Goals: Reading

I've set a variety of goals for myself and my family for 2012. As I have time, I'll share them with you. One of my goals has to do with reading. I love to read a good book, who doesn't? But with 4 children, a husband, a farm, working 16 hours for the State, homeschooling, laundry, cooking & baking, cleaning (kind of) and a house to make a home, finding the time can be difficult.

I'm going to try to read at least two books a month. One will be an education/informational/motivational book. The other will be non-fiction or an autobiography. The latter type are usually a quick read for me and I can get them done in a couple of days.

For a family goal, we'll be reading aloud The Little House on the Prairie books and doing some activities I found online. We're halfway through The Little House in the Big Woods. We are lucky enough to be reading the books I read when I was young.

We're halfway through the Big Woods book and are enjoying it. I found several activities online. This particular activity on the right is Pa's smokehouse. The kids colored their own tree and then we poured liquid smoke on the opening. I'm sure I'll share more of our activities as we do them.

My book this month is Voddie Bachman's Faith Driven Family. I'm halfway through it and it is great! I heard Mr. Bachman speak at the conference I went to in September. He's very passionate about the cause that faith begins in the family--and not just a "we go to church once a week" type of faith. His seven kids are homeschooled, but this is a book for every Christian family.

The first chapter addresses what is happening in our society and in our churches. Young people in college and even older high school students are not sticking with the faith of their parents for a variety of reasons. Is it because we place to much value on sports? Education? Dating? All of the above? What value are we placing on our children's relationship with the Lord? And what are we teaching them when we don't have this taking first place?

The second chapter addresses "A God with No Rivals." This chapter is packed full of good info but I quote from page 33: "A family without a commitment to the God of the Bible has no hope of stemming the tide of cultural onslaught." In this chapter he also stresses the importance of prioritizing your marriage. This is important when it comes to multigenerational faithfulness.

Chapter 4 was all about our worldview. Many Christians do not believe in absolute truth nor do they look at the world with a Biblical perspective. Sad.

I think this is important to start with kids at a young age. For instance, yes, there were dinosaurs and yes, they roamed the earth. But no, it wasn't billions of years ago. Are dinosaurs or sea monsters mentioned in the Bible? YES! Are the planets billions of years old or created with a big bang? No.

And that's as far as I have read. I do hope to finish it soon, I've been underlining a lot of the best info.

I have already read my non-fiction book. I read Unshaken by Daniel Woolley. I bought this book for my mom for her birthday--and once she's done with it then the book makes the rounds through family and friends. It's a good story about God's goodness to Mr. Woolley, a Compassion International worker who "happened" to be in Haiti at the time of the earthquake 2 years ago. His survival is documented in this story, along with his good-bye letters to his family should he not be resuced (which at one point. . . . well, I don't want to give it away if you haven't read it). He was buried in complete darkness for over 60 hours. His story isn't just about his Haiti experience, either. He has a lot to share about his life in general, too. So, take time to read this one.

I'm not one to list out which book I'll read in February, March, etc. I don't have all of the books I want to read, so I'll have to check the library.