Author: Tina Boesch
Info: Copyright 2019: Colorado Springs: NavPress
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮✮✮
Where Acquired: Borrowed from a friend.
Category: Recommended reads. My friend Diana recommended it and let me borrow her copy.
Synopsis: Tina Boesch explores various blessings from Scripture and their practical application. She takes blessing beyond the surface and finds deeper meaning in being blessed to be a blessing.
Favorite Quotes:
The future is the providence of blessing. Blessings are prayers with the horizon in view. They communicate good that I long to see realized in your life, and they acknowledge, implicitly, that God alone is capable of accomplishing that good. Blessings carry us from the present moment into future grace. p. 3
...the words we say too often lose their potency. When a blessing is reduced to a phrase we say out of habit, then it is drained of its significance. p.5
The call to let go is a threshold leading into the exhilarating freedom to follow. - p. 30
The goal of blessing our children shouldn't be to insulate them from the world; it should be to fill them with the spiritual reserves to face whatever challenges they find there." - p. 59.
A blessing does not erase the difficult nor abolish it; but it does reach deeper to draw out the hidden fruit of the negative. The old patterns do not evaporate, but become transformed under the persuasion of the soul's new affection." pp. 168-169
Christian presence in society should be associated with an ethos characterized by blessing. If our voice in the public sphere is more often tinged with attitudes that convey curse, then we've got to wonder if we've forgotten the dimension of blessing within the biblical story that could give form to our incarnational witness. p. 206
The Positive:
- Boesch is well traveled and I enjoyed her weaving the various cultures she experienced into her narrative.
- Though the majority of the book was inspirational and informative, one story in particular confirms an attitude of blessing I've been working to cultivate for years. In speaking of a friend and mentor from her college days, Boesch writea, "When I was in Mary Jo's kitchen, I found that the stress of study lifted in the presence of light. Her generous, unvarnished hospitality and heartfelt prayers drew me back into the presence of God. Mary Jo was a priest to me; she mediated God's blessing by taking me back to Jesus's feet, reminding me of my spiritual home" (p. 83). No matter where I live, I endeavor to have a home of peaceful refuge for anyone who visits. I want my hospitality to produce the same results as Boesch's friend Mary Jo.
- Boesch does a little bit of talking out of both sides of her mouth. In chapter nine, she takes on the Curse of the Law in Deuteronomy chapter 28. She does a beautiful job in demonstrating that Jesus sets us free from that curse through His death and resurrection (Galatians 3:13, I Peter 2:24). However, out of fear she'll look like a "prosperity preacher" she turns around and says that the blessings of that same chapter are not for the Christian. As I've said before, I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box; but I'm not the dullest either. How can Christ's cancelling of the curse not produce the blessing that is the opposite of that curse? The author seems to forget about passages like III John 2, Proverbs 10:22, Romans 8:28, and especially Galatians 3:14 where it mentions the blessing of Abraham being available to the gentile believers. The blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3 reveals that we are blessed of God to be a blessing to the world. Yes, people can get out of balance and forget that, but let's not throw away the whole concept.
- She did a bit of whining about marriage and motherhood.
- It would have been nice if the author had mentioned in the introduction or first chapter that there is a study guide at the end of the book. I didn't know about it until I was nearly done. Knowing that ahead of time would have made the book even more meaningful.
Conclusion:
This was a great read and I would highly recommend the book. I plan to purchase my own copy and study it more in depth with the included study guide at a later date.
