Last Sunday I wrote about helping our children learn to love the scriptures - being familiar with them, loving to listen to the stories found therein, and learning to read them. I mentioned the importance of the example we set for the children in our lives. It is hard to teach children to be spiritually self-reliant if we are not filling our own fountains with Living Water. And one main point I wanted to make today is that I think there is great value in reading books, talks or articles dealing with spiritual or even just general religious themes or theological topics in addition to scripture reading. So today I want to mention a couple books that I have read recently (or that I am still reading) and I'd encourage you to do the same.
In February for book group I read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. I haven't read a ton of Lewis's books (but own several that are on my to-read list) but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, a fictional novel based on the myth of Cupid & Psyche. We had a really good discussion at our meeting that month about which characters we related with and Christ figures and many other things. I reveled in the chance to spend time thinking about religious themes in a completely different way than I had before.
On a different sort of spiritual level is another book I am reading now, A Quiet Heart, by Patricia T. Holland, Jeffrey R. Holland's wife. Jeffrey R. Holland is an Apostle, a living witness of Jesus Christ, for the church I belong to. His wife is very insightful in her own right and I am loving this book. One of my favorite parts so far comes from a chapter where she talks about how women spend far too much energy and time comparing themselves to each other and competing instead of reaching out to each other to show support and love. Here is a quote worth sharing (because it seemed just so down to earth). This quote comes after she talks about how some women like to can fruits and vegetables, but other women spend time doing other worthwhile things and we cannot judge how other women spend their time, and their is no need to compare ourselves to others:
And where am I in all of this? For three-fourths of my life I was threatened to the core because I hated to sew. Now I can sew; if absolutely forced to, I will sew--but I hate it. Imagine my burden over the last twenty-five or thirty years, faking it in Relief society sessions and trying to smile when six little girls walk into church all pinafored and laced and ribboned and petticoated--identical, hand sewn--all trooping ahead of their mother, who has the same immaculate outfit. Competitive? I wanted to tear their pleats out.I am loving this book because she is giving practical, scriptural, spiritual advice for things that I am needing to improve upon in my life right now (including the above topic of comparing myself to someone else). I look forward to finishing A Quiet Heart.
And if you don't have a ton of time to dedicate to another book (if you're like me you are trying to read too many at once), I might suggest finding an essay or a talk on a subject that piques your interest. Here is one that I love, in case you haven't read this before.
Do you have any books that fall under the religious genre/category that you would recommend?
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