You are Captivating

It is with great pleasure that I announce that I have finished the book Captivating!! Can I just say that I LOVED IT! I have owned this book for a few years and had never gotten around to reading it. In fact, I gave it to a friend of mine to read because I just couldn't seem to carve out the time to make it happen. As I've thought about it, however, our God is not a God of chance but he is a divine God who appointed this as the time to read the book. Let me explain a little bit...

At the end of last year one of my friends told me about a young mother's group that she had been a part of. She often told stories and it seemed to be a real encouragement to her. Back in January I got the chance to be a part of the group. I signed up hoping to gain some more wisdom on parenting only to find that the focus of the spring study was on the Hope curriculum. I was a little bit like "man I really needed some advice about parenting, but ok Lord you brought me here for a reason." As soon as I left the first meeting the reason became clear. As the leader told us (forgive the paraphrase), we cannot be all that God wants us to be as mothers until we are all that we are all that He wants us to be in Him. Hope is a program at our church that helps people deal with times of crisis. The curriculum leads you through a course of digging out what's in your past, identifying those things and replacing them with truth. I can sum it up by saying that it teaches you to have freedom in Christ through abiding in His spirit daily. It has transformed the way I look at things. Anytime I find an emotion rising up in me I start asking and digging as to why it's there and the Lord has been so faithful to reveal it.

So our time together came to a close and the mom's group is taking a break for the summer. I found myself in a conversation back at the beginning of May. In fact it was May 3rd. I was talking about keeping the idea of boys (chasing them, boyfriends etc.) away from my daughter as long as possible (yes I know she's only 4). I wondered though how far was too far. No princess movies included?? A single friend at church heard me talking and asked if I'd read Captivating and I told her that I owned it but never read it. She encouraged me to blow off the dust and read it :-) in light of what she'd just heard me talking about. She had just returned from a Captivating retreat and felt that it would be a great read for me. She, in fact, reads it every year and now I know why!

Off I go to my house to start the book and I can't find it anywhere! Well I remembered that I had given it to a friend which left me without a book. As you've read, I love a bargain and I was struggling to pay 16 bucks for the book again. The next morning I remembered that a volunteer had given me a gift card to Borders for 5 dollars. The funny part is that she gave it to me 2 Christmases ago and I hadn't used it because there isn't a Borders close to my house. So I pulled out the card and on the back I see that I can use it at Waldenbooks which is in the mall only 5 minutes away from me! I called them and guess what!!?? The clerk told me we have 2 soft copies for 16 dollars but we also have 2 hard copies of the book for 4.95 in the bargain bin. Our God is so personal isn't he! So off I went to get my book for FREE.

I couldn't wait to dive into this book! Reading through that book was a spiritual peak for me. It hit me right where I needed. I don't want to give much more detail than this: You, as a woman, are captivating. God thinks you are captivating and He designed you to show His beauty to the world. What an awesome responsibility we have!! To show his beauty to our husbands, friends, children, ministry, work etc. The cool thing is the book nearly parallels the Hope curriculum that I went through. My last point about the book is this: When I read the final pages I cried, nearly sobbed. I was filled with so much hope and purpose. My husband looked over at me and asked if everything was ok. I just smiled and said..it's the book again (I practically read it to him).

Please please please read this book. It has the power to transform your life if you are willing to do the work. I pray that it will cross your path at just the appointed time. Our sweet, personal and loving Heavenly Father has a way of doing just that.