a chance to escape. Then one night the opportunity comes in the form of a shipwreck and a stolen identity. Before Frannie can second-guess herself she goes for it, escaping to America.
Never one to simply sit around, Frannie, now known as Emmiline Coats, soon covertly joins the Rebels’ side as a spy for Washington. Based on the little known facts of the true lady agent in the Culper spy ring, who was known as 355, this book takes a rather imaginative look at the possible identity of Agent 355. You will learn the events of the Revolution that Agent 355 is credited with stopping—events that if they had gone differently could have changed the outcome of the war.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
I read The Alice Network and really was not impressed, therefore I was unsure about picking up The Rose Code, but I am so happy I did! This piece of World War 2 historical fiction rotates between three friends who were all working on different aspects of the operation to break the Enigma. We meet Mab, who is a firebrand and has secrets she desperately wants to keep hidden. We meet Beth, a mousy little thing, who is used to living under her mother’s thumb but who has an incredible mind. Lastly, we meet Osla who is sick of being treated like a silly debutante and wants to use her language skills to help her country.
The story opens with Beth in a mental institution. How did someone like her end up in a place like that? And worse, what if she can’t escape before an experimental procedure is done on her brain? The story alternates between that point and five years earlier when they are working day in and day out to break the code in order to beat the Nazi’s and every decoded message could mean life and death to thousands of people.
Summer of ‘69 by Elin Hilderbrand
I talked at length about this book last year (see the full post here) but here is a quick overview of this historical fiction novel. This is a story set in Nantucket in the turbulent year of 1969. Ms. Hilderbrand does a great job of bringing the sights and sounds of Nantucket to life so that you can just about feel the sand under your feet! This story rotates between the four women of the family. I connected quite quickly to each of the characters in this book, and the struggles each of them face—unlike some books where I feel like I am just getting immersed in one person’s world when the narrator changes. Mrs. Levin struggles with the worry of a mother as her son is overseas fighting in Vietnam. Blair, the eldest daughter, is pregnant and struggling with loneliness as she must remain close to home this summer when usually she is at the seashore. Kirby, the middle daughter, is swept up in the civil rights and women’s rights protests of the day, which brings her close to some events that occur at the end of summer—an event we have come to know as Chappaquiddick. Last but not least, we meet Jesse, the youngest of the family who feels very much lost in the shuffle in light of everything her siblings have going on. Follow the Levin family on a summer that they, and America at large, will not soon forget.
by Alaina | Jun 20, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Matthew 16:24-25
Today is Father’s Day. Two years ago on Father’s Day was the last time I would ever see my grandfather on this side of heaven. My mother called me two days later and told me the news—Grandpa was dead. He died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 92 ½, just a few days after being at the doctor and being told he had a clean bill of health. There isn’t much more we could have asked for . . . only a few more days would have been nice. Then a few more, and a few more, always just a few more. An infinite timeline is what we would have asked for. It was not to be.
I remember the impact of those words, “Grandpa died,” as they hit my ears. I remember being surprised at a small and sudden sense of relief—one of the days I had been dreading for years had arrived, and I was still alive! This was instantaneously followed by the realization that now I would have to live the reality of my grandfather’s death. Up until then I had lived in the “before”, before my world changed. We had been in the “while”—while grandpa was still alive. From now on we would live in the “after”; after I lost one of the people whom I loved most on this earth.
The thought crossed my mind that I didn’t want to love anyone ever again and thus spare myself the terrible pain I was then experiencing. The feeling of wanting to shut myself off passed pretty quickly but still there lingered the fact that my life as it had been, whole, with the people I dearly loved had started to be dismantled. My world had felt pretty much whole before his dying, and now there was a gaping hole. And I knew this was just the beginning, that one-by-one more and more of the people I love would leave this life and enter the next, leaving me behind. I had already lost a dear neighbor, and two uncles, and now Grandpa. Life wouldn’t be the same.
As I reflected that life would go on like this, with more and more people stepping out of this life and into the next, it occurred to me that maybe I was looking at it backwards. Perhaps the purpose of life is not to start whole and strive to keep as close to one piece as possible, but rather maybe life is about giving away as much of ourselves as possible, like Jesus did.
He came whole and unblemished to this world. He grew up, from a babe, to a child to a man. Then he started dismantling his life. He left his family and carpentry and started traveling around teaching. He gave himself to the masses: teaching, preaching, praying, healing, and helping people—ultimately sacrificing himself for us, to save our souls, as he died on that crude cross. Aren’t we supposes to be like that?
Maybe we are to be like the flowers of the field in more than one respect. Maybe besides trusting God to provide for our needs, we should live our lives like a dandelion. We arrive on earth bright and full with many little petals all fresh and pure. Then, with every person we love, that we welcome into our hearts, we are in essence tearing off a petal and giving it away. The goal is not to stay a bright flower but to end up the bald little dandelion head at the end of our lives; having loved, and been loved, and giving as much of ourselves to people as possible, to as many people as possible, so that they may come to know the love of Jesus that we bask in as Christians. God, who loved us so much that He gave His Son for us, what purer love can there be. Perhaps life isn’t at all about ending up whole at the end of our lives, but rather about ending up empty, having given away every part of ourselves that we could, knowing we have done all that we could for others and for Him.
by Alaina | Jun 13, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
I will help you.
