How to Start Doing Hard Things

I thought it would be just another great book for teenagers by those Harris boys.  I planned to read it and review it.  Just like I read and reviewed Do Hard ThingsBut it wouldn’t really apply to me, of course.

I read Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You AreAnd I was convicted.  Nothing like reading a book on prioritizing written by teenagers to help a mom get her own priorities in order.  Since I am supposed to be, you know, raising my own children to do hard things.

Start Here is written to teenagers (read on to find out how to win your own copy!).  Which is why I asked my little sister to give it a quick read and review for us here at ylcf.org as well (look for her guest post tomorrow).  But it’s just as applicable—and perhaps even more hard-hitting—for moms and adults of all ages.

Do Hard Things may have left some readers feeling like they weren’t in the spot to do big grandiose things for God.  Like the big sister whose mom desperately needs her help all summer when everyone else is going on a missions trip.  Or the mom who spends her days tending to little ones, with no time for writing best-selling books or highly-trafficked blog posts. 

Start Here shows you that no matter where you are in life, you can do hard things right here, right now: in fact, life is all about doing hard things. 

Start Here reminds us that we shouldn’t skip over the mundane hard things right here at home to do something big for God.  Usually, doing God’s will starts right at home.  Always, God’s will is going to be in line with the Scriptures (which includes a command to obey your parents).  And when we are proved faithful in the little things—like doing dishes or cleaning the house—we are more likely to be trusted with much more.

The best thing about Start Here is that it summed up exactly what the teen years are all about: being teenagers who work hard and glorify God in order to become adults who work hard and glorify God.

If we fail to prepare adequately as young adults, responsibility will be like a weight that is too heavy for our untrained arms.  The problem will not be that we grew up too fast but that we weren’t prepared when we did grow up and become adults.  Rather than learn to properly balance hard work and fun as teenagers, we let a preoccupation with fun set us up for failure.

But if we assume that the teen years are about preparation, as they have historically and biblically been defined, we will become mature, competent, and responsible men and women who know when and how to have fun.  With this understanding, “growing up” doesn’t spoil the teen years; it is the fulfillment of the teen years lived well.

-Alex & Brett Harris, Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are, pg. 90

Official YLCF Giveaway Entry Rules:

  • To enter the drawing for a copy of Start Here, comment on this post to tell us one way you are doing hard things right now, where you are.
  • Don’t forget to include your name and email address in the space provided on the comment form (your email address will not be published, but we need a way to contact you if you win!).
  • This drawing open to readers with U.S. mailing addresses only, please.
  • YLCF Team Members, their families, and recent YLCF giveaway winners ineligible for entry.
  • Drawing ends at midnight, Thursday, March 25, 2010.
  • Winner will be chosen randomly, notified by email, and announced in this post.
  • Thanks to the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for providing this book for review and giveaway.

Stop by ylcf.org tomorrow for a review of Start Here by a real teenager: my little sister Jessica.  And be sure to come back Saturday for a chance to win a copy of the book that started it all: Do Hard Things!

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Our Bookshelves

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
-Cicero

Click the images for captions and close-up views of the bookshelves of the YLCF Team Members (those who aren’t in the midst of cross-country moves and beginning deployment, that is!).  And start taking pictures of your own books: we’re having a bookshelf photo carnival next week!

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
-Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times, August 7, 1991

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Living with Books

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
-Henry Ward Beecher

They are piled artfully on the desk. They mount to the lampshade on the bedside table. They wobble in stacks as precarious as a loose boulder jutting over a snowy mountainscape.

Oh, yes. And they fill the bookshelves.

What would we do without them? For the true bibliophile, nothing so beautifies a room as a healthy population of books. One of my favorite things to do upon entering another’s home is to peruse the shelves. To run an eager eye over the titles and spines deemed worthy by the occupants to proclaim their unique passions and interests to the world. I fully believe that the books one chooses to read and display speak more eloquently than words of one’s identity. Of what moves and motivates them; of what makes them more alive. Of where their treasure is, if you will. Books are such living companions that the placing of one upon a shelf–or on a table, or leaning in a deep windowsill or even propping up a candlestick–is in many ways an invitation to that volume to take up its abode with you. It is for that reason that it is as interesting for me to stare at the bookshelves of old friends as it is of new acquaintances.  A person’s bookshelf is a window into their personhood. And it can be a magic casement, “opening on the foam of perilous seas, in faery lands forlorn”.

