[Book Review] Outlive Your Life

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado was a book I received from Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze book review program. While I have read many other excellent Max Lucado books in the past (Just like Jesus, Cast of Characters...), this was by far the most challenging for me as a reader to go out and DO--to make the most of my life here in a God-glorifying kind of way.

The challenge to me became this: Will the things I spend the time and energy on during my life live on and continue to make a difference after my life is over?

I really did like this book. After reading a handful of Christian Living books, many of them will start to sound the same and redundant. But this one was different. It was inspiring. It made me want to get up and go.

My church (Beltway Park Baptist Church, Abilene TX, also went through a series based off of this book about the same time I received it from Thomas Nelson to review. Each week the congregation would have the opportunity to participate in a weekly ministry specific to the teachings from the week. It gave the church members an opportunity right in front of them to live out the challenges of the book. It was easy! At the conclusion of the series I especially was challenged to find a ministry to make a higher priority in my life and not just half way serve in the ministry but to do it wholly.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are looking for someone to light a fire under you so you will get off your butt and and go do something. I know I need that often, and this is the book that will get you out of your ministry slump. 

Good Morning, Lord 

Sheila Walsh

Being a designer, I admit that I have the tendency to judge a book by its cover and that is why I ordered this book. For a morning devotional, the design is so fresh and welcoming and is a nice start to my day--even as a mid-day devotional. There were a lot of things I really did like about this devotional, although there were a few things I were not too crazy about either. 

What I enjoyed in this devotional: 

-The length of the devotionals were short and sweet (Usually if I allowed myself plenty of time I would read 3-4 devotionals in one sitting)

-The devotionals were informative in some aspect--I always felt like I learned something new when I closed the book

-The daily scripture included in each entry was usually a good verse to focus on throughout the day

-The layout (again, the designer in me is very picky) was attractive and practical

-I was able to relate to just about every entry to some capacity. There were even a few “ah hah!” moments when I knew I was reading exactly what God wanted me to read on that day. 

What I wasn’t too crazy about:

-Who really writes in these devo journals? I don’t... And because I am slightly a perfectionist, I don’t want to write in the book and “mess it up”. My personal preference would be to have the questions listed at the conclusion of the entry and then I would write in my personal journal upon reflecting on the entry. It is thoughtful of her to include the lines, but my personal feelings are that it is just wasting paper because I am under the impression that the majority of those who buy this book are not going to write in it either. 

That’s about it. I would recommend it--especially to those who have a hard time finding time to read or spend in company with God. The length of these devos are ideal for busy women. I will probably pass this on to someone who I think might actually write in it.

Book Review: A Girl's Guide To Life

A Girl's Guide To Life 

Katie Meier

Thomas Nelson Publishers

First of all, let me mention that I am a 20 year old college student with a passion for mentoring the younger generation of female’s--I am not too far ahead of the audience that A Girl’s Guide To Life by Katie Meier was written for. It appears that the target audience this book was written for was the high school girl. However, in my personal opinion this book is written with a voice that is too elementary for this particular audience. 

I read these kinds of books, myself, when I was in high school (self improvement, christian teen advice, spiritual guidance, christian dating...etc.) and I probably would have not read this book as a high school student after reading the preface because it is was just too simple. At that point in my life, I don’t want to be spoken to as if I am hearing about these things for the first time. If I was a 7th grader being introduced to some of this stuff for the first time, this would be a great, simple, easy to read approach to “girl stuff.” In fact, when I was in 7th grade I was actually looking for exactly this kind of book. And for the middle school audience, I would probably rate this book a little higher. 

A Girls Guide To Life offers a thorough look into situations many tween to teenage girls face on a day to day basis. Split into the three parts--mind, body and soul--this book also offers answers many questions about the female body, peer pressure, boys, religion, sex and more. 

I rated this book 3 out of 5 stars primarily because it lacked the maturity for the age it was written more. I will most likely pass this book down to my 12 year old sister who will hopefully use it as a go-to-guide for answers to questions she doesn’t want to ask. It will  surely serve as a great resource for this important time in her life.

