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Friday, May 30, 2014

Latest Reads

I'm finally back after a long blog hiatus.  It seems that this is the thing that gets neglected the most when life gets crazy and this year has been crazy.  I'll post about that more later.  
But, since summer has started I have already read 5 books!  Five!  In 6 days!  It has been wonderful.  Of course, a long weekend at the lake really helped my reading time.  I have read Secrets by Robin Jones Gunn, Chasing Hope  by Kathryn Cushman, Not by Sight by Kathy Lee Herman, Sweet Waters   by Julie Carobini, and the one below.  One of my reading goals this year was to read more non-fiction.  I can't remember how exactly I found this book, but I think it was on someone's blog.  I thought it sounded like just what I had been feeling so I ordered it. 

She Did What She Could is a book centered on the story in Mark 14 where Mary bathes Jesus' feet in expensive perfume.  We all know the story.  This book focuses on the sentence that I had never really noticed before that says, "She did what she could."  The premise of the book is that we all hear about the big problems in the world - hunger, starvation, poverty, forced slavery, abortion, etc. and we think, "I am a woman just trying to take care of my family with not much extra (time, money, energy, etc) left over.  What can I as one person really do that will impact our world?"  This book says we should do what we can.  We may not be able to start a non-profit or go to Africa to work with orphans or women in slavery, but we can do what we can do in our world every day.  It was challenging and relieving all in one book.  The acts that may seem insignificant to me in the space of a day may be truly life changing for those on the receiving end of my kindness or generosity however small they may be.  Elisa Morgan takes apart the sentence word by word and each chapter focuses on one of those words.  At the end of each chapter there are examples of ways we can impact the world for eternity that are totally doable in our days.  Some are things I am doing/have done, others are things I often think are not significant enough to make a difference.  Elisa Morgan helped me think otherwise.  
This is a book that I would recommend to all women of our generation who may get bogged down or frustrated feeling like they can't make a difference.  We all can make a difference if we do what we can.  Wouldn't that be a great thing to be remembered by? She Did What She Could.