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The PFY Book Club - 6/12/2008 1:59:46 PM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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Welcome to the Personally for You Book Club Thread!
Please join us as we read and discuss various books, with the ultimate goal being; to become more and more like the One we love and serve; Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Naturally each of us will get different things out of a book, God is working His will in each individual life and we are all in a different place. Please allow others the freedom to share what God is showing them through the books we read. I hope that this will be a place where we can freely discuss, but not debate the content of our book.
At any point in time, anyone is welcome to join us. If you have the book, just read to the point where we are and join in.
I am very excited and I hope this thread will be a huge blessing to all who come in.
~Blessings~
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/12/2008 2:08:28 PM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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Our first book is:
When Women Walk Alone
By Cindi McMenamin
Finding Strength and Hope through the seasons of Life.
Discussions for this book start on Friday June 13th.
We will discuss one chapter per week, starting on Friday and ending on the following Thursday.
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/12/2008 2:39:50 PM
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WalkingwithHim2
Posts: 2436
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Heya Nadine!
I haven't rec'd my book yet but I still hope to join y'all.
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Jesus saves the soul not necessarily the brain
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/12/2008 3:17:39 PM
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uncabeeil
Posts: 5785
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Joisey. Got a problem wit dat?
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Guess us guys will have to wait til you chose a non-gender specific book. I doubt we'd get much out of that particular title.
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Confusion reigns, but it shall be conquered. - Damien Spinelli
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 1:20:58 AM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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Part One:
A Season of Searching
"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:13
Chapter One:
Alone As A Woman
Seeking the Blessing
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 1:49:30 AM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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Father in the name of Jesus I ask Your blessing on our discussions of this book. I pray that you would guide us in all things. I pray that we would bless and blessed. Please help us to be an encouragement to one another. Lord, I pray that each person would glean from the book exactly what you desire them to, and that we will come away from this book knowing that we are never truly alone. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 11:06:34 AM
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Focusing
Posts: 5731
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I loved chapter 1 ... what a wonderful introduction!
The first thing I highlighted in this chapter was the following sentence:
"I've learned not to look for a way out of the desert, but to learn what God wants to teach me while I'm there."
This is something I finally learned only a couple years ago, and it was after going through the same lesson over and over. Oh, it was wrapped up differently each time, but it was the same frustrating lesson at the root. It was only after crying out to God that I was tired of going through this lesson. I had already been there. How come I had to keep going through it?
And God gently told me "It's because you are not understanding the lesson I am teaching you ... I am showing you in so many ways, but you aren't understanding."
Wow!!
So I asked Him "What is it I'm suppose to be learning?" And that's when He showed me. Pointed out the specific lesson I was to understand. Something so simple that I had completely overlooked it.
I went through this process more than a few times, each time with different lessons, and each time I caught on a little quicker ... oh! I need to ask God what it is He is trying to teach me. It has become a little easier each time ... a little quicker to remember to simply go to His feet and ask Him. He is more than happy to help me understand. He is so very patient and kind to me.
So, this was the big lesson I saw in chapter 1: don't be in a hurry to say "okay, I get it" and move along. Because if we don't get what God is showing us, what He desires us to understand, we will find ourselves right back in that desert place wandering around aimlessly.
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13
Amen!
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"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."
Hebrews 12:14
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 11:25:42 AM
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Tinkerbell_
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From: NeverNeverLand
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Psalms 37:4 tells us he will give us the desires of our heart. I always wondered how that worked because if I desire something, won't He give it to me? Then I realised what He was saying; He wants our hearts desire to be His desires for us. When we can put aside our own desires and focus on what He wants for us, He truly will give us what we desire: Him.
My favourite passage is, "The secret to our strength lies not in our circumstances, but in who we meet in spite of them, and what we learn about Him in the process." (emphasis mine)
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 12:25:40 PM
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CoeurdeLeon
Posts: 9069
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From: Inside my head
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Very cool, Sam & Tink! 
I have to admit, I'm having a little trouble identifying with the idea of being 'alone' so far. And I'm only sharing this so that, if I say something really weird in the future, y'all will know where I'm coming from. 
I cannot remember a time when I've ever felt 'alone' and I honestly think it's because I don't have anything to compare to. Or to put it another way, I have absolutely no idea what 'not alone' feels like. I have always been, in one way or another, as I am now so this feels 'normal'. So, if stuff I say doesn't make sense, it's basically because I don't have the same point of reference that other people do.
What Sam shared made me think of something though. I don't know whether it's just the way I'm wired or what but, I learned to stay in the desert a long, long time ago. Sometimes I think I'm just not much of a 'go-getter' or I'm lazy because waiting on God to move is just the way I am. Or maybe I use that as an excuse to cover up that I'm not a 'go-getter'.
Or maybe God mercifully taught me at a young age to prepare me for all the waiting I was going to have to do. I dunno but, either way, it's been more of a blessing than I can say.
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It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
9.7.08
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 2:43:56 PM
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uncabeeil
Posts: 5785
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Joisey. Got a problem wit dat?
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quote:
I thought you were a chick. Hmm, guess I'd better grunt or burp in each post to avoid that kind of confusion. FYI, the handle is how my niece used to pronounce my name, "Uncle Bill" = uncabeeil. And the post was made in jest, not as a complaint, in case anybody misunderstands.
