By Elizabeth Prata
I’m so glad my parents were readers. My father always had a magazine rack stuffed full of trade and business magazines next to “his chair”. He usually had some kind of business book on the end table next to his char where the lamp was. My mother was always reading a book or another. Usually non-fiction but sometimes nonfiction. In her house there was a floor to ceiling built-in bookcase filled with books. I used to enjoy looking at the titles. James Galsworthy, Leon Uris, Elaine Pagels…
I spent a lot of time at libraries growing up. As a youngster when it was normal to roam the town alone, myself at the historic building that housed our town library, mahogany checkout desk, marble floors, coffered ceilings. Quietude. Then as a teen in the town we moved to, the modern library with the salt water march out back, where I’d take my sister and we’d feed the ducks under the sun and watch the tide go out.
I enjoy reading of course, but I also like everything about books themselves. Inventorying them, looking at their cover design, arranging them, knowing they are there, friends waiting to be met. Worlds to delve into. Possibilities.
A friend was selling off his theological library and opened it up for anyone to purchase one or more books. I’m in.
This is what I got:
I’m really interested in the Decision-making book by Friesen. So many people these days make decisions by claiming to hear directly from God. Another friend sent me a link to a speech by a Mike Donahey. I hadn’t heard of him. He was talking about God’s will for your life.
He was saying that many people ask him “When did you know that being a musician was God’s will for your life?” He said he’d answer that being a musician is NOT God’s will for his life. The questioner was usually shocked at that reply. But he explained that if he got a brain injury and couldn’t write lyrics, or fingers smashed and couldn’t play guitar, or lost his voice and couldn’t sing, “Would I be missing God’s will for my life?”
Donehey said that God’s will isn’t a career choice. It is the “posture of our heart”.
Indeed, we remember the verse from John 6:40, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
It is God’s will that we repent and believe in the Son, who was sent to die for our sins and be imputed with His righteousness.
I know these books will hold many truths and wisdom that I can benefit from, including the interesting looking book “Decision Making & the Will of God“.
But for now, it is time to dig out my scanner and inventory them in LibraryThing, the at-home, free, online book inventorying system.
Have a great long weekend everyone.
the-end-time.org 
Elizabeth,
This is a great post! It bought back good memories of my parents, too. My Dad was always reading but my mom was a “doer” and a “math person”; she loved trading stocks in her elder years after she’d retired from many years as a kindergarten teacher. And the part about “Finding the Will of God”–that’s a question we are often asked, too. It’s a hard one to answer but I like what that musician said.
You always write great posts to make us think and that’s a good thing!
Nancy V
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Thank you so much!!
I remember reading to my little sister. We are 8 1/2 years apart. I read The Hobbit to her, and other books as well. She grew up to be a University Professor, a Kirkus book reviewer, and an avid book reader!
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