Heidi's Haven

  This book is geared toward women, in any stages of life, to take control of their finances. A mother-daughter team, the authors share two generations of knowledge and covers all of the life stages, from single life, to married life, to widowed life. This is stewardship-focused: everything is God's and we must be responsible stewards of what he's given us. Each chapter features resources for planning and budgeting, as well as tips and journaling questions.  I personally did not feel like this book was very helpful. I wouldn't consider myself super knowledgable about finances, but just about everything in this book is stuff I've heard many times before. I was expecting more, especially as one of the authors is a certified financial planner. The writing felt disorganized and rushed, and very redundant. I did like their tips on how to choose a financial planner, and their information about wills and trusts, but for the most part I don't think I learned anything new fr...

Just like the 5 love languages, we apologize and accept apologies in different ways. I am sure we've all heard an apology we didn't feel was sincere, while the person who apologized feels like they did everything they could. This book explores the different ways we apologize and helps the reader find their own apology language. The goal is to help us strengthen relationships in our lives and opens the door to forgiveness and reconciliation.  These 5 languages are: Expressing Regret, Accepting Responsibility, Making Restitution, Planned Change, and Requesting Forgiveness. In some situations, more than one language must be used, and it's different for each person. This book helps the reader understand their own apology language and the apology languages of others. The authors describe in detail how you can apologize in each language. You will learn how to apologize, how to forgive, and how to ask for forgiveness. They also reassure us that to cause offense is human, it is not...

  This 40-day devotional by Jessica Thompson is based on Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. The law is not against such things." If we are followers of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is living in us, and that should be evident in our daily lives. But what does the fruit of the Spirit mean? How is that evident in our lives? Through this devotional, Thompson walks us through God's attributes shown in Galatians 5:22-23, and explains how learning about God's character helps us see how that fruit can be seen in ourselves. Throughout this devotional, the reader will learn more about God and become more like Him.  This book is organized in sections based on each attribute of God, and then those sections are split into devotionals to be read one per day. Each of these is 3-4 pages, and can easily be read daily, even for the busiest people. I would like to note that I read this all in one g...

  This book is a 40-day advent devotional of sermons, books, and other writings by A. W. Tozer. Each reading is 3-4 pages long, which is totally doable, even for the busiest people. Sunday is "Feast Day", and there is no reading for that day, as it is to be used as a rest day. The goal of this book is for the reader to not only learn more about God's work in Christ, but also to truly worship and serve God with awe and gratitude. Also, to learn more about the season of Lent, and why we do the things we do. The purpose of Lent is to prepare believes for commemorating Jesus's self-sacrifice on the cross, and these readings leading up to Easter help us to remember and practice that. Funny enough, I started reading this book completely by accident on Ash Wednesday, perfect timing! Tozer uses the KJV translation in his writings, which I personally is not a fan of, so just keep that in mind before you pick this up. The language that Tozer uses, being from a long time ago, ca...

  This book is a 28-day advent devotional of sermons, books, and other writings by A. W. Tozer. These readings are split into 4 weeks, 1 reading per day. Each reading is 3-4 pages long, which is totally doable, even for the busiest people. The goal of this book is for the reader to not only learn more about God's work in Christ, but also to truly worship and serve God with awe and gratitude. Also, to learn more about Jesus and what we truly celebrate (or should be celebrating) at Christmas. Tozer uses the KJV translation in his writings, which I personally is not a fan of, so just keep that in mind before you pick this up. The language that Tozer uses, being from a long time ago, can also be hard for some to follow. If that doesn't bother you, then you'd probably enjoy reading this devotional.  This would be best read one day a time, so you can take the time to reflect and meditate on each reading. I read this all in one go, as I was reading it in order to write a review, s...

      In Fractured Faith: Finding Your Way Back to God in an Age of Deconstruction , Lina Abujamra discusses her own crisis of faith and how she came out the other side. She stresses that it is normal for Christians to question and deconstruct their faith. It's actually a really important part of our walk with God, since a crisis of faith can cause true faith to replace inauthentic faith, and actually lead us closer to God. In fact, what we often call a crisis of faith is just part of maturing in our faith. It makes your faith your own. Each crisis leads us deeper into relationship with Him. Deconstruction our faith can lead to reconstruction.     I really enjoyed reading this book. The author is so open and honest with her struggles, which makes it very easy to understand and relate to her message. I personally have not struggled with a crisis of faith (yet, probably, I'm still young), so I didn't relate to her message as much as others migh...

      This book is all about finding joy in suffering, and looking through pain into God's strength, instead of ignoring it. He discusses the importance of lament and the fruits of suffering. Suffering offers us a powerful encounter with God. Further, Jesus showed us how to suffer with others and show compassion. God constantly cleanses us through out suffering so we're pure when we meet Him in heaven. As the Bible tells us, doing good and suffering for it is something to praise God for.  "When we choose to suffer with rejoicing, a door is opened for the Gospel to be shared."     The author has experienced suffering like I could not believe. He is also in his 90s and suffering from cancer, and he is at the end of his life. His story offers such a unique and genuine perspective on suffering. There aren't many people who have experienced suffering to the extent that he has.      Perkins was very articulate, and it never felt like he was ra...