Book Review: Devotions from the Garden - Finding Peace and Rest from Your Hurried Life by Miriam Drennan

I love this little book. It is just so sweet. The reason I originally chose to read Devotions from the Gardedn: Finding Peace and Rest from Your Hurried Life by Miriam Drennan was my love of gardening. Honestly I'm not much for devotionals. I don't know why, they're just not my cup of tea. But I was drawn to this book for it's garden photography.

What I found - aside from the beautiful photographs - was a devotional that I actually love to read. The author uses 90 widely varied topics, familiar to people who garden, and then draws parallels to how life with God is similar to that particular topic.

Each devotion is about 5 to 6 paragraphs in length and is followed up with a lovely, grace-filled prayer. For instance, the one devo that strikes a chord with me currently is called "Root Systems," and begins with a description of the unseen job that various root types perform for plants. She talks about what roots need in order to keep plants healthy and thriving. Then she poses questions to the reader as a way to help gauge how well you are (or are not) tending your own spiritual root system.

I know I'm not doing any justice to just how much I love this book. It's a small book, and the pages are nice and heavy because of all the photos. But it's just so much more than that. Her analogy to Christians as honeybees is a great reminder on being willing to do what needs to be done, no matter how menial the task may seem.

This is clearly written by someone who knows the joy found in gardening and the joy found in following God and beautifully intertwines the two. This would be a beautiful addition to the library of any gardener.

Book Review: Spiritually Strong by Kristen Feola

I have been becoming more and more interested in the spiritual disciplines/spiritual practices as of late. I have been reading a lot about the various disciplines and trying out a few to see how they fit me. When I came across Spiritually Strong: The Ultimate 6-Week Guide to Building Your Body and Soul by Kristen Feola, I figured it was worth a try.

The book is separated into three main parts: The Core, The Exercises, and The Plan. The gist of the book is that your spiritual core is just as important to exercise as your physical core. In the first 2 parts, Feola describes both the physical and spiritual "muscles" as well as how to go about getting and keeping them fit.

The third part of the book is a 6-week plan implementing the information presented in the previous parts with the goal of transforming your body and soul for the better.

While Feola definitely has some solid information in here, I'm not entirely sure what I thought about the delivery. At times it came across a little heavy handed and left me feeling like there was no way I'd EVER be able to get my spiritual act together. The laundry list of things I do wrong, or don't do enough of, was a little overwhelming.

All in all, I'm glad I have this book, but not necessarily for its intended purpose. Rather than use it as a 6-week program, I intend to use it as a reference in my on-going study of the spiritual disciplines.