24/6 (Book Review)

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

It's the only commandment that beings with the word remember - almost as if God knew we would forget.

Well, guess what?

We did. 

 So says Dr. Matthew Sleeth on his book 24/6: A prescription for a healthier, happier life. And he's right.

I knew I agreed with the premise of his book before I picked it up. I've actually been trying to more actively keep the Sabbath - to set aside one whole day a week and rest (some weeks that is Saturday, some weeks that is Sunday, but I try to make one of those days happen a week). Total break. No doing housework or anything like that. Even hobby stuff is taboo if its going to be tiring.

When God created the world, he "created [everything] out of nothing, but on the morning of the seventh day, God makes nothing out of something. Rest is brought into being." (pg 23)

I'd never thought of that.

Who spoke the light into shining and the earth into spinning and the creeping, crawling things into crawling? God! How? That's not the point. Imagine an infinite God creating for six infinitely glorious days, and then on the seventh day he rests. We don't know the details. ...

The point is that something very important about the character of God is revealed on the seventh day: God stops.

Stopping is a problem for humans. We get a comfortable house, and then we want a bigger one. We get enough to eat and then we want more.

God doesn't need to rest after creating the universe because he's tired. He rests because he is holy, and everything that God does is holy. God rests. God is holy. Therefore, rest is holy. It's simple math.

Rest shows us who God is. He has restraint. Restraint is refraining from doing everything that one has the power to do. We must never mistake God's restraint for weakness. The opposite is true. God shows restraint; therefore, restraint is holy. (pg 32-33)

Resting. Restraint from work. Holy. It's true, but I'd never thought of that before.

When I began to take one day off every week, I was not a follower of Christ. Yet I found a spiritual benefit. I wanted to share the wonderful aspects of the day with the people I worked with in the hospital. I found that we were  great about listening to one another's tales of woe, over-work, purchases, action-packed vacations, and failing marriages, but we didn't have the language to talk about quiet, relaxation, love, and rest. The church often shies away from these topics as well. (pg 165)

You know, it's true - when was the last time we asked someone else what they did to relax that weekend? But look - even there "what did you DO to relax" - we're wired to constantly think in the active state. What about were you able to relax? Are we comfortable even thinking about just resting?

Many people describe a feeling of dread and anxiety when they think about spending time in quiet or alone. ... they experience boredom. ...

I believe the negative emotions and feelings we experience when we come to a stop are a barometer of our comfort with God. Are we truly bored by being alone with God in the midst of his glorious creation? Perhaps it is not God, the times, or the world that are boring. Maybe it is us. (pg 167)

Maybe never resting makes us boring - makes us unable to appreciate the interesting world we live in. We are made to be intimate with God, and the Sabbath helps to facilitate that. God set the example for us to rest and told us to follow that example. I believe this is something we should try and reclaim. Not to be legalistic about it as the Pharisees were, but to get back to what God said about the Sabbath, and not what man thinks...or is currently popular.

I don't agree with everything Dr. Sleeth says in his book, but I think the heart of the book is spot on, and he does make some excellent points.

I also really enjoyed his stories from his time in the OR and ER (don't worry, they're not gross). I found them very relatable and kept relating them back to stories my sister tells (she's an OR nurse). If you don't know that kindof background, though, his stories stand illustratively on their own. 

I think this is a book that many need to read. If people take it heart, it could honestly revolutionize our culture.

I read this book as a part of the Tyndale Summer Reading Program (which I explain in detail along with the  TyndaleRewards.com program here, if you are interested in signing up for Tyndale Rewards, you can do so here.) This post does contain my affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I may receive compensation for referring business. Thank you for your support! All opinions are my own.

Book Review: The Judge by Randy Singer

The Judge is a difficult book for me to review because it was pleasant, but it wasn't a stand-out novel, or, on the other hand, something atrocious I would never recommend.

I was not bored while reading the book (very important!) and it certainly wasn't a drudgery to keep reading. Singer kept me actively engaged in the story, and I read it without taking many breaks. Even though I read it more or less straight through, I wasn't left anxiously wondering what happened next - as I usually am with books of this nature.

Honestly, though, that could be me being in pregnancy brain fog where I just don't engage anymore than necessary because I don't have the brain power right now.

I enjoyed the integration of fiction mystery with some defense of Christianity. It was a little weird for me though with all of the modern pop culture references ... can you tell I usually stick to reading the classics and don't frequently venture into modern fiction?

I thought the book was tastefully written, and I don't have any qualms about recommending this book for others to read. I didn't get wrapped up in trying to decipher the codes in the book (as I would have at an earlier time in my life), but that certainly didn't detract from the book. I think it awesome that if people want to try and figure out the codes in the book they have that option because Singer wrote the book The Cross Examination of Jesus Christ which contains the codes in The Judge. One word of warning though - this book was previously published as The Cross Examination of Oliver Finney, so don't think that this is a brand-new Singer book.

