Olivia > Recent Status Updates

I'm starting this one with some skepticism. I enjoyed reading Grudem's Systematic Theology and the way he presents different issues from multiple viewpoints, leaving it up to the reader to decide where he stands. Hopefully this book on Politics and the Bible will have the same standard...

Currently reading this to my kids at bedtime. This was the first version of this book that I read as a kid and loved it.

Seriously I just read the forward and she described me exactly...I’ve been stressing and praying about this issue for awhile and I’m pretty excited to have stumbled upon this book. Any other loving mommas out there that struggle with that “inner volcano” and want to read along with me?

I’ve been wanting to read ancient history from other perspectives besides the Bible to see how it interweaves with other histories of similar periods. Durant is so secular and goes out of his way to speculate (opinion- no facts) how Judaism and Christianity are combinations of other ancient religions. It’s definitely contradictory to everything I believe but I’m still curious to understand an opposing perspective.

“I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. In a last violent protest against hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes” in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose.”

"Mr. O'Halloran can't lie. He's the headmaster... He says, You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can't make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it.... You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is your palace." Frank McCourt

The book is almost always better than the movie and Herodotus' account of the 300 Spartans vs the Persians, the set up, the conversations, the battle, and the follow up is no exception.

I didn't have high hopes for this being an interesting read for some reason but so far, I'm intrigued :)

"God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him"

"He knows that you have to laugh at the things that hurt you just to keep yourself in balance, just to keep the world from running you plumb crazy."