Embracing Awkward: Friends

February 23, 2015February 27, 2015 - Amy 1 Comment

I am without a shadow of a doubt, awkward.

I’ve been this way from birth. I like to think of it as marching to the beat of a different drum.

Ok, nevermind. I’m just awkward.

From back in the day trying to make friends on the playground to now- still trying to make friends on the playground. Now I just tote with me Purex, sippie cups, and stuffed kitty cats. It’s not easy to make friends.

Being a mom only makes the whole friend thing harder. Am I right? Schedules, practices, bedtimes, allergies, and let’s not forget that some of us are just introverts. Yep, go ahead and fess up.

It’s just hard sometimes. I have been known to turn into my prepubescent middle school self just hoping to be accepted. Even though I don’t have acne anymore (never really had it, just some really big pimples y’all), I now have offspring to add to this equation. Yes, the extra beings that I can only control to a certain extent. Makes it a bit more sticky I have to say. And let’s face it, the carpool line can be intimidating. Other women can look as though they have it all together. Pinterest can do wonders for the uncrafty. But we don’t really know another woman until we’ve had us a playdate or really talked instead of chit chat.

If a friend still likes me after I introduce them to my children (who may or may not be giving them a mean face for no apparent reason), then we might have a chance! Not that my girls are bad kiddos, they just march to the beat of a different drum. Kinda like their mama. If a friend witnesses the state of my home on a random Tuesday night and they still want to call me a friend, well then we are totally golden.

Eventually you come to a point as a mom when you realize that you can’t do it alone. You put on your big girl panties and accept that friends are just a very important and necessary part of life. Not to smother you with friendliness or to hang out every single day, but to just relate.

A mom friend feels your motherly pain (both figuratively and literally). They’ve probably been through similar situations. A mom friend has kids that remind you that your kids are not the only ones who eat their boogers or leave their dirty towels on the bathroom floor. A mom friend helps you to see that you are not crazy, that we all like to scream into a pillow or lock ourselves in the closet with a chocolate bar every now and then. See? You aren’t the only one!

These ladies are my closest friends. They all know how awkward I am. They have seen my house a hot mess. They have seen me without makeup (like in this picture, ugh). They have seen me in good times and in bad.

And they still love me. (omg why?) They embrace my awkward. And I awkwardly embrace theirs.

THAT is a true friend. That’s what it’s all about.

I was given the pleasure (and I do say pleasure because I was filled with laughter the whole time I read it) of reading a book and I have GOT to share this one with you. If you are a mom, or thinking of becoming a mom, or currently expecting, or just simply curious about others who you know are moms, then you HAVE to read this book.

The name of the book really threw me for a loop. I didn’t know what it would be about. Now it makes sense.

Women Are Scary.

It’s true and this book examines reasons why. It is beyond hilarious. I kid you not. This book will have you rolling on the floor. The funniest (and kinda sad) part? It’s so true of us moms. I was laughing so hard at how we are. We’re so silly. In this book you’ll find a compilation of honest, funny, scary, complex, simple, and normal situations that we moms go through to find our lifelong friends. I found myself not wanting to admit some of these things (cough cough), but I couldn’t run from it. I do love a full-frontal hug.

Melanie Dale is a blogger at Unexpected.org and she is just that. Unexpected. And the things that you read in the book may strike you as unexpected, but they are entertaining nonetheless. I feel as though I know Melanie just from reading this and it makes me feel a little less awkward!

This is one of those books that would truly be a gift to give to a friend. They will thank you amidst their laughter. It is honestly one of the funniest books I’ve ever read! You can pre-order this at Family Christian for $15.99!

This giveaway will end on Tuesday, March 3rd at 11:59pm CT. I will contact the winner on Wednesday, March 4th and they will have 24 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them I will name a new winner.

I was provided with a copy of Women Are Scary by Family Christian. All opinions are 100% my own.

