The Waiting Place by Eileen Button

A collection of essays describing the beauty and humor that can be found in what often feels like a most useless state—The Waiting Place.

We all spend precious time just waiting. We wait in traffic, grocery store lines, and carpool circles. We wait to grow up, for true love, and for our children to be born. We even wait to die. But amazing things can happen if we open our eyes in The Waiting Place and peer into its dusty corners. Sometimes relationships are built, faith is discovered, dreams are (slowly) realized, and our hearts are expanded.

With humor and heart-breaking candor, Eileen Button breathes life into stagnant and, at times, difficult spaces. Throughout this collection of essays she contends that The Waiting Place can be a most miraculous place—a place where beauty can be experienced, the sacred can be realized, and God can be found working in the midst of it all.

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Again, as with the previous book, I love that I don't have to worry about having to put the book down and then forget where I was at, or have to reread the chapters again.

It's small enough and written in such a way that I can pick it up and set it down as needed but not feel like I've lost anything along the way.

For me, I will say that the most captivating part of the book is that Eileen writes as if she was talking to you in person, as if she was sitting down across the table for a cup of coffee or tea and telling you about her experiences, her waiting places, what happened, how she got there and how she got through it.

The waiting place is something I think we are all very familiar with, that moment in time where we are left feeling that we can't move forward and can't move backward and don't know what to do, left helpless and with no control over what is happening around us. 

From the book I have learned that Eileen is actually a lot like I am and I suspect like many others out there.  She shares her moments of waiting, what she observed, what she took from it, what she thought and how she laughed or cried or worked through it.

Thank you Eileen for such a great book, I really enjoyed this one :)

Disclaimer:  I received this book for review from BookSneeze.  All my views are my own.

Untamed by Lisa Harper

How the Wild Side of Jesus Frees Us to Live and Love with Abandon

Written by Lisa Harper

Through a powerful blend of storytelling and biblical insights, Lisa Harper invites you to engage with the Jesus of the gospels, a person so provocative that no one left an encounter with Him unchanged. Pharisees fumed, paralytics turned cartwheels, and pariahs found love and acceptance.

Come meet the Jesus who is both safe and strong—and learn how this radical Redeemer can liberate you to live and love with abandon.

Includes questions for group discussion or personal reflection.


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There is a very deep yearning inside me to be closer to Jesus, to have that unwavering Faith which I so envy in others.  I think it's one of the reasons why the Amish are so fascinating to me, I want to be like them in that relationship with Jesus.

I couldn't have asked for a better book when it comes to helping me along this journey.

The book includes personal testimony from the author’s life and from other people. She uses anecdotes to get the point across, lessons to help us understand and she links it to our normal lives which I absolutely love.  Another one of the things that drew me to it, are the discussion questions at the end of each chapter which include Scriptural references.

Every chapter starts with "Our Savior is......." and I just think that is the cutest thing ever.   For example...."Our Savior is Wildly Compelling........His character enchants, subdues, overwhelms--and with the irresistible impulse of its own sacred attraction it draws your spirit right up to Him - Charles Spurgeon".

You find snippets like these littered throughout the book.  Honestly, I'm a busy mom and I don't have time to sit down with a big book, I am constantly being interrupted by one of the kids or by the time I get around to reading, I'm exhausted and just want to go to sleep, so I found this book was perfect for me to carry around and be able to get through a quick Chapter without having to stop and come back to it later.

If you're looking for a book to nourish your soul, to give you back the faith that you so long for, this is it.  What a wonderful read :)

Disclaimer:  I received this book for free from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group.  All my views and opinions are mine alone.