In the past, I've linked up with Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life Fridays. I haven't done it in a while, but this week the topic is favorite Bible studies and devotionals.
Back in the college days, I did Paula Rhinehart's Strong Women, Soft Hearts. Y'all, I love this book! I go to it when I'm feeling out of sorts and pick a chapter that sticks out to me and just read it. It's kind of hard to explain what it means to me, but as someone who listens to my body, it is also God speaking to me through myself. I'm not sure that makes any sense to y'all.
Maybe a better example is when I was in junior high, my friends would tell me to "get over it." Meaning, something really devastating to me happened and I just needed to get over it. What they probably meant was "we're sick of hearing about this," and that was their nicest way of saying it was time to move on, but for me to hear those words, I was more than hurt. What my friends didn't know, because I barely understood, was I was going through way more than they knew and all those other things (that were pretty big, but also facts of life), did not help the biggest of things going on. Anyway ... what I got from SWSH was I wasn't supposed to get over it, but to acknowledge it, because it happened to me as a way to shape who I am. The emotions I feel I shouldn't shove deep down in my metaphorical closet and ignore them because God created me to be this way.
Basically, it's all about accepting yourself and honing your traits so that you may serve God better. It gave me permission to be myself.
I also love Paula Rhinehart's Better than My Dreams. I've never read the entire book or done a Bible study on it, but from what I have read, it's about trusting God to provide for you. You pray and pray and pray and you get a hint of what you're praying for, but then, poof!, there it goes. That wasn't your time for it. The stories she uses in this book all start off, where people think their prayers are being answered and they are so overjoyed, but then it turns out their prayers aren't being answered quite yet and they are devastated, and maybe they lose some faith, but on down the road, their prayer does get answered and they get more than they could ever imagine. This is a great book when you're having trouble with faith.
A few years ago, I was blessed to be able to hear Paula Rhinehart speak at a women's retreat. What a great weekend and it was so exciting to be able to speak with her in person. I just hope she knows how much she helped strengthen my relationship with God.