By Surprise

Okay, so it’s been awhile. I’ve been busy between projects at the Host Committee and trying to enjoy the summertime. But right now I have plenty of time to catch up--I am actually sitting in the lobby of a Holiday Inn Express in Royse City. I’m pretty sure my car died on Interstate 30 leaving Dallas on my way home to Texarkana. Still not sure what is going on with it, so my wonderful father is coming this way to check it out and get me home. 

I am very grateful, however, that my car died here rather than on 35 or 30 in the middle of downtown Dallas where I left from work. Praise the Lord for a great location for a break down :) After all, in this hotel lobby I’ve got Grey’s Anatomy, a couch, WiFi, and complimentary coffee. 

Work at the Host Committee has been great and productive. I completed redesigning the Power Point presentation for the Speaker’s Bureau, I wrote an article for the June edition of the XLV Volunteer Newsletter, attended a few events and meetings, and I contacted a couple hundred volunteers to help them complete their volunteer registration. Currently, I am researching contact information for many different groups for a project I am working on for a volunteer recruitment initiative. 

To learn more about the XLV Volunteer Program, go to www.northtexassuperbowl.com/volunteers. The volunteer services department is something that I have really enjoyed working with. It is a huge initiative that the department is taking on by trying to gather around 10,000 enthusiastic individuals to essentially be the faces of the Host Committee. It is an exciting opportunity for anyone who is able to get involved in January and February of 2011 in North Texas. 

Well I’m going to put this away and read a little bit. I am currently reading a book by Molly Fletcher titled “Your Dream Job Game Plan.” Great book--If your looking for any kind of career advice, this is the book. Once I have finished reading it I plan to write an in-depth review. 

Until next time, I’ll leave you with a quote from a movie I re-watched last night called Dan In Real Life: “Instead of telling our young people to plan ahead, maybe we should tell them to plan to be surprised.”

Mo

Seizing the Spirit of Adventure

I figure I better go ahead and write before I get sucked into all of the craziness of this week. What is this week, you ask? This week is only one of the most important weeks of the summer--NFL Production Week. Now, I can’t tell you exactly what NFL Production Week is, because I missed the most recent staff meeting about it (and because it doesn’t have its own wikipedia page), but I can tell you that a bunch of important NFL folks are in town this week to discuss and finalize a bunch of important plans. Something like that. There will be a lot of meetings involved, people in and out of the office, conference calls, press events, everyone stressing out and running around like chickens with their heads cut off.... I’m sure you get the idea. 

Tomorrow is a big press event going on at the Cotton Bowl, and I am actually not sure if the reason for the event is public knowledge just yet, but just in case it’s not I’m going to wait until my next blog to tell you what I get to do tomorrow. I’m very excited about being a part of this though!

Also as a part of NFL Production Week, I will get to sit in on a meeting Thursday morning. I don’t know much about the meeting, just that it is one of many meetings going on this week, but I am excited that I have the opportunity to tag alongside a couple of staff members and be involved with this part of the event planning process. 

Current projects: 

Today I cleaned up and finished a feature article that I was asked to write for the volunteer newsletter. I will attach a link on here to a digital version of the newsletter once it is put online. 

I have been asked by the Operations Coordinator to revamp the general Host Committee Speaker’s Bureau power point presentation. Apparently the current presentation was put together by an outside designer who put the content on power point slides from PDF format, so the power point is currently unable to be edited. My job is to design a few different power point templates and backgrounds, and eventually create an entire new power point presentation for the committee. It is a pretty tedious project and will take awhile, but this kind of thing is right up my alley so I believe I will thoroughly enjoy working on this.

Social Media: I have not begun working with the Host Committee’s social media involvement just yet, however I have spoken up and let them know that I have some good ideas in regards to getting more involved via social media. Right now, they have accounts on both Facebook and Twitter, but the posts are irregular and not interactive enough, in my opinion. I want to make the social media sites more interactive and a bigger part of the effort to get the region prepared and excited for what is to come. After this crazy week is over with, I will most likely get to hop on that train and get involved with that. 

That should put you up to speed as far as my internship goes. 

