Finally finished a book!

I finished a great book today! This is quite an accomplishment for me since I can't remember the last book I actually read all the way through. That is really sad... Especially since I am a teacher and encourage my students to be lifelong readers! I guess I actually do read all the time. I read tons of childrens' books and books about education. And I did read a potty training book! Those count! I guess the difference is that this is the first book I read that I picked just for me! And I'm sure glad I did!

I read Elisabeth Elliot's book, "Through Gates of Splendor". It was recommended to us as we began planning to follow through with a new life that God has called us to. It was actually the book that was recommended for our parents to read. We bought them each a copy... And they have a ten-page report due by next Friday! :) Not really, but I do hope they, and everyone else, finds the time to read this very moving story.

This story of courage, commitment, and callings follows the lives of five young men and their wives (and some children) as they lived and ministered among native people groups in Ecuador in the 1950's. The amazing element woven throughout their stories is their dedication to doing whatever it took to tell everyone of God's Good News. The author's husband, Jim Elliot, wrote in his journal, "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." That sums up their calling then, and our calling now. I just love how Elisabeth Elliot ends the book. This statement was not only true for them, but is a reminder for all Christians that nothing is about US, but is ALL about God!

"It's not the level of our spirituality that we can depend on. It is God and nothing less than God, for the work is God's and the call is God's and everything is summoned by him and to his purposes, the whole scene, the whole mess, the whole package- our bravery and our cowardace, our love and our selfishness, our strengths and our weaknesses."