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Confusion reigns, but it shall be conquered. - Damien Spinelli
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 5:09:50 PM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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I bought this book one day while I was walking through the grocery store. I saw the title as I walked by, and I just picked it up and bought it. I had just (a couple weeks before) been told by John’s Doctor that he was terminal and had very little time left. One word kept reverberating in my mind over and over again. Alone. I am going to be alone. I have my kids of course, but I had never in my life been alone. I grew up in a family with 5 kids, 4 of us girls. We had one bathroom until I was 14. Believe me, I was never alone. I went straight from my parent’s house to my husband’s home after we got married. I never had my own apartment, never went off to college and lived in a dorm. Never have I lived independent of another individual, until now. I started reading the book right away, I was not alone yet, but I knew it was coming. I read the preface and the first chapter and decided the book was not for me. I honestly do not remember why. So after John died I packed it up with the rest of my books and moved. Almost a year later, I walked into the garage to grab a few things, to put in my Mother-in-laws garage sale, that I had put together for her and I saw this book. I slapped a 1.00 sticker on it and set it out on one of the tables. At the end of the day, I put all of the things that I had brought that did not sell into a box in the back of my trunk. The next day, I got stuck somewhere for a couple of hours and I sat there wishing I had something to read when I remembered the box in the trunk. I pulled out this book and I began to read.
< Message edited by WaitingforBoaz -- 6/13/2008 5:18:48 PM >
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 5:32:35 PM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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So much had happened since that day I bought, and subsequently rejected this book. I was now alone, and had been for almost a year, and I felt it in every cell in my body. As soon as I started reading this book again, I realized that what the author was telling me was the truth and truth that I need to hear, right then, at that preordained moment.
Fritz may remember me asking her the question, did you ever hear the truth and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is the truth, but you did not want to hear it. That had never happened to me before. I love truth. I rejoice in the truth, usually. This time I did not, but I knew that I needed to hear it and I knew that it was timely and I knew that it was God. I was so angry at myself for not wanting to immediately embrace the truth, that I decided right then that I would need some accountability for reading this book. So I thought of you all, my friends who also walk “alone”. Thank you for joining me in reading this book. It means more to me than you will ever know.
_____________________________
F = False
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A = Appearing
R = Real
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/13/2008 5:34:22 PM
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CoeurdeLeon
Posts: 9069
Joined: 9/4/2005
From: Inside my head
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I remember. {{{{Nadine}}}}
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It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
9.7.08
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/14/2008 10:59:13 AM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: CoeurdeLeon
Very cool, Sam & Tink!
I have to admit, I'm having a little trouble identifying with the idea of being 'alone' so far. And I'm only sharing this so that, if I say something really weird in the future, y'all will know where I'm coming from.
I cannot remember a time when I've ever felt 'alone' and I honestly think it's because I don't have anything to compare to. Or to put it another way, I have absolutely no idea what 'not alone' feels like. I have always been, in one way or another, as I am now so this feels 'normal'. So, if stuff I say doesn't make sense, it's basically because I don't have the same point of reference that other people do.
What Sam shared made me think of something though. I don't know whether it's just the way I'm wired or what but, I learned to stay in the desert a long, long time ago. Sometimes I think I'm just not much of a 'go-getter' or I'm lazy because waiting on God to move is just the way I am. Or maybe I use that as an excuse to cover up that I'm not a 'go-getter'.
Or maybe God mercifully taught me at a young age to prepare me for all the waiting I was going to have to do. I dunno but, either way, it's been more of a blessing than I can say.
We are wired to avoid pain and discomfort. When we touch something hot we pull away quickly and avoid ever doing that again. The first time I went through the desert place, my main focus was getting out, at any cost. The amazing thing to me now is that he will let us out of the desert sometimes, but, he always brings us back to the same place later. Sometimes over and over again.  Whatever it is he wants to teach us at that time is so important to Him that He will make sure that we get it, however long it takes. I think the most important thing I have learned as a Christian is that the desert stops being so painful once we focus all of our attention on God and whatever it is that He is trying to teach us. This is usually where I grow and change the most. Really the times of refreshing after the desert are almost worth the times in the desert.
Fritz I think the differences in our experiences will make these discussions really interesting. You having always been "alone" and me having never been "alone" (until now)
 I think that I should clearify that when I say alone, I am referring to not having another human in my life. The aloneness does not refer to Spiritual aloneness, hence the quotes on the word "alone".
_____________________________
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/14/2008 11:19:50 AM
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WaitingforBoaz
Posts: 3621
Joined: 2/11/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Tinkerbell_
Psalms 37:4 tells us he will give us the desires of our heart. I always wondered how that worked because if I desire something, won't He give it to me? Then I realised what He was saying; He wants our hearts desire to be His desires for us. When we can put aside our own desires and focus on what He wants for us, He truly will give us what we desire: Him.
So true Tink.
Was my hearts desire for my husband to stay here on Earth with me. Absolutely. However, even more than that, my truest, hearts desire is to walk in Gods will, His desires. Feeling that way has actually allowed me to feel excitement for the future, even though I am only one year out from Johns death.
_____________________________
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RE: The PFY Book Club - 6/14/2008 11:48:52 AM
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collie1
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Joined: 3/5/2007
From: The Place to Go: Idaho!!
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Chapter one was a great reminder for me that God has a purpose for my life, He has not given up on me because of my failures.
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