The Gifted

Hello World,
What a great day today.  We're experiencing a cool wave, it will only reach the mid 90's in Amarillo.  It's funny how my sense of cool has completely changed since living here.  Cool for me in Wisconsin was mid 20's and now it's mid 90's.  Oh well, assimilation will always happen I guess.

In the book The Gifted, Jessamine Brady was ten years old when an old pastor brought her to the small shaker town of Harmony Hill.  The years following, she tried hard to conform to the societies rules and to live as a shaker sister should.  Nearing her twenty-first birthday some things are brought to light in her life and she must make a decision to either stay a shaker or walk away from a life she knows.

Reading this book was bittersweet for me.  Ms. Gabhart does a phenomenal job at portraying what a shaker life is like.  How the strict rules of the order did not allow for much freedom.  I found myself amazed at some of the things they did.  Did you know that they didn't marry, or that they wanted to live their life here on earth like it was heaven.  I hurt for Jessamine because she has a very hard choice to make.  When I can stay up and think about a book or the next day still wonder the different aspects of it, I would say it's a good book.  If you want a book that will bring up some challenging questions in your faith, and with a little romance :-)  This is the book for you.
*I received this book via Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group for my honest opinion and I honestly gave it. 
 “Available July 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”


Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
Even so, I have noticed one thing, at least, that is good.  It is good for people to eat well, drink a good glass of wine, and enjoy their work-- whatever they do under the sun-- for however long God lets them live.  And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it.  To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life-- that is indeed a gift from God.  People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past.  For God has given them reasons for joy.


This is quite a long passage, but I love it :-)  Do you enjoy work?  Do you eat well? or have a good glass of wine?    I can't remember a time where I haven't eaten well, and I truly have been blessed with one of the best jobs in the world.  I do have to say that I rarely am filled with sorrow or long for the past.  God has given me a reason for joy.  What a blessing, what an incredible gift!