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Are you a book lover?
Have you ever been involved in a Book Club?
When we lived in Belgium I joined a Book Club organised by mothers from the school our daughter was attending.
I really enjoyed meeting up once a month, having snacks and discussing the book we had all read.
In fact several times I was pleased to have been in the club because I was introduced to books I would normally have not particularly thought of reading.
For example
The Time Traveller's Wife.
Both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
(Click on the book titles or pics above if you would like to know more about these books)
I am also the type of person who seldom leaves a book unfinished even if it does not always keep my attention and takes me months to actually finish it because I will go off and read other books in between spurts at the boring one.
However during my time in that book club there were two books which I did not finish.
The Life of Pi.
This just seemed to me to be rather boring.
My daughter's then boyfriend was also an avid reader and we would talk about the books we were reading when he would be round at our home finding that we enjoyed a lot of the same books but we just could not agree on this one. He kept telling me that I had to persevere and get to the second half of the novel and then I would enjoy it.
I could not see the point in that because I did not anticipate any more of my interest being grabbed when it was so dull so far, plus I had heard about an imaginary tiger in a boat so no it was not my scene.
I have still never read the book and don't believe I ever will as there are always more books I want to read than there is time to read them.
The Kite Runner
To me this one was just simply disgusting.
I got to a certain point in the story where I knew I would never finish this book and at that precise moment I was in a Tram from Brussels to Tervuren with my daughter (who also adored The Time Traveller's Wife). I closed the book and told her I was not going to read any more and also told her that I hoped she would never read that book.
Then when I was about to throw it into the bin at the tram station I stopped and took it on home with me.
Had I changed my mind?
No, I decided to take it home to dispose of rather than have the chance of being the person responsible for someone else coming along and picking it up to read.
I have still not read the book and I know I never will.
When I told the others at the Book Club that I had not finished the book and never would because I felt disgusted by what I had already read their attitude was one of complete amazement.
I was immediately told that the purpose of reading this book was to be able to recognise the mentality, attitudes and behaviour of people in Afghanistan at that time. It was stated that I would not be able to understand the culture and what it is like to live there. It was even implied that I was burying my head in the sand and did not want to know what was happening in the world.
These women were wrong.
I knew more about the country than they thought as I knew people who were actually working there.
From that Book Club I learnt that I don't have to finish a book.
If that book doesn't really interest me or is poorly written or is about a subject that I do not want to read about then I can just close the book or even destroy it.
It is my decision what I read.
What we put into our minds affects our thoughts and words and actions and emotions.
It is better to put good wholesome things into our minds.
I have a choice as to what I ALLOW to go into my mind.
Yes the word allow is exactly the word I mean here, it is my mind and I need to take responsibility for what enters it.
I want to take good care of my mind
and I am sure you want to take good care of your mind.
What you allow into your mind affects your thoughts and your words and your actions and your emotions.
God has given us the responsibility to take care of every aspect of our lives and our minds are important to Him as well as our bodies.
You have a choice as to what you ALLOW to go into your mind.
Let's be encouraged that we can make a difference in our thoughts, words, actions and emotions by taking the responsibility for what we allow into our minds and seriously consider what we are reading or looking at or listening to or talking about on a daily basis.
In Philippians 4 verses 8-9 we read the words of the Apostle Paul
8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
9 The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.
Lot's of times we only think of the first of these two verses.
But look at the the second one:
Paul says do the things we have been taught, seen and heard - take heed of God's Word.
The result will be God's Peace.
If I had read the rest of that book The Kite Runner, I would have absorbed imagery and language into my mind that would have stayed with me forever.
That is how serious it is to be careful of what we put in our minds.
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