Out of the Heart the Mouth Speaks

February 6, 2015February 6, 2015 - Amy 5 Comments

I’m a fantastic listener. It’s a good thing that people like to talk to me. I can sit for hours and let folks unload their verbal baggage on me. That’s an imperative part of being a friend, sibling, spouse, and even parent. People like be heard. It’s a good thing that I like to listen.

The problem that I have isn’t with listening. No, my problem is speaking.

I’ll admit that it’s an issue of mine mostly around those that I’m closest to. My family.

Let me be real honest with you. My husband, bless him, tends to get the brunt of my words. And when you live with someone, your filter can wear a little thin. I won’t lie to you, there are times when I say things to my husband and almost immediately I think why did I have to say that? Perhaps my honesty with him is less filtered because I know he isn’t going anywhere. Even still, our spouses deserve the same respect that we show others.

God has really been ministering to me about my speaking the last few months. I read an article recently that said that every day we say enough words to write 50-60 pages in a book. In an entire year, we could author 264 books with at least 200 pages. If your books went on sale right now at Barnes and Noble, would you stand behind the words written in them?

I would burn some of mine.

Words are powerful. What you say and what you don’t say matters.

Matthew 6:45 says …for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. If within our hearts we only want to build others up, our words will reflect that. If we say unkind things, we may have a heart issue. The point is to fight the urge to let our hearts become hard and say those things that do build others up. It’s not easy every time. Our flesh and inherent sinful nature will always be resistance, but we can choose to hit the override button and say only things in truth.

Jesus was all about relationships. Relationships depend heavily on words. Make them good ones. Make them count. Make them uplifting, inspiring, cheerful, heartfelt, motivating, encouraging, truthful words.

Lord I pray for the hearts reading this right now. I pray for you to wash over our hearts and to refresh our spirits with truth. Help us to say only what is good for building others up like you have said in Ephesians 4:29. Give us guidance for when we should speak and when we should be silent. For when we should talk and when we should listen. We pray that you would shine through what we say and that it would bring you glory.

In Jesus name,

Amen

I told you that God has been working on me and my words? He sent the book Keep It Shut to my door. God isn’t always subtle, is he?!

Family Christian sent me this book written by Karen Ehman to review. I gotta say, this one had me reviewing myself more than the book. It challenged me. It really did.

Karen covers pretty much every aspect surrounding the tongue in Keep It Shut: gossip, people-pleasing, truth-telling, social-sharing, manners, motives, lying, listening, and love. It’s all there!

She is funny! She uses the Bible as a model for which to go by. And she addresses such common issues that life throws our way and also how to react with our words. It’s divided into chapters that cover all the different things that I’ve talked about.

In this book, you will find lots of great tips and many great Bible verses.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to work on their words.

You can find Keep It Shut by Karen Ehman at Family Christian….OR you can win it below!

Keep It Shut Giveaway

This giveaway will end on Monday, February 15th at 11:59pm CT. I will randomly select and winner and I will contact them on Monday the 16th and they will have 24 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them, I will randomly select a new winner.

I was provided with Keep It Shut by Family Christian for review purposes. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

10 Things I’ve Learned About Prayer

January 19, 2015January 19, 2015 - Amy 6 Comments

I am not an expert on prayer. In fact, you’ll find me to be a member of the PWA. (You’ll find out about that later) But you know, it’s not hard to open the Bible and find pretty clear instructions on how we should pray.

God created prayer as a means for His people to connect with Him. It is literally just talking with him. Sometimes it’s just connecting with him spirit to spirit. It is a means to form relationship with God.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. – Psalms 145:18

To have a relationship with Christ, we have to pray. To praise him, thank him, ask for his forgiveness, ask for guidance, and to intercede for others. It would be practically impossible to walk with God and not pray to him.

It’s mentioned over and over in the Bible that we are to pray. It’s obviously very important to God!

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. – Colossians 4:2

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.- Romans 12:12

If you’re thinking what the heck is she talking about, think bowing your head or kneeling. It most certainly helps us to be humble and to show respect to the Lord. The fact of the matter is, prayer is not physical, it is spiritual.

