Let. It. Go.

My friend Karen Ehman has just release a book that couldn't be more timely.  Let. It. Go.  How to Stop Running the Show and Start Walking by Faith is here just in time for our biggest potential-freakout holiday, Christmas.

Maybe you feel like you need this book TODAY.  Make sure to leave a comment telling us your most pressing Let. It. Go. situation this week along with your email address.  Your comment will enter you into a contest for a free book (just for my blog readers) and a Kindle Fire for one of the comments left on Karen's blog tour this month.  You can have another chance to win a Kindle Fire if you sign up for the challenge at the bottom of the page!

Here's the scoop on Karen's book:

LET. IT. GO. How to Stop Running the Show & Start Walking in Faith

By Karen Ehman

Foreword by Candace Cameron Bure

Women are wired to control. We make sure the house is clean, the meals prepared, the children are dressed, and everyone gets to where they’re going on time. But sometimes our strength of being conscientious can morph into the weakness of being a slight—or all out—control freak! This humorous, yet spiritually practical book will help you to:

• Take control of your schedule yet welcome interruptions from God
• Draw the line between mothering and micromanaging
• Influence your husband instead of manipulating him
• Learn to control your emotions when you can’t control the circumstances
• Stop pursuing the appearance of perfection and start pursuing the person of God

NOTE: A 6-week teaching dvd and Bible Study guide is also available for group and individual use.

Purchase Link:

http://www.proverbs31.org/store/product/let-it-go/

 What others are saying:

“Especially written for wives and mothers who try to control everyone and everything around them (believe me, I get this!), Let. It. Go.offers solid advice, wise counsel, and a healthy dose of humor. Full of why-to and how-to suggestions, plus helpful tools to measure what needs fixing, Karen Ehman’s book goes right to the heart of the issue: ‘are we trying to be godly or are we trying to be God?’”

Liz Curtis Higgs, author of The Girl’s Still Got It

“If ever there was a book tailor made to hit at the heart of a woman’s struggle with control, this is it. I found myself shaking my head in agreement even though I wouldn’t have classified myself as a control freak.  But boy did I have a lot to learn. Not only does Karen challenge us on this important issue, she equips us to find the peace we crave as we learn to practically “Let It Go.”

Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times Bestselling Author of Made to Crave and Unglued and president of Proverbs 31 Ministries

BONUS: A Free Holiday Resource for You! From Chaos to Calm: The LET. IT. GO. Christmas Challenge

And, you might just win a Kindle Fire for participating!

Give Thanks

Source:  Indulgy

A Cup of Encouragement

I really wish that all of us who meet here could fill up a Starbucks one day and have coffee together!

The next best thing is meeting at my friend Luann Prater's place, Encouragement Cafe.  A few weeks ago, I got the rare and wonderful opportunity to co-host Luann's radio show with her.  Toward the end of our taping time and after several interviews, the show producer said that we needed one more show to fill a spot.  Luann graciously let me pick the topic, so I shared lots of the things that I've been sharing over the last few months.

If you'd like to listen to the radio show, click  here, but please click over to visit Encouragement Cafe even if you don't have time to listen to the whole show.  It's a warm and wonderful place with devotions and encouraging radio shows!

Guest Vlogging Today

I'm so excited to be able to join with Women's Ministry.Net again today!  Please visit by clicking here.

If you're in leadership with women's ministry, you can access the amazing resources on Women's Ministry Net by subscribing and/or receiving their weekly tips.  See you there!

Examined

For weeks and weeks I've been trying to give you little glimpses into the big work that God's doing in my heart.

I have to confess that I feel like I'm in Jacob's wrestling match. My brain is in overdrive trying to take in and process all the lessons I'm learning. Last week, during a walk, I felt that my poor, limited mind was about to spin out of control and out of my head. In the middle of all my striving, God whispered this sweet message into my heart,

"Amy, you are so driven, but I'm not driving you. I'm gently leading you."

Suddenly, my mind stilled and my racing heart slowed. I had been doing my usual thing--working, working, working to grasp God's movement. But all He's calling me to do is to be still and rest in what He's doing.  It's so easy for me to get caught up in doing, but it's so very hard for me to simply and quietly follow God.

I want to dive in and do.

Jesus wants me to wait and listen.

There's a part of me that still wants the list of rules.  "Here's how you do it". "This is what it should look like."

I tend to treat any book that I'm reading like the desired list, but then my life ends up looking like the proverbial wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

I'm trying to back up and simply live an examined life, and in the end, I think that's the place where God is directing me.  Instead of just moving through my days thoughtlessly spending, deciding, working, mothering, loving...God is bringing me to a place of taking a long look at it all and then constantly looking back to Him and asking my Abba Father,

"How do You want me to do this?"

"What do You want this to look like?"

Living an examined life instead of a "normal" life.  That's what I think He's after.