On a different note I feel the need to mention the best thing that has happened to me since sliced bread: Free refill cups at RaceTrac. Yes, I bought a cup at RaceTrac for $6.99 and for the remainder of the summer I can walk into any RaceTrac and fill up my cup with any fountain or frozen drink and walk out without reaching in my pockets. It’s pretty much the greatest thing ever. I thought 75 cent slurpees at QT was a good deal, but I would spend more than $6.99 on slurpees in a 2-3 week time span. Sad, yet true. I like slurpees a lot, and because I made a very wise investment, I will be getting them free all summer long. I know Dave Ramsey would be proud.

City Love

This whole internship thing has really given me a taste of not only the professional life, but also the big city life. 

The mornings go something like this: 

In order to be at my desk by 8:45 a.m., I usually have to wake up around 5:30 a.m. After the taking the shower, drying the hair, fixing the hair, picking out an outfit and getting dressed, I am usually ready to be out of the door by 7:30 a.m. Morning rush hour is not much fun and challenging because it usually requires a certain level of awareness to safely navigate through 15 mph traffic for 30 miles on the interstate. Sometimes I need the blaring music to keep me awake because the lack of excitement in morning traffic fails to do so. Lately, though, I have utilized a few free audiobook downloads that I have found on www.christianaudio.com and will be listening to a few books during my commutes. Right now I am almost finished listening to World Vision President, Richard Stearns’s, book “The Hole In Our Gospel” and it has been a phenomenal book.

I arrive at work and utilize the cool little Keurig coffee maker in the break room, which I contribute to my growing addiction to coffee. A 5:30 a.m. alarm definitely allows for 2 or 3 or 4 cups of coffee when I get to work. Not that it gives me any sort of energy boost, but I know it has the potential to and I love the taste of the Butter Toffee coffee that we have here. 

One thing I really love about this internship, besides the Butter Toffee coffee, is the genuine interest the staff of the Host Committee has for the interns. We’re not just here to take up some slack and run errands at their every command, we are here to be mentored, to be given opportunities, to learn more about the job and the industry in which we are in pursuit of. It is great that they recognize this and want to do all they can to give us a productive and educational internship experience that is relevant to our career goals. Now that I understand that this internship is not just for me to gain experience, but it is for me to also be mentored by other young professionals, I want to utilize these few short months I have with these people. I want to soak in as much as I can. I want to volunteer for as many assignments and projects as I can. Even the phone calls. 

I happen to run a lot of errands--part of the intern job description I suppose. I have driven all over the metroplex making drop offs and pick ups and purchases. I think the most memorable would be the time that I avoided the toll road. Big mistake on my part. Dumb solution on my GPS’s part. Okay, so it’s my fault that I chose to avoid the toll road, but I didn’t realize then that my detour would put me 40 miles out of the way from the original route. Not only that, but my lovely GPS and its detour dropped me off at the parking lot of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a good 15 minutes away from the place that should have been at the finish line. Oh, and did I mention that this was at 8 in the morning? Back to my lesson learned this week: Never avoid the toll roads. It’s not worth it! Especially if the bill is going to Texarkana--then I’ll never see it anyways. (I love you Daddy!) 

Morgan

Oh, and in explanation of the random book reviews peppered throughout my blog, I am part of a program for Thomas Nelson called BookSneeze (www.booksneeze.com) and it is a blogging for books program. They send me a free book, I read it, and then I blog about it! It’s a wonderful situation, being the book enthusiast that I am. With that sad, expect a few book reviews every now and then!

Inspiration

Classic Wisdom for the Professional Life [Bryan Curtis] 

I read this book for a few different reasons: 

1) I love quotes. Who doesn't like a good collection of great poetic wisdom? 

and 

2) I am a young professional. Well, kind of. Does an unpaid internship count? 

Anyways, once I started reading it didn't take me long to get through all of the quotes from cover to cover. It is a great collection of quotes that will have you turning every page when you first pick it up, however, it will make a great book to keep on your desk at work or your computer desk at home. It is full of practical wisdom for not just professionals, but for anyone who has any capacity of a leadership position. The book is full of inspiration and motivation from seasoned and successful professionals. I highly recommend Classic Wisdom for the Professional Life to any quote lover, leadership figure, college student....anyone, really. It makes for a quick and pleasant read and will remain a great resource for professional inspiration. 

One of my favorite quotes from the first time through the book comes from Conrad Hilton: "Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."