Jesus hung from the cross and was unable to be in the perfect posture for praying. He called out to his Father and the Lord heard him. How we are standing or holding our head will not make our prayers more righteous if we are truly connecting with the spirit of God. While those things can often help reflect our inner thoughts and humble us before Him, they are not requirements for praying to the Father.

You don’t have to be a poet or a scholar of the King James Version of the Bible to pray. For many years I was discouraged from praying because I never knew “the right words” to pray. I lacked biblical language (still do) and I thought it made my prayers less important. The Bible says that we aren’t to worry about fancy words or long sentences. Whew, that’s a relief! I’m not good at that anyways!

When you pray, don’t pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do. They think that by saying many words they’ll be heard. – Matthew 6:7

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. Hallelujah! Have you ever been in a situation where a situation was so bad that you didn’t even know where to start to pray? Like your head might explode! According to the Lord’s will, the Spirit prays for us!

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. – Romans 8:26

When our prayer life dies out, so does our relationship with God. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 clearly states- Never stop praying. That seems pretty clear enough. I love this by C H Spurgeon.

As we breathe without ceasing, so must we pray without ceasing. As there is no attainment in life, of health, or of strength, or of muscular vigor which can place a man beyond the necessity of breathing, so no condition of spiritual growth or advance in grace will allow a man to dispense with prayer. – Charles Spurgeon, 1872 Sermon no. 1039

Even when we don’t see results, know that God always hears your prayers.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. – 1 John 5:14

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.” – Psalm 145:18-19

The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous. – Proverbs 15:29

One of the most powerful tools that we have as children of God is prayer. We are ordinary people who serve and extraordinary God. We cannot do the things that He can. Because we submit our sins, needs, and requests to Him, we turn them over to His mighty power. Prayer is HUGE!

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results. – James 5:16

God has never called us to be perfect. In fact, God Loves Imperfection. If you are communicating with God spirit to spirit, praising, repenting, requesting, you are doing it right. The more that you do it, the better that you’ll get at it. It brings God such great joy when his children humble themselves with their imperfect prayers to talk with him.

I got the opportunity to read a GREAT resource on prayer. I wanted to share with you about it. It’s from my favorite Christian author, Max Lucado. It’s all in the video below. I edited the very living daylights out of it because I have come to realize that every other word that I say is “um”.

Please forgive me if you feel like you’re going nuts. 🙂 And PLEASE leave a comment below with anything that YOU would add to the list above.

Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer, Before Amen, Max Lucado

You can get Max’s book Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer at Family Christian. It is currently only $9.99!

I was provided with a copy of Before Amen by Family Christian. All opinions expressed at 100% my own!

Does Godly Romance Exist?

January 16, 2015February 14, 2017 - Amy 3 Comments

Is true romance dead?

You know what I’m talking about. The kinda stuff that we see in the movies. The candlelight and flowers, sweep-you-off-your-feet, knock-your-socks-off kinda romance.

What about chivalry? Ha! Haven’t heard that word in a while. The word, which basically means respect, is not something that we hear of happening much anymore.

Too often in our culture, the dating scene and sometimes even the committed can lack in these areas.

Has a man who sends a girl flowers and opens the door for her without an ulterior motive become the minority? It seems that way!

There is such a thing as godly romance you know. That’s called old fashioned these days. Respect, saving yourself for marriage, and prayerfully considering if a husband/wife is God’s choice for you. Not always the norm!

What if you’ve already made bad choices in the past? Are you damaged goods?

Absolutely not!

God can and WILL redeem your past. All that matters is what you do with your future.

As believers, we should strive to stick to the values that we so strongly believe in. That isn’t an easy feat in today’s society. Have faith and courage, even if it means you’re the weird one. Hey, being old fashioned means you’re unique and completely unexpected. A change from an impending one night stand and fly-by-night romance.

It means that you’re allowing God to guide.

