Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

It’s probably fairly obvious that I don’t read a lot of church books, since I review all of the books that I read on this blog; it isn’t that I’m not religious, but reading is a relaxing hobby for me (it’s my downtime!), and doctrinal books require a level of concentration that is, by definition, not relaxing. Recently, however, my mother-in-law gave me Sheri Dew’s Amazed by Grace.  It’s incredibly short, and so when I decided to revive an old habit of reading a more faith-related book on Sundays to help set the day apart, it seemed like a good place to start.

Grace, Sister Dew points out, is an infrequently discussed concept in our faith.  (We believe that it is ‘by grace we are saved, after all that we can do,’ and we tend to focus on the doing because that’s more obviously our responsibility.)  The book, therefore, discusses what grace is, as well as how we can receive it and apply it in our lives.  It’s not the easiest book to read, perhaps–she is pithy, and I really did have to concentrate–but I found it incredibly rewarding.  I even highlighted a few passages, and that’s not something I do terribly often.  It is, ultimately, a denominational book, but I think anyone interested in the topic would find it worth his or her time.