A Great Little Book for Little Ones!

Loving the Little Years is a new book that came out the end of November by Rachel Jankovic. I read an excerpt from it and ordered it for my close friend who has 4 children under 8.  Also, I talk with parents of twos all the time - so this book was itching for me to get my hands on it.

Well, my friend  hadn't gotten to it... Gee, I wonder why???? So I asked if I could borrow it for a few days - yes, that does make me an  "Indian-giver". BTW - it's already returned.  ... As I sat with coffee cup in hand and cruised this little 99 page book  I filled several pages of my journal with quotes - 5 1/2 to be exact. A good sermon gets maybe 1, a great one - 2 pages.

Anyway, it's the longest entry this year to date. One of my favorite things about a good book is the "ouch" moments it produces.  In actuality, correction from a book is often a little easier than the face to face variety, although I appreciate both...eventually. 


A few  I jotted down...

Take a moment to remember what used to annoy you when you were single.  Are you done howling with laughter yet?

It is no abstract thing- the state of your heart is the state of your home. 

Now, try thinking of disciple as a different kind of nourishment - a sweet means of grace to your children.  Bring that to the table with a smile and a wink - a means of building up little people...Leave that table refreshed.

A well-controlled passionate personality is a powerful thing.  That is what dangerous women are made of.

These people are you.  Your identity is supposed to be intertwined- that is the way God wrote the story, and it is the way he intends us to read it.

Your virtues are your vices are your virtues.

On being overwhelmed-(Let me just precede this one with an "OUCH!")

You know those pain scales at the hospital , where they rate your pain from one to ten? Well, pretend that you are screaming, "Thirteen, thirteen!  Fourteen!' What that should tell you is that it is time to restart the whole thing, stop screaming, and just deal with the fact this is now the new "one". Start over and accept the new "normal."

You will not even remember the work of all this planting when the harvest of joy overwhelms you.

Loving the Little Years is a great book that deals directly with heart issues, it has great content, it is brief, poignant, funny, and probably most notable for young moms - 5 minute chapters.  Absolutely - loved it.

In fact, this book is so good, it has moved to the top of my recommend list for the parents of young children with Shepherding A Child's Heart (P. Tripp) and Heirs of the Covenant (S. Hunt).