Book Review: Do Hard Things

Yes, I realize I’ve been MIA for a few months now.

Okay, like five or six.

Going from a family of five to a family of six, traveling halfway around the world (TWICE), and all the ups and downs of these last many many many weeks and months… all of that will have to wait a bit longer because, honestly, I’m still processing it all.

We are blessed.  That will have to be enough for now.

In the meantime, I have settled to our new normal just enough to crack open a book now and then.  Among my recent reads was a book written by a couple of teenage guys, intended for an audience of teens.

One might expect… well, not much.

One would be gravely mistaken.  And pleasantly surprised.  And encouraged.  And convicted.  And challenged.

In “Do Hard Things” , the Harris brothers recall the origins of the Rebelution movement they started at age sixteen, an internet phenomenon among Christian teens seeking more from their formative years, and through their experience urge their peers — and all of the rest of us, really — to throw off the false bonds of culturally created adolescence and instead use this time to throw themselves into something much bigger.

Want to see it first hand?  Check out The Rebelution online, take a look at Chapter 1, and/or watch this short video about the book.

Filled with a healthy mix of anecdotes and practical advice, “Do Hard Things” is easily readable, with a tone that both relates at the peer level and demands respect.  I cannot imagine a Christian teen reading it and NOT feeling motivated to go beyond the expected.

I was impressed with this book, and have already informed my eight-year old that it will shortly be required reading. I would encourage those of you with teens or one-day-will-be-teens to check it out and do the same.

You won’t regret it.

(I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review)

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An appropriate poem for our today

Drum roll please…

We dropped off our application at the adoption agency this morning.  Despite the numerous obstacles in our path, we threw caution to the wind, put aside all the excuses, and told Satan to back off from God’s plan for our family.

What a beautiful day.  🙂

Much more to come on that momentous occasion… hopefully later tonight (assuming hubby gets a chance to take a look at my post draft).

In the meantime, please enjoy a poem posted today… courtesy of our dear and extraordinarily gifted thespian friend Robert.  It’s as if he wrote it for this very occasion.  Go here to check out some more of his real-man, everyman poetry.  It may just rock your world.

—–

Everything Will Conspire
To Stop You

by ROBERT BRUCE

There are
endless reasons
and ways

You’ve got three kids

You’ve got three teeth

The rent is four months past due

You’re a big hit at the office

She left last week

The engine won’t turn over

You just aren’t feeling it

The terrorist pulls the blade

The wine went bad

Fame arrived too fast

You’ll lose their respect

You’re in the cancer game

The bus turning left, one block north

You’ll do it tomorrow

The doubt, just behind your left ear

Thirty three parking tickets

Out of milk

Never went to college

Went to too much college

The step onto a rotting board

Overs*xed

Unders*xed

Et Cetera

Et Cetera

Et Cetera

Everything will
conspire to stop you

There are
endless reasons
and ways

They are all common
to every man

In the end
you’ve got to
sharpen the steel
and do the thing

Then do it again

No matter the payoff

No matter the beating

You are no different
than any before you

Their blood ran
in the gutter

So will yours

If you want
to finish this race

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Attention Reformed Blogging Mommies!

That sounds strange, perhaps a bit like an AA meeting… let me try that again:

“Attention all blogging mommies who embrace Reformed Theology!”

Better.

I have asked to be a part of Everyday Mommy’s Solamom blogroll (thanks, Mis!).  If you love Jesus, embrace the doctrines of grace, and want to meet and fellowship with other mommas who do, I want to encourage you to join in as well.  This gal has to be cool… after all, she has a Monergism Books button on her site.  🙂  (We know the owners of that store personally… they are beautiful people who helped start our church back in Portland… John is the one who actually initiated Bryan’s “second conversion” to Reformed thinking!)

I am so excited about this new online community!

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Want to know why we want a baby girl?

In case you don’t read the magazine “The Economist”, this week it brought to light yet another reason for us to adopt a baby girl internationally.  Please take a moment to read this article about it.  Here’s an excerpt:

In its lead editorial, the magazine gets right to the essential point: “It is no exaggeration to call this gendercide. Women are missing in the millions–aborted, killed, neglected to death.”

In its detailed and extensive investigative report, the magazine opens its article with chilling force. A baby girl is born in China’s Shandong province. Chinese writer Xinran Xue, present for the birth, then hears a man’s voice respond to the sight of the newborn baby girl. “Useless thing,” he cried in disappointment. The witness then heard a plop in the slops pail. “To my absolute horror, I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail. The midwife must have dropped that tiny baby alive into the slops pail!”  When she tried to intervene she was restrained by police. An older woman simply explained to her, “Doing a baby girl is not a big thing around here.”

I know it’s difficult to imagine, but this IS happening… all around the world, to millions of babies.  Please, please, please pray for the preservation and rescue of these precious little ones… including the one God set aside to be our daughter.  Pray that God will give her birth mother courage to persevere, as well as the inner strength and physical ability to bring her child to a place where she can be cared for until we can get there to safely bring her home.

And please come quickly, Lord Jesus!

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Worthy Reads: Sunday Blog Edition

You know how I said in my first-ever post that anything I could write would pale in comparison to the lovely folks out there in the blogosphere and beyond?  Just in case you didn’t believe me, take a gander at this splendid piece of literary genius.  She’s writing a book, and you’d better put it in your Amazon shopping cart as soon as it’s available for pre-order.  I’m just sayin’.  Girl can write.

Oh, and this encouragement from one of my used-to-be-local-and-hopefully-one-day-she-will-be-again peeps.  That is exactly what I needed to hear today, of all days, for many reasons.  Thanks Joanne.  🙂

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