When we renovated our den a few years back, we had a pretty clear idea of what we wanted: a William Morris-styled room with dark paneling and old, polished wood for the firelight to flicker off of. We envisioned a plate rail carefully adorned with things we “believe to be beautiful” and deep leather furniture that would envelop one like an embrace. But the most important thing about the room–the focal point about which we grouped our other ideas–was the bookcase. I wanted floor-to-ceiling shelves, like the 14-footers in my grandmother’s Victorian home. Philip saw them backed with the same rich heart-pine with which we had paneled the walls and the ceiling and laid the floor, stained a gorgeous English Chestnut like the rest of the room. And a freize at the top for a motto to express our ideals and our vision–to both of which the volumes to be housed beneath had contributed immeasurably.

Only the best for our books, was the unspoken mantra between us.

So Philip drew them out, measured about a million times for good luck, and cranked up the circular saw. For days our lives were punctuated by the wails and shrieks of cutting and the pounding of hammers and nail guns. We opened our windows in December against the fumes of the stain and polyurethane. But at last it was time for our books to come home, and we carted them down from where we had stashed them in an upstairs bedroom with the giddiness of children. I couldn’t wait to see how they would look–how alive the room would become–when we had fitted our loved volumes into Philip’s beautiful bookshelves.

“I wonder how full they will be?” I wondered as we passed each other on the stairs.

“I wonder how long it will take to fill them up?” Philip grinned.

The shelves were close to half-full and we were amazed. We didn’t realize that we had that many books.

That was five years ago.

They are full now. ;)

My grandparents’ library shelves were full, too. And the old drug store case in the upstairs hall. And the barrister cases in the bedroom. And the low bookshelves encircling the sunporch. And the built-ins encasing the door to the back hall like an arch of triumph.

That’s just the way it is with book lovers. It’s not only hard to know when to stop. It’s impossible. But how soulless our homes would be without them!

Check back on Wednesday for a gallery tour of some of our YLCF Team Members‘ bookshelves!

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Hello, Do You Like My Hat?

During my teenage years, three brothers were born into my family: three delightful, exasperating, energetic little people who needed a lot of chasing, feeding, and lulling to sleep. As the oldest sister, I got to be part of that process. One of my favorite jobs was reading bedtime stories – as long as I got to choose the books. Fortunately, my brothers and I were in agreement when it came to Go, Dog, Go! by P.D. Eastman.

I’m not sure what they liked about this book. The speeding cars? The active, all-dog cast of characters? The simple text? But I know what I liked: it was a deceptive simplicity. Underneath the easy-reader vocabulary, Go, Dog, Go! is a romance and a comedy, with plenty of scope for dramatic voices.

One picture shows a darkened room, a whole row of sleeping critters, and a bright-eyed little dog who is clearly dealing with insomnia. As the big sister, I knew that little boys don’t always go to sleep when we want them to. So this passage was deliciously ironic: “Now it is night. Night is not a time for play. It is time for sleep. The dogs go to sleep. They will sleep all night.” (I could only hope certain little boys were getting the point, as well).

Even more fun is the running relationship between a girl and boy dog who keep meeting and greeting each other throughout the book. “Hello!” the girl dog says brightly. “Do you like my hat?” But the boy dog doesn’t, and she flounces off — only to greet him just as enthusiastically the next time.  As the story progresses, the hats get bigger and bolder and more packed with personality. Fortunately, the ending of the book is everything it ought to be: they ride off into the sunset together.

And no, that’s not a spoiler at all. As long as you add at least one small person, this book is good for at least half a hundred delightful readings.

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A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart

As a single young woman, one of the things God has laid on my heart is to reach out to younger girls who want to grow spiritually. God has opened doors in amazing ways, and over the last couple of years I’ve been in a position to really invest in the lives of several teenage girls. Last year I was able to lead a group through Elizabeth George’s book A Young Woman after God’s Own Heart.

Written in a chatty, down-to-earth style, this book is not only enjoyable, but solidly Biblical. The girls in my group were from very diverse backgrounds–from broken homes to homeschool Christian families–but all were able to relate the issues raised.  Mrs. George does a great job of tackling problems head-on, and she uses lots of Scripture, which I really appreciate. It’s also  a pretty and “girly” looking book, which is always a plus.

Some of the topics addressed are: Pursing God (prayer, Bible reading and personal devotions, obedience), submission, loving others, family relationships, honoring parents, interacting with peers, growing, serving, and purity. Each chapter has a “Bible study” section at the end, and I had my girls look up verses, fill in answers, and discuss the questions with the group. It was even good for the girls who were not saved — it made some of them think seriously about real-life issues — and those who were Christians were able to go much deeper and get a lot out of it. While it’s geared to a younger group (probably ages 12-16), it’s a great resource for any of us who are in some kind of discipleship/ministry position with teenage girls. I recommend it.

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