Reading Material

Well, I received some very nice feedback on my blog!  Thank you so much for all of the encouragement!  The saga continues at my "real" job as we dig into all the reports to see what else might be going on with our software.  Suffice it to say, that it's going to be a long road and I'll spare you all the boring accounting details!

So, now on with my quest for Stay-at-Home Mom-ness!  Where do I begin? First, let me share with you that on my blog, I've added some links for Amazon.com.  One is for the Amazon store in general, so if you're going to be purchasing any books, music, etc., you can go straight to Amazon from my blog site.  If you purchase anything, I will earn a small percentage. I find it hard to believe that I can earn money by blogging, but if it gets me closer to my goal, I will certainly give it a shot!  I have also added some links for books, music and dvds that I enjoy, and that can be purchased through Amazon.  The Blog people also include some ads on my site, which are supposed to go along with the general topics on my blog.  If you see anything inappropriate, let me know so I can have them remove it!  Let me also say that, please, please, PLEASE don't buy anything unless you were already planning too!  All I'm saying is that if you go to Amazon from my blog, it will help me out.  Thanks!

I have so many things on my heart to share, and I don't even know where to begin!  I mentioned in my previous blog that I would like to be a writer, and one of the things that I believe that God has placed in my heart is writing for children/tweens/teens.

My family was at a well-know bookstore one day, and I was looking at the choices that our children, and especially teens have for reading.  The children's books aren't too bad, in fact, there are often a lot of the classics available for them to purchase, and my family has enjoyed many of them.  The Anne of Green Gables series is a favorite.  There are a few series of "chapter books" that they also enjoy, and that we don't mind them reading.  But I have noticed that even though these books seem harmless, they all but ignore the existence of God.  There are quite a few board-books, and pre-school level books about God or Heaven, but once the kids start reading on their own, their choices are greatly diminished.

Then I got to the teen section!  I know that the current rage is vampires, but it seemed like ALL that I could see in the teen section was about the occult in general, and vampires specifically.  I make it a practice to steer clear of this type of reading, but I did look at some of the books to see what they were really about.  Sometimes the cover of the book will just be "bait" to lure them in, but the books that I looked at were pretty sensual.  I don't know how far things go in those, but shouldn't we be steering our children AWAY from these things, rather than towards them?  I think that's seed for another day's blogging!

Of course, there's always the the school library.  Yikes!  Children in our area are required to read a certain number of books per quarter and take tests on what they've read.  I think this is a good practice, and our children do well with it.  The list of books that they can read is HUGE, they just have to read at or above their grade level.  They can check out books at the school library or the local library.  However, the kids kept complaining that they couldn't find books at the school library that they were allowed to read.  When we went to an Open House shortly after school started this year, I made it a point to check out the library.  They were right!  Of course, I couldn't look at all of the books, but the most noticeable books were the "popular" books that are everywhere today.  Most of which deal with witchcraft, vampires and various other occult themes.  I was very disappointed. 

Even at the popular Christian bookstore in my area, the choices are limited for kids over the age of six!  Surely there must be quality Christian literature out there for our kids.  We can find things for them to read, that have clear moral lessons, but the choices that deal positively with Christianity, at least from my point of view, seem very limited!

I am starting to feel like this is something that God has put on my heart:  to write short stories or books for children/teens.  I just don't know where to begin!  Even once something is written, how do you get it published?  There are TONS of ads on the web for book publishing, but I suspect that 95% of them are not necessarily legitimate.  Not only that, but I have done some research on some of the current popular titles.  Here's some food for thought:  The titles that "everyone" is reading today are so popular, in part, because the media drove them that way!  It all starts when "they" tell you that "everyone" is reading a certain book, and voila! we all want it!  I'm not saying they aren't well written, or entertaining, but the frenzy gets started because advertising giants tell us that there is a frenzy BEFORE there is one!  My point behind all this is that "someone" determines what gets published, and what becomes popular, and aside from the Left Behind series, a lot of that is NOT Christian (or even Christian-friendly) literature!  So please pray for this endeavor!

If you happen to have some good, clean books that you can recommend for our family to read, please let me know, I would welcome any input!

As I was writing this morning, several Bible verses came to mind:

Philippians 4:8 - "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

1 Thessalonians 5:22 - "Abstain from all appearance of evil."

Ephesians 6:12 - "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

God Bless!