Some wisdom from Anne Shirley

I’m currently reading Anne of Green Gables, and goodness!, why haven’t I read this book sooner?  Although sometimes I think a book can’t really speak to us until we’re ready for it, whenever that may be. 

 Anyway, I am loving Anne – this eleven-year old passionate, full-of-life-and-wisdom, little girl.

Early in the story the Cuthberts are trying to decide whether to adopt her or not (they were wanting to adopt a boy originally).  Here’s a snippet of their conversation:

“What good would she be to us?”

“We might be some good to her,” said Matthew suddenly and unexpectedly.

Our children are not our slaves.  Their purpose is not to serve us.  We are to serve them, through love and discipleship, through discipline and teaching.  Who knows what God has in store for them?  And He has given us the great privilege of being some good to them.

The rest of these are Anne quotes:

“I’m not in the depths of despair this morning.  I never can be in the morning.  Isn’t it a splendid thing that there are mornings?”  

Totally agree, Anne.  Joy comes in the morning.  Darkness, winter, night – I think those are all things to be thankful for because when the morning does come, it gives us perspective.  We understand that it won’t always be dark, it won’t always be winter.  There is hope.  God won’t always feel far away, we will find Him again.

“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.  Of course, you must make it up firmly.”  

Ahhh, yes.  A good reminder - everything begins with our mindset.  Something that I need to be reminded of often.  (Ahem.)

“There is nothing more to do except to pray and I haven’t much hope that that’ll do much good because, Marilla, I do not believe that God Himself can do very much with such an obstinate person as Mrs. Barry.”

Haha!  This makes me laugh.  But it’s also a sober reminder that God has given us a choice to listen to Him or not.  Just like with our own children – we teach and disciple, but they ultimately have to make the decision to be humble and teachable.

“Saying your prayers isn’t the same thing as praying.”  (I can’t find the exact quote in my book so it may not be exact.)

Yes.

I could keep going, but that’ll do for now.

I’m about halfway through this book, and it’s quickly becoming an all-time favorite.

What have you been reading lately?

January books

I have a goal to read more this year.  Not because I want to say, "Hey, look at how many books I read!" but because I love to read and I'm a homeschooling mom educating her children with real, living books so, um, I should probably educate myself along the way as well.  My reading has been abysmal the last several years and I'm finally ready to remedy that.

Anyways, all that to say that I want to keep track of the books I finish each month, as well as our family read-alouds, as a sort of accountability piece and to just keep track of books.  (And now that I've said that I probably won't post another book post again, because that's what I do when I commit to some blogging thing.  We shall see.)

So here are the books that I finished in January (I finished five, which is like a record for me.  What else am I to do when I nurse a baby several hours each day?)

Persuasion by Jane Austen (own)
This was the first book I read for the back to the classics challenge and I'll have a review posted soon.  I'm probably one of the only people who have never read Persuasion before now (Remember what I said about my abysmal reading?  Okay, I lied.  My reading has been abysmal for probably forever.).

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (kindle)
This is the second book I read for the classics challenge and, again, I'll have a review soon.

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry (library kindle)
This is the second book in The Giver Quartet.  I read The Giver last year and really liked it so I was looking forward to this one.  I was a little disappointed.  It didn't get that interesting until well over halfway and then it just kind of ended.  That being said, it's a quartet, and I'm looking forward to reading the other two books to see how it all fits together.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (own)
I had been wanting to read Lewis' Space Trilogy for awhile and finally got it for Christmas.  It is worthy of its reputation so far (I'm halfway through the second book, Perelandra).  Engaging and, as all Lewis is, makes you think.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (library)
For the first half of the book or so I didn't get what all the fuss was about.  But then toward the end when it all came together, it hit me, and I was very moved.  I think part of its having such an impact on me was because when I read this, I was a little down and I related well to the main character, Meg.  Great book.

Family read-aloud:  The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer by Thornton Burgess (own)
This is the second of Burgess' The Adventures of ... books that we've read.  We love these.  I found a bunch of these at a yard sale last summer, score!  They are such good and wholesome nature stories, teaching about animals and character at the same time.

What did you read?  Anything good?