Dancing With My Father

I've gotta admit I have been in a bit of a spiritual strange place for the past year. After almost 6 years of being consumed with youth ministry, and other church ministry my quiet time has been kind of bizarre. I have felt so much of my spiritual connection with God through my times of lesson planning for ministry - I felt God speaking to me and moving through me in that venue. But now ...I've felt odd with that huge piece of my spiritual life missing.

I've muddled through it -and I see now that it is a good thing. I need to be able to relate to God -kind of just He and I. But, wow did this book Dancing With My Father by author and speaker Sally Clarkson really speak to me! How timely it has been for me! I've just got to quote some of it to you...(I've got like 20 pages dog-eared). This kind of sets up the author's quest throughout the book - and these are certainly feelings many of us feel.

"When I first fell in love with the "Lord, I was so much happier. I was willing to read my Bible for hours, hungering for understanding and truth, discussing into the wee hours of night with my college friends the wonderful truths I had never heard before. Praying fervently and eagerly awaiting miracles was the call of my heart. Enthusiastically I would foray into the lives of strangers, eager to tell them about his redemption and grace... My whole life was genuinely wrapped up in God, not in a religious ritual but in an excited, passionate, grateful, purposeful way.

That was the place I had left, the place from where I had fallen. Since then, mundane duty had propelled me forward through the many corridors of my life. Yes, I'd enjoyed occasional waves of excitement and a heart choosing to love him...But more often I'd been just putting one foot in front of the other. I wished for the reality of God to be true, but sometimes I had difficulty believing it or grasping him."

This is the author's story of moving from a place of mundane living - to seeking the joy, the renewal of a loving, passionate relationship with God. I hated to end this book! It is a great guidebook to find joy in the midst of the burdens of daily life. Sally Clarkson is a great storyteller and this book is such a great journey! She shares in a vulnerable way and her trails are the kinds of things every mother and wife can SO relate to. This would be a great book for a group of women to read together, especially since it contains some excellent insights for Bible study and there are questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. I know for me it has really ushered me into a time of renewal, encouraged me, and given me some amazing perspectives!

Go HERE to purchase this great book! It sells for $13.99 - and is well worth it.

Thanks so much to the Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group, who provided this book

for the purposes of review.