The Saturday Six

** Gaylene!! You are the winner of the drawing for A Pocketful of Seeds. Email me your address and I'll ship it to you! **

One.

I'm kind of already in mental Christmas mode. Anyone else with me? I stumbled upon this little invitation that looked fun, so I thought I'd share it with you! You can sign up to receive 24 Christmas cookie recipes! I'm a cookie junkie, and while I can't have them in the house without overindulging, I do think it would be fun to get some new recipes!

Two.

While we are talking about Christmas...one of my Facebook friends posted this week about making ornaments for a Jesse Tree. My friend Julie was my introduction to Jesse Trees a few years ago. I'd never heard of them, but she was making one for her family, and so all of this reminded me that maybe YOU haven't heard of them before, and maybe YOU would like an idea for a new family tradition. There are a million ways to do the ornaments, so I will just point you to this article to learn the general idea of a Jesse Tree, and then if you're interested in exploring the idea further, I have one word for you: PINTEREST!

Three.

I appreciate Lisa Harper so much - as a person, teacher, and authentic believer. You may have seen this already, but if you haven't, watch it. Her video about how adopting her daughter Missy ended up changing both their lives!

Four.

I know you've been reading my words all week right here, but I wanted to give you a peek at an article I wrote for Annesley - about one of my favorite topics! Memory-keeping!

Five.

Before I married Ryan, I made my own Christmas cards every year. I did rubber stamping for years and I'd start making my cards in the summer, because I made over a hundred of them. We do photo cards now, commemorating our "seasons" of marriage, but I still think a handmade card is darling. If you're not overly crafty, but you have kids (or you are an overgrown kid yourself) here are some cute ideas for making keepsake cards with what you have around the house!  

Six.

Source

I stepped outside my reading comfort zone this week, and I am sure glad I did. I read a biography. In full disclosure, I've historically hated biographies. I blame my childhood and all the (truly) boring biographies we had to read for school. They were laden with dates and void of interesting details, and I came to believe biography and boring surely must be synonyms.

But when I saw that Michelle Ule, a novelelist, had written a biography on Oswald Chambers' wife, I thought maybe I should be brave and give the biography another try. First of all, I confess I didn't know Oswald Chambers even had a wife. His words in his well-known daily devotional, My Utmost for His Highest were so deep and Spirit-led that I was sure he'd devoted his entire life to the work of the Lord with no time left for marriage and parenting.

I was wrong.

Furthermore, I had no idea that without Biddy Chambers, we would not have My Utmost for His Highest. Oswald's wife was an accomplished stenographer and spent their marriage transcribing his lectures, teachings and sermons. After his (early) death, she devoted the rest of her life to publishing his words so they could live on and teach generations to come. Every book that bears his name indeed bears his widsom, but every one was published by his wife.

As I read Mrs. Oswald Chambers, it was interesting to learn more about Oswald's life and work, but I was entirely captivated by their love story. Neither one had particularly intended to marry, but God ordained a magnificent love story between the two of them. They were absolutely a perfect match, both driven by their love for the Lord and their desire to see others get to know Him through their testimony and teaching. They never aspired to be wealthy or really have much of anything at all in terms of material possessions. They just wanted to support each other in the deepest possible love and spur one another on to the work God had called them to do.

Most unexpectedly, this book challenged me as a wife. I am convicted to reevaluate how I'm living in my marriage, how I'm supporting my husband and his dreams, and how we work together as a team.

That's what I learned from the book, and I must say that it was a much better representation of a biography than anything I remember reading in my childhood. Yes, there were still dates and such present, but Michelle's novelist touch was present, making this a story I could crawl into and experience with all my senses. I think from now on, I'll limit all my biographical reading to pieces crafted by novelists. :)

An excellent book to read if you appreciate the words of Oswald Chambers, yes, but also a magnificent resource on marriage!

* Baker Books provided a copy of this to me at no charge. All opinions are my own. *