Thursday, March 10, 2011

Random-ness and the Books on my Shelf


I often feel so random in my taste. I hate for everything to match--I never buy an outfit that the store puts together (now you understand the way I dress). When I make cards or invitations, I cannot make two exactly alike--even if I really like one--I have to change it up. Even in making my girls’ lunches, I have to change up their chips and snack every day.

Anyway, I was glancing at my bookshelf at work today and was struck by the randomness of the books I have on it. Here are some:

• The Strong Willed Child (hmmm--wonder why I need this one?)
• Grace Walk
• The Divine Conspiracy
• On Being A Servant of God (my favorite book of all time!)
• A Heart Like His
• Go Put Your Strengths to Work
• The Angels Were Silent (No—this is not a book about a day I actually stayed quiet)
• He Loves Me!
• Choosing to Cheat
• God's Front Door
• Strengthsfinder 2.0 (because putting my strengths to work wasn’t enough)
• Making Vision Stick
• Would You Rather? (I have several of these)
• Christian Coaching
• Think Orange (because, honestly, who wants to think fuschia?)
• Living By the Book
• Living Your Strengths
• God Came Near (BEST story of the birth of Christ ever)
• The Great Omission
• Find it Fast in the Bible
• 101 Great Games for Kids
• The Me I Want to Be (my most recently finished book)
• Sacred Marriage
• Belief Matters (written by my pastor)
• Unchristian
• Creating Community
• Bittersweet
• Next Generation Leader
• While Shepherds Watch Their Flock (which I'm reading now)
• The Power of a Praying Wife

Wish I could say I've read all of them, but I'm at about a 60%. As I look over the ones I have finished, I can usually remember the things that were going on in my life when I read it (sometimes I remember that more than the content of the book). Some are fond memories; others remind me of hard things God has brought me through. Some had a big impact, others, not so much—in fact, a few were just a beat-down.

They also remind me of the many facets of my life. God didn’t create me to be just one thing—He created me to be Angel Royal: woman, wife, mom, employee, friend, coach, cheerleader… He gave me the gift of encouraging others at the same time as the gift of discernment.

While I do believe God has a plan, I think he allows randomness to keep us from becoming matchy-matchy. I think He celebrates our eclectic-ness. I mean, who else would make every stinkin snowflake different? Or give us the thousands of different styles of jeans? Or the many different colors of sunsets?

The fact that He loves randomness makes me love Him more…

2 comments:

April said...

I wouldn't say that list is TOO random...about half of them relate to your role at BTBF. But yes, I agree, how boring if everything/one was the same.
Did you dust that shelf before taking a picture?

Angel said...

Nope, no dusting. And yes, many of them deal with work (although I got a lot of them before I ever worked there--pretty funny)--I didn't figure it would look good to have any trashy romance novels in my office :)
Notice that there are almost as many pictures of my girls as there are books