I’m still reeling from a movie that I was invited to screen. Guess what it’s called….

Old Fashioned. Teehee.

This film was made to touch on the very things that I just mentioned.

Old Fashioned is a faith-based love story about a former frat boy who comes to know Jesus and it changes the way he looks at dating and romance. He meets a free-spirited girl who is quite the opposite. In our modern-day dating scene, they attempt an old fashioned courtship.

My honest opinion? One of the best faith-based movies that I’ve seen in a long time.

This film was a refreshing taste of what love and romance can truly be if God is guiding it. I love that it stayed realistic by addressing common pitfalls like partying, pornography, and sex before marriage without glorifying those things. In fact, this film highlights how God’s grace covers our mistakes and makes us new.

<a href="http://www.regardinggrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/old-things-are-passed-away pharmacie viagra sans ordonnance.png”> old things are passed away;

I enjoyed this movie a lot y’all. Even hubby liked it! We laughed, got teary, got angry, and felt connected with the characters. And it even had good acting too! I can’t say that about all Christian movies. There were moments that were a little slow, but what happened next always made up for it.

This would be a fantastic movie for a youth group to see! It would be perfect for singles, and those who are dating, too! And honestly, for anyone wanting to see a true and pure love story.

It hits theaters February 14th, 2015. Valentine’s Day, how fitting! Check it out at OldFashionedMovie.com.

You can find it at a theater near you here. It is at limit theaters, about 200 across the nation. It’s going to be competing with a certain well-known, less-than-Christian film, Fifty Shades of Grey. Let’s support truth instead of a false idea of romance!

I truly hope that you will go see Old Fashioned and that it will bless you like it blessed me! Watch the trailer below.

I was provided with tickets to the screening by Family Christian. All opinions expressed here are 100% my own.

Just Be Loved

December 22, 2014December 22, 2014 - Amy Leave a comment

Have you ever researched what your name means? I didn’t for a long time for fear of finding out that it might mean “harry goat” or something. It’s actually quite interesting to find out what the origins and variations are.

I never gave the meaning of Amy much credence until somewhat recently. My name means “Beloved”.

Dearly beloved or beloved.

I love the surprise that my name means something that I tend to have struggles with. Beloved.

Be. Loved.

I think God might just be trying to tell me something. My own struggles with accepting love stems mainly from self-love, mostly. Which in the scheme of things doesn’t mean a hill of beans compared to the love that God has for me. So why is it so hard?

This is a path that I am walking out with help of God’s mighty grace. Learning to love yourself how you are right now takes BIG grace. It takes BIG mercy and even BIGGER strength.

Just be loved. Accept it. Be loved by your husband. By your children. By your coworkers. By your friends. By your parents. By yourself.

By God.

The LORD your God among you is powerful— he will save and he will take joyful delight in you. In his love he will renew you with his love; he will celebrate with singing because of you. – Zephaniah 3:17

I recently got the pleasure of listening to Christy Nockel’s CD Into the Glorious. God knew that I needed to listen to this one. I am a big fan of her’s. We use some of her songs on our worship team at church so I’m familiar with many. In fact, one of my favorites is on this CD- “Waiting Here For You” is so good.

Some new ones on this CD that I had never heard that I now love are, “Sing Along”, “Wonderful”, and “Into the Glorious”. But they are ALL so good.

After turning on this album, God lead me to track #5 which is called “Be Loved”. There were tears. It speaks to my struggle.

Be loved. Beloved. That is what my name MEANS! I mean, God places just what we need in our path at the right time. This song washed over me like a refreshing river of truth.

If you can relate at all to my struggle, this whole album is so good for you. Highly recommended!

Track List:

Ever Lifting
For Your Splendor
Wonderful
Into the Glorious
Be Loved
Waiting Here for You
Sing Along
Love Can Build a Bridge
Your Love is Moving
Hearing is in Your Hands
Already All I Need
How I Love You

You can grab a copy of Christy Nockels’ album Into The Glorious at Family Christian for $11.99. You can also get the whole MP3 album for $9.99.