I read this book as a part of the Tyndale Summer Reading Program (which I explain in detail along with the  TyndaleRewards.com program here, if you are interested in signing up for Tyndale Rewards, you can do so here.) This post may contain affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I may receive compensation for referring business. All opinions are my own. Thank you for your support!

The Dopple Ganger Chronicles

The Dopple Ganger Chronicles is (currently) a three book series following the troublemaking Dopple twins and their friend Erik on happenstance adventures.

I chose these books to read as a part of the Tyndale Summer Reading Program because I was intrigued by the style of the books. These books are intended to help the reluctant reader learn to enjoy reading.

Some pages look like what you'd expect in a normal book, but those pages are not the norm. Here is a sample of what is more typical in this series:

Well, I thought it was a great idea - part graphic novel, part regular novel...but how was the content?

Book 1: The First Escape

I was less than impressed with this book. While I loved the concept of the book layout (as sampled above), I did not like the fact that the Dopples were troublemakers who bullied their fellow orphans, and the only punishment they ever received was extreme, unjust, and from cruel headmistress.

Shouldn't we be teaching children how they ought to behave instead of giving them examples of bad behavior never handled appropriately? Where were the Christian values (after all, Tyndale is a Christian publishing company)?

It was also a strange book with a seance and creepy talking puppets. Thankfully, the hoax of it all is explained in the book, but it is not something I would want my young child to read. There is the unexplained very strange Madame Raphael (for whom more explanation is given in later books, but some things are just odd).

Also, the "mystery" wasn't what I expected. The book tells a story, but there's not much wondering whodunnit, or whosegonnadoit. Given the mixed style of the narrative, the book is much thinner than it appears (meaning the 200 some pages goes by fast). Overall, this is my least favorite of the DG Chronicles thus far.

Book 2: The Secret of Indigo Moon

My concerns about the twin's character, lack of showing what a family ought to be, and unfit punishment all remain for this second installment of the Dopple Ganger Chronicles.

There is more of a mystery feel to this book, but the storyline is not complicated. NOTE: I do not expect a complex story line for these books, I recognize they are aimed at reluctant readers. They are, however, marketed for youth/young adult, and I feel the story line level is more suited to children in elementary school. Of course, older children could also enjoy these books - especially if they are not used to reading in the first place.

Madame Raphael continues to raise questions (it's stated in this book that she is probably an angel) - and while she talks of The Companion, the kids don't know The Companion, and pray to her in times of trouble. Even though Madame Raphael tells them to pray to The Companion, I think children are more likely to follow the characters lead, which is to pray to the angel (concerning).

Book 3: The Great Mogul Diamond

This book is my favorite thus far in the Chronicles. 1. Because most of my concerns from the previous two books are not present 2. Because we actually start learning more about The Companion and 3. There are ethical/moral questions raised that I think are good for  youth to think about (like - is stealing ok to save someones life?)

Because of what G.P. Taylor did in this book, I'm reserving judgement for the series. I understand that he's probably trying to reach a broader-than-Christian audience and so slowly introducing Christian ideas into the series is likely to be more effective than jumping in midstream. If future books show continued character development and if they accurately incorporate Christian theology then I think this has the potential to be groundbreaking - and not just in terms of the illustronovella, which already is innovative and groundbreaking.

So I have mixed feelings about the Chronicles. My initial reaction to the first two books is tempered by the improved third book. One thing I would recommend for certain: read them in order. Otherwise, you're very likely to be lost.

I read all three books as a part of the Tyndale Summer Reading Program (which I explain in detail along with the  TyndaleRewards.com program here, if you are interested in signing up for Tyndale Rewards, you can do so here.) This post may contain affiliate links. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I may receive compensation for referring business. All opinions are my own. Thank you for your support!

Summer Reading Program (Earn Free Books!)

I'm excited to participate in the Summer Reading Program that Tyndale Publishers is doing this summer! The program runs from June to August. Basically, you read books from their list, post a review (on your blog, on Amazon, ChristianBooks, etc) log the link to your review on their website, and after you do that with 5 books, you earn 1 book for free!

They don't provide free copies of the books you'll read to you, but you can find a lot of them through your library. Of course, if you wanted to, you could always buy the book (personally, I'm sticking with the free route *grin*).

I don't really branch out much in what I read (even though I read a lot) so this is good incentive for me to broaden my horizons a little bit. The really sweet part of the deal if that you can also sign up for Tyndale's Reward program where you take surveys, post reviews, etc to ... you guessed it - earn points that can be redeemed for free Bibles and certain books! Woop!

If you sign up through my referral link, they'll even start you out with 25 points, just for signing up. Books available to redeem change over time, and right now they range from 35 points to 200 points necessary for redemption.