Isaiah 41:13 NIV
I have always wanted to travel but never figured I actually would do much traveling in my life. I’m not sure why I told myself I this—probably the common explanations we usually hear: it’s scary, it’s expensive, it’s difficult, etc., are some of the reasons I told myself.
These objections were a quiet sound track playing in the back of my mind from the time I was little until very recently. I remember reading in world history at a young age about the ancient Mayans and Aztecs, about the temples and structures they built; about far off lands and places that sounded so exotic, but I never really contemplated that I would actually get to see them.
Recently, my husband and I got the opportunity to go to Mexico. I was hesitant—I mean I wanted to go the beach . . . Florida would do. How different could a beach in Mexico be? My husband wanted to go. He reminded me that we wanted to see different places and that we didn’t want to only go to the same places anytime we got the opportunity to go. I thought about it for a while and consented. We excitedly began planning our trip—with a dose of apprehension on my part.
We made it safely to Mexico and while there we decided to visit the Ancient Mayan ruins of Tulum. It was spectacular! The stone structures still stood, older than just about anything we have here in America. How in the world did these people build all of this without modern tools or machines!?! Built by hand and yet the structures have stood for centuries! There was a point when we were walking along a path in between the stone structures and along the edge of a cliff . . . the ocean water below was the bluest water I have ever seen. As I glanced out seeing the mingling of gray stone, cerulean blue water, the lush green palms—I caught my breath. I thought, “This is the kind of place that I only ever imagined seeing pictures of.”
I realize many of you reading this will be rolling your eyes over my wonder of Mexico when you have traveled to more exotic places. But the fact of the matter is that I told myself I would never actually get there, and that is what actually took my breath away.
God gives us each desires, dreams, goals and visions for our lives, and while it is true that He calls us to things outside of our comfort zone, things we would rather not do at all, it is equally true that He gives us personalities and desire for a reason! Sometimes we think that because we want something, we will have to suffer and/or go without. We act like a life of service to Him means we will have to sacrifice any desires we ever had. We must be willing to sacrifice the desires of our heart so He can mold us into what He wants us to be. We serve a loving God who desires for us to be happy and He blesses us with lovely experiences along life’s way.
I think of Moses who told God that he couldn’t lead a people out of slavery because he wasn’t eloquent speaker. God told him that He was the one who made mouths to speak or not speak. I think of Esther who was encouraged by her cousin, Mordecai, that perhaps she was made queen in order to speak up when the lives of her people were being threatened. I think of Joshua when he was scared to lead the people into battle and God told him to be strong and courageous.
What do you desire that you have told yourself that you’ll never do? God made you for a reason! Don’t ignore the desires you have; they were given to you to use, maybe not in the ways you imagined but you are to use them nonetheless. Talk to Him about it! Do not view Him as a mean or militant father because you are too scared to step into the path He has designed for you. He gave you desires and personality for a reason. So perhaps instead of just telling ourselves a storyline of how we may never get to experience or do things we want because we must submit to Him, maybe we should really be asking why we were given a certain desire or ability, and asking what He wants us to do with it.
by Alaina | Jun 7, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
The end of something is better than its beginning. Patience is better than pride.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
I am a fairly proficient little housekeeper. I like to do all the housekeeping things. I like to clean. I like to cook. I like to bake. I enjoy decorating my home and I take pride in my (mostly) well-kept house. But there is one area in which I am miserable in the housekeeping department—gardening.
I am not a good gardener. You’ve heard of having the green thumb? My thumb must be poisonous because I end up killing almost every single plant I own. I don’t try to kill them—on the contrary, I try to take very good care of them! But I either forget to water them, or else I water them too much; the next thing I know my once beautiful green leafy plant is reduced to a brown crinkled stick.
Things are no better for the plants that live outside. Last year I decided to get serious about sprucing up the outside of my house with flowers. I went to the store and bought seeds. That was the fun part. Then I had to plant them. Which was less fun. I think I was supposed to water them . . . not sure if I did that . . . or if I was counting on it to rain. We live in Western Pennsylvania so there is always a very good chance of rain! Then I had to wait.
I hate waiting. I love to relax: sitting and reading my book; visiting with friends around a campfire; antiquing with my husband—those are all things I love! But that is a great deal different than waiting. I wondered why waiting bothered me so much when I have always loved the idea of making a special place to sit quietly and allow one’s mind to wonder. Then, I realized the key difference responsible for my distaste. I can’t control the situation when I am waiting.
Having planted my flowers, I pretty much left them on their own. I waited. I tried to keep them watered; I even put Miracle Grow into the water so they would get extra nutrients. I waited. My patience was rewarded when they grew! Well not all of them—some of them met an untimely end with a weed-eater; but others did live, and they grew, and they even had beautiful blossoms!
Oh how the physical world mirrors the spiritual! How many times do we impatiently tap our foot at God. We sigh at Him, all the while pretending that we are being patient. We don’t fool Him. He knows our hearts. We get all upset that He is not answering our prayer the way we want or as quickly as we want. Doesn’t He hear us? Maybe we can figure this out for ourselves! Oftentimes though, His answer is just around the corner if we would just be patient and trust Him.