How about a giveaway so you can get a copy?!

$10 Family Christian Appreciation Certificate Giveaway

I was provided with Christy Nockels album for review purposes by Family Christian. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

This giveaway will end on Monday, December 29th at 11:59pm CT. I will contact the winner on December 30th and they will have 24 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them, I will name a new winner.

Veggie Tales Beauty and the Beet $9.99!

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014 - Amy 2 Comments

Sometimes we just simply play Uno all night whilst sipping hot cocoa by the fireplace. Sometimes we make a trip to the dollar store and let the girls pick out a special toy. As the parents, we are just full of surprises aren’t we? You never know what kinda fun we have in store for family night!

However, it’s likely that on any given family night at our house you’ll find us soaking in a flick. Movies always seem to bring us all together. Not only literally, because we are literally in one place, but also emotionally. Feeling what the characters are feeling, witnessing the twists of the plot at the same time, and even cringing at the bad guys at the same time.

And then sometimes….

You just want to watch Veggie Tales. We were so excited to finally watch Beauty and the Beet (thanks to Family Christian!) for the first time the other night! We waited and waited for it to come out and then when it finally did, we were too busy to find time to watch it. Not anymore!

This movie has a fantastic message of unconditional love. Using the known Beauty and the Beast story, the Veggie Tales transform it into a story that God loves each of us just as we are, and that we should love others the same.

As a mom, I loved that it was just 45 minutes long. With 2 girls under 8 it’s hard sometimes to keep their attention and this was the perfect amount of time to entertain them. Kelly Pickler did a fantastic job as Mirabelle. She added a nice country twang to the movie. And we always love their silly, yet catchy Veggie Tales tunes! We LOVED the new silly song called “Mac and Cheese” about how Larry’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great (forgot how many greats) invented Macaroni and Cheese.

My daughter Addie said that she “liked it a lot”. Her favorite parts where when they sung on stage! My youngest said that she “loved” it. That’s high praise from a 3 year old I’d say!

Beauty and the Beet is on sale right now through December 24th for only $9.99! That is a great price! Grab it before the sale ends.

Family Christian has options available for getting it by Christmas. Be sure to check out the Shipping Info in the product description.

Watch the trailer:

Beauty and the Beat was provided for review purposes by Family Christian. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook

December 17, 2014December 16, 2014 - Amy 18 Comments

The following is a review and post written by my darling husband!

I have been a student of the Bible for about two years and make it a goal to dig deeper into the Word in a variety of ways: through One Year Bible daily Bible reading, Verse by Verse ministries audio Bible during my commute, and learning memory verses. So I was excited when I was recently asked to review The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook. This handbook has a load of full-color pages, color photos and illustrations, cool maps and charts, and articles by leading evangelical scholars. It is intended to help the reader grasp God’s word and understand how each book of the Bible fits together into God’s overarching purpose. It will help you more effectively interpret the Bible and apply it to your life. Below are my key takeaways.

This is not a Bible

I thought I would be reviewing a Bible, but I found out pretty quickly once getting into the book of Genesis that I, in fact, was not reviewing a Bible. Instead, this is a reference guide to the Bible — as indicated in the title, it is a Bible Handbook. This can be seen as a supplement and guide to reading your Bible, but not a replacement. I will point out that by the nature of being a summary of the Bible, it is inevitable that certain details are lost in the process.

High Level – 50,000 Ft. View

This handbook does a good job of summarizing the Bible. This would help someone new to the faith or young in the faith to grasp the vision of the overall message of the Bible and to see how the books of the Bible fit together. Each book of the Bible is almost like a cliffs-notes version of the book. Some examples of this book that I particularly enjoyed are The Grand Story of the Bible showing how the grand story is summarized into Opening, Problem, Resolution, Climax, and Closing as well as How the Bible is Organized which shows and explains the sections of the Bible (Old Testament: Pentateuch, Historical Books, Psalms, Wisdom Books, Prophets, New Testament: The Gospels, Book of Acts, Letters of Paul, General Letters, and Revelation.)