If you participate in the Summer Reading Program, you can link those same reviews to your Tyndale Rewards account ... same amount of work, twice the reward. Sign me up, please!


Full disclosure: The link to the TyndaleRewards.com in the above post is my referral link. You receive 25 points for signing up through it, and I receive 10 points for referring you. My opinions are my own.

Sweepstakes and Freebies

I don't want to fill up the blog with short term offers, but I want to let you know about these offers if you love signing up and giving it a go like I do! Twitter seems like the best vehicle for that. So, if you're interested in finding out about sweepstakes, giveaways, and freebies you can follow me on Twitter @seeking4wisdom

Don't worry, I'm not constantly tweeting ... after all, I do have a life offline *grin*

Theology of the Home - made practical

Two weeks ago, I talked about why we ought to care about how our homes look. I challenged you to think about how our homes speak about what we believe about God. And I told you that I'd be back to share my thoughts on how we can move from chaos to order in the home.

I've been following Crystal over on MoneySavingMom.com for many years. I've thought it was great how she would challenge her readers to tackle particular projects in their homes - deep cleaning, surface cleaning, busting clutter, etc. The problem for me was that I was working a full-time job and didn't have time to do what she laid out every day. Even though she had an option that didn't require as much time, I was busy cooking supper as soon as I came home from work, and after that it was time for bed. And we were hardly ever home on the weekends.

You'd think with most of our life existing outside the home, that our home would be the pristine picture of perfect. Far from it. And it drove me and my husband nuts, but we just "couldn't find the time" to tackle it.

Then, I somehow stumbled across this post on The Prudent Pantry. I don't think she said anything that I hadn't heard elsewhere, but sometimes we just need to hear it said a particular way in a particular moment.

I walked away from reading her post with the outline of a plan in my head. I talked with my husband about it and he agreed that we could give it a try.

My takeaway? Make a list of everything that needs to done in the house. Not because you plan on getting it all done at once, but so you can make a gameplan.

My husband and I actually had a weekend at home, and we decided to make it count. After making a list of everything that needed to be accomplished, things already looked less intimidating. We decided that we would work in hour long increments, followed by an hour long break. We would tackle two increments on Saturday and three on Sunday.

A 1:1 ratio of work and break. That's not bad at all. That idea was my husband's, I thought it was excessive ahead of time, but it worked out great by helping us not get overwhelmed and be able to rest and recover (particularly needed for this pregnant momma!) If we had bitten off more than we could chew we likely would've been discouraged, and our task would have been left incomplete.

We had the total list, we knew our time schedule. Next, we decided what we would tackle when.

We went about this in two ways: if there was an area that either one of us felt was a "problem area" (aka it really stressed us out that it was a mess) it was given high priority and put into the game plan first. That doesn't mean it necessary was taken care of in the first increment, but that everything else scheduled into that increment was placed there around the high priority item.

The other way we decided what to schedule was by asking ourselves (1)what would show the biggest impact to the overall appearance of our apartment, and (2)what needed to be taken care of so we could have access to other items on the list?

This is going to look different for each person depending on the layout of your home, and what kind of a mess you have. How much you can fit into an increment also depends on how many people are working on cleaning up, and how many people contributed to the mess to begin with. eg, do you have three children, but only you and your spouse are cleaning up? If so, are the children in the house while you clean, or are they out of the house with friends and family? Is your sister coming over to help you tackle the mess? Talk about these things before you get started so you aren't blind-sided and can make the most efficient decisions to kick-start your way to clean.

After we had mapped everything out, we set the timer for 60 minutes and went to it. Don't be surprised to find the timer beeping and you still carry forward with momentum for a few extra minutes to wrap something up. I would encourage you not to count your momentum as a part of your break time, though. Make sure you give yourself the full amount of your break time for a break.

You just worked hard for your increment. You need to re-energize before tackling the next one. Enjoy looking at what you just accomplished. Watch a TV show, read a book, take a cat nap. Rest. Then move forward.

This is what our increment list looked like:
(Sa=Saturday, Su=Sunday. I1, I2, etc = Increment 1, 2, etc)

SaI1:
-- Clean off the bar (and take care of the box behind the bar)
-- Put away piles under the bar
-- Put away piles in front of the TV

SaI2:
-- Clean stack beside both sides of the couch
-- Clean the stacks of paper off the futon and file
-- Clean off the balcony and clean out the 5 gal buckets
-- Take the "garage" stuff to the "garage" area

SuI1:
-- Take care of jewelry/straighten dresser/put away purchased gifts
-- Clean off desk
-- Clean the entryway to the bedroom

SuI2:
-- Clean up all the gift-wrapping stuff, put away neatly
-- Clean off 2nd desk
-- Shred box of paper

SuI3:
-- Go through two boxes (filled with misc stuff) and shred/trash/donate/put away

Su1/2I:
-- Review/walk-through
-- Vacuum

Hubby also had an extra increment to deep clean the bathroom, and I had "an extra increment" but it was broken up because I had to start, switch over, and fold laundry.


