Investing Wisely in Your Most Intimate Relationship

How This Book Came About

This book came about through my desire to see more growth and richness in my spirituality and relationship with the Lord Jesus and to share it with others.  As a young person growing up in a devout Christian home around a mom who practiced as much as she preached, I witnessed a life of piety that many of my generation and the ones behind me did not have the blessing of sharing.  My sisters and brother discovered this too, as we opened our home-made double-decker sandwiches, thickly stuffed with chicken, tuna or whatever Mom could find, and a handwritten Bible verse on perfectly cut notebook paper tucked right in between the 3 bread layers.  Our elementary school lunch mates always wanted to know what these verses said.  They were unusual “fortune cookies” or buried treasure to them.  The same thing happened with “care” packages sent to me in college and far away in my first job.  In my mother, I witnessed a woman who actually “prayed without ceasing”.  I used to wonder, as did the grandkids in future years, to whom Mom was talking and listening.  She would answer us all with a smile, “the Lord”.  We saw her rising at 5:00 a.m. in the morning to be with her Bible, taking copious notes, writing in the margins with a hymnal near by and thought her habit was intriguing.  Then there were the journals in which she kept life-notes and the prayer meetings she hosted at our house.  I also sometimes attended such meetings at the homes of others, with her and Dad.  Sometimes they took us to Bible studies at a church whose religion we didn’t even belong to, but which was led by an outstanding teacher.  This was a great shepherd, teacher of preachers, who handed out one page of outlined typed notes each time.  He always started out the packed, small church Bible study with worship and the song:  “None but the righteous (repeated 3 times), shall see God”, sung in the old Black Southern worship style.

 It was these and more such traditions that I found peculiar to our family that have helped me in my spiritual growth and foundation.  They also kept me from some dangerous choices.  My interest was peaked as to how people like my mom, the spiritual elders, and great saints became their confident, simple living, seemingly unruffled, at peace, trusting-God selves.

 How did such a group of real people of faith whom I have consistently been drawn to over the years, do this?  All of them seemed to have busy lives, involved with activities either in the neighborhood or community and who spent quality time raising their children or with relatives and friends.  They still maintained life styles that included quality time with God, not allowing this time to be choked out by other activities.  I saw and have experienced people who lived a life walking in and with the Holy Spirit, in everyday, humble (and sometimes classy) neighborhood surroundings.  It was attractive. Some of their secrets I discovered from watching my mother and others with similar life habits, hanging around these people who seemed to me to be giants of the faith, and reading rich Christian books.

As a person living in an urban environment with a “Martha” active personality, I have found it more and more difficult to live the type of life which these afore mentioned busy but focused listeners-to-the-Spirit pursued.  Moreover, I have found more and more Christians who do not even know how to live a life of peace, not assimilating into the mainstream of secular society norms.  This spiritual growth notebook is dedicated to all those in the quest of “the holy,” but living in the mundane, busy, rat-race world.  I’ll try to clearly share with you - who want to be more focused in growth, enjoy living your faith more, and grow up more quickly in the most intimate of relationships - a few of the practices I found which helped me along the way as a teenager, a young adult, a single adult and as a married person. 

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Softcover

£7.00