This month I finished two books, and I’m excited to
tell you about each one!
I mentioned before
this first one, because it’s taken me a while to read. (This is zero reflection
on how good the book is and completely a reflection on how little time I’ve had
to read lately.)
The book is called Crucial Conversations: Tools for TalkingWhen the Stakes Are High. It’s written by a group of authors: Joseph
Grenny, Kerry Patterson, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler, and Emily Gregory, and the
fact that the book is in its third edition with over 5 million copies sold
should tell you that it’s a good one.
I’d never heard of
this book until over Christmas, when I took an online course in how to navigate
hard conversations. Not only do I resist conflict, I’m fairly terrible at it,
and I know this is an area of life where I need to improve. The gentleman teaching
the course taught from a Christian perspective, but he often mentioned this
secular book, and I put it on my wish list. Ryan purchased it for me, and I dove
in immediately.
This is the kind of
book that needs revisited often to truly master the material, but I learned a ton
on my first read. The book approaches all kinds of hard conversations – from marital
chats/spats to family friction to business and boardroom navigations and it is
so insightful! I learned about how to differentiate the truth from the stories
we tell ourselves (and believe), how to stop when something isn’t working, reframe,
and start again, and how to say hard things.
I have already used
some of the tools and skills in the book in conversations I’ve had in the last
few weeks, and while sometimes the outcome didn’t change, I felt more confident
about how I approached it from my own end. I am proud of myself for learning
new skills and trying to be bold in conversations that terrify me.
Though this book doesn’t
pull any biblical models, it has tremendous life advice, and it can be used in so
many settings. I will be going back to it every time I find myself facing a tough
talk, and I am going to try to learn the concepts so I can just allow them to
flow, rather than coming back to research.
It’s a good read for
anyone who has any interaction with others (in any scenario) but it’s
especially wonderful if you struggle with conflict like I do!
**
The second book I
finished this month was Seamless by Angie Smith. Angie is an author I’ve
read before – multiple times, and I do love her writing style. She’s married to
Todd Smith, the lead singer of Selah. This book is a Bible study and it’s one
my friend Julie and I led over the past few weeks with some young ladies from
our church. We just wrapped up this week, and now I can share my thoughts on
this book.
Overall, I really
enjoyed it. Seamless is a six week study on…the entire Bible. The
subtitle of the book says Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story,
and indeed she accomplishes that. Angie did not become a believer until she was
an adult, so one thing I especially appreciate about her approach to teaching
is that she understands why some people don’t have this obvious lifelong
foundation in Scripture. She talks openly about how her early days of Bible
study were done from children’s picture Bibles, because it’s all she could understand
at that time. So while she does comprehend the deeper pieces of
Scripture now, she presents it all in a very conversational and
easy-to-understand way.
The book is a workbook
style offering and has corresponding videos which you can stream from the
Lifeway website using a code that comes with the book. (I love that – no keeping
track of tangible video recordings.)
If you’re looking for
a deep-dive into Scripture, this isn’t it. If you’re looking to become familiar
with the overall structure and theme of the Bible, this might be for you.
The only thing that
really frustrated me about the book is that the study is only six weeks long,
and the first three covered Creation to the Promised Land. Week four
covered the entire remaining portion of the Old Testament (WHICH IS A LOT!),
week five talked about Jesus’ life as told in the four gospels, and the final
week went over the rest of the New Testament. So the first part of the book
felt like a jog and the second half felt like a massive sprint, and I’m not
that good at running.
I would still
recommend the book – especially if you’re trying to introduce people to the overarching
theme of Scripture. Our hope is that the participants in the study would be
able to find (from this journey) what they want to study next, and likely at a
slower pace.