We didn't get everything done from our Master list, but we actually knocked out most of it. What we didn't get accomplished over that weekend, we listed out and decided that we would tackle in half-increments (for us this means we set the timer for half an hour) when we got home from work each day. We would also maintain what we had accomplished. It's much easier to put your jacket up at the end of the day if there's not already a stack of jackets to add to, to put your jewelry in the proper container if your dresser isn't littered with the stuff. It's much less stressful, and really doesn't take that much time.

Have we actually tackled a half-increment every night? Of course not. Life happens. But we have maintained our new order. And we have checked a few more things off the master list.

It's freeing, really. We know exactly what needs to be taken care of, and we're much, much less stressed now that things are mostly in order. We get irritated with each other less, we smile more, and our schedule is more flexible to let friends or family pop over last minute without feeling like we need to hide a ton of stuff or be embarrassed at the state of our home. (or set out the vacuum to make it look like you were just about to get to cleaning - you know what I'm talking about! ;-) ) We're happier now. Sure it sounds strange, but it's true.

Of course we still have work to do, but we are actively working on aligning our home in God's order. God sees your efforts and smiles. You might not be able to dedicate an entire weekend to kick-start your clean, but you can do something.

Maybe you have 20 minutes while your kids take a nap to clean your bedroom, or to fold the laundry that's been sitting in the basket and put it away. Do what you can to convert your home from reflecting Satan's chaos to showing God's order.

What steps have you/can you take to creating and establishing order and cleanliness in your home?

Movie Review Rating System

I think it's high time that I gave an explanation for how I rate movies.


We're all familiar with the 5-star system, but I meet with objections over the low stars that I frequently give movies...even if I enjoyed the film! So I thought it would be helpful to give an explanation. After all, if you don't understand my philosophy behind the stars, telling you how many I give a movie won't be helpful.

I have observed that the standard course of action is to start a grade at the top. E.g., you begin with 100 points on a test and whenever you get a question incorrect, points are deducted from your grade. If you get every question on a test wrong, you will not have a zero. You will have a failing grade, but you will likely have a grade that rests in the 50s.

A grade of 50 (out of 100) ought to indicate that you correctly answered - that you know half of the material. Instead, it means you learned nothing?

Another example. I used to judge debates, seeing the problems with the aforementioned system, I determined I would start every debater with 3 stars in rating their effectiveness. (There were several components to this.) I figured: 3 out of 5 stars is an average presentation and argument, if I start them there they can earn additional points, or lose points. I thought to myself - at least then, the stand out debaters will shine in their ratings, instead of being lost in the crowd of average speakers who didn't do anything wrong, but weren't stellar.

After each debate we rated, remarked, and moved on. The sheets were turned in, and there was no changing our ratings or comments. But this system still had problems - the folks who did better than average, did a pretty good job, got high marks ... and then came the one or two that really stood out in excellence. I was forced to give them the same ranking as the pretty-goods. I couldn't give them more than 5 stars.

It was shortly after this experience that I decided everyone should start with nothing and that ever star would have to be earned. In judging, there are sometimes those who really bomb and you can't give them worse than one star, so it's not perfect. With movies, I can definitely give less than one star. So far, I've only done that once. I hope I don't have to again.

The movie market is seemingly flooded with 4 and 5 star movies. If there are really that many that are that good then the scale should be adjusted. In the time to date that I have been reviewing movies on my blog, I have never given out a 5 star review. I have given out 4 star reviews (3 of them), and 3 placed somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. 3 have 3 stars, and 3 are between 2 and 3 stars. (If you're counting, that's a total of 12 movies that rate higher than a 2.0. Out of 25 films.)

13 of the 25 movies I have reviewed through yesterday have earned 2 stars or less from me. Only 6 have earned higher than a 3.0.

Am I a harsh critic? Maybe. But if you take a look, I enjoyed a number of those movies, and have seen most of them more than once. But just because I enjoy a movie doesn't mean that it is superb. Art doesn't have to be a Michelangelo for it to be appreciated (otherwise my home decor is in trouble!).

Also, just because a movie receives a higher rating, doesn't mean that I'll desire to watch it more. It means that it met certain criteria or exceeded expectations elsewhere. Iron Man 3 ties for the 2nd highest ranking of any movie I've reviewed to date (3.75). That does not mean I want to see it a lot. I'm just not that into action, but it delivered in fantastic dialogue and strong development.

Each movie is unique. As much as possible, each movie is evaluated on its own merit. If the stars I assign to a film aren't helpful to you - skip them. I don't mind. Just don't think of a 3 as an average C. Realize instead that, right now, it's in the top third of the class.

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