Going Deeper

This handbook also does an excellent job of arranging facts, maps, and charts of information, simplifying what would otherwise be complex. A great example of this is found in the The Beginning and The End section which gives a chart matching up events in Genesis (“The Beginning”) and Revelation (“The End”) showing how the beginning elements in Genesis find their conclusion in Revelation. An example would be: Sinful people are banished from the presence of God in Genesis 3:24; But God lives among his people in Revelation, effectively restoring them to His presence (Revelation 21:3, 7, 22; 22:4.) Digging deeper, for each book of the Bible, this handbook covers important historical context as well as information on the author of the book, the audience, the heart of the message being communicated, and any interesting / unique facts about the book. It includes letters from Bible scholars throughout. It also has Part II and Part III sections which respectively cover How the Bible Came to Be and Digging Deeper into the Bible.

In summary, this is a great and unique companion resource for the Word of God. It is easy to read and understand and is well organized. I am excited to own a copy and plan on referencing it.

Grab a copy of The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook for $29.97 at Family Christian right now!

And you might just be able to use this to do it…

$50 Family Christian Appreciation Certificate Giveaway
(can be used in-store and online)

This giveaway will end on December 26th at 11:59pm CT. I will contact the winner on December 27th and they will have 24 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them, I will then name a new winner.The Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook was provided for review purposes by Family Christian. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

High Above It All {Phillips Craig & Dean}

December 12, 2014December 16, 2014 - Amy 8 Comments

Phillips Craig and Dean

When it comes to Christian music, there are a few names that are just a given among the greats. One that immediately comes to mind is Phillips, Craig & Dean. I mean the only words you need to hear are “Revelation Song”. That song was HUGE! I still have to turn that one on every now and then. It’s powerful.

The harmony that these guys pull off…. It gives me goosebumps.

They have a NEW album out that was released just last month. I was thrilled to partner with Family Christian again and review their new album Above it All last week.

I was thrilled to find the album to be a mix of great worship, but also FUN songs that you can’t get out of your head. It was not what I expected, it was better!

The song “Let it Be Known” has become a quick favorite with my girls. It has a really catchy beat and is a total dance tune. Yet, I love how it praises God and speaks loud truth. They beg me to turn it on in the car all the time!

My personal favorite on this cd is “High Above It All”. I love the words. They are powerful and they remind me that even though the world around me can seem to crumble, that God is still in control. He is high above everything and remains the same among the change.

Waters roar and mountains fall, still You remain high above it all
Kingdoms fade and nations shake, but You remain high above it all

You might hear “Jesus, Only Jesus” currently playing on many radio stations So good. And “Voices From The Other Side” really touched me as a good friend of mine just passed 3 months ago. It had me balling the first time that I heard it.

Track List:

Jesus Only Jesus
High Above It All
Let It Be Known
Voices From the Other Side
Join the Song
Come as You Are
Not for Grace
Hope Has a Name
What Hope Feels Like
How He Lifted Me

This one gets a thumbs up. And set on replay on my phone!

Phillips, Craig & Dean fan? Get YOUR copy of Above it All at Family Christian! It’s currently just $13.99 and keep your eyes peeled for coupons! They have those running often.

This giveaway will end on December 19th at 11:59pm CT. I will contact the winner on December 20th and they will have 24 hours to respond. If I have not heard from them, I will contact a new winner. US only.

Above it All was provided to me by Family Christian for means of review. All opinions expressed are 100% my own.

When the Game Stands Tall $24.99

December 6, 2014December 9, 2014 - Amy Leave a comment

Did you see When the Game Stands Tall when it was in theaters? It was out in August of this year and it got fantastic reviews! I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. It was inspired by an extraordinary true story. You know that those are always good.

When the Game Stands Tall is