Spring has turned to summer this week and on the deck is the only place I want to be. Our bluebird pair is feeding their babies almost constantly and the yard is parched and dry. In two weeks' time, the spring semester will be over and our summer break will be sprawled in front of us with near limitless potential. It is wild to think how quickly this first year at Longwood has passed for Julian.
We are having a pancake party at the house Thursday night for all the students he has taught these past nine months. They really love him, think he's funny, and they spend way too much time loitering in his office when they should be doing other things. It's a good problem to have, I suppose.
So I am doing all the usual party prep things: baking in advance, coaxing the flowers to bloom, scrubbing floors, praying for rain,
dyeing yarn, praying for good weather on the day. In addition to Julian being generally like-able, we want to show this college-aged, desperate-to-be-grown-up-but-still-not-sure-of-themselves crowd that you can do a million and one fun things without getting wasted, and that there are lots of people in this world who will love you for who you are, and that we are two of those people.
The opportunity to review Hunting Hope by Nike Maples comes at a perfect time for me. In addition to the fact that there is never a bad time to read a message of hope and gospel truth, it is a perfect time - as I am praying for these students as they go off to have their summer break and come back older to us in the fall - to add another arrow to my quiver of faith-based resources that I feel strongly enough to recommend. Here is my review of the book I posted on Amazon:
"I am always hesitant to give a book to someone who is struggling because so many "devotional" type books can make a struggling person's situation seem trite. Not this one! In the introduction {don't skip that part!} Maples points out that God created darkness and while He separates Himself from all spiritual darkness, He is alongside you in any situational darkness. The author equips you to know the difference between the two and then uses scripture throughout the book to show you how to find hope through the scriptural truths of God's character. The last 40 pages of the book are devoted to refining YOUR character so that you can be a person who knows joy and light through the trials and darkness of life. Great book. I think I'm going to sit down and read it all over again."
Oh I do hope they come here and feel good, feel at home, feel loved and looked after. Students unload a peculiar number of things on their favorite professors' shoulders and I just hope that we can do justice to the trust they give us and pray them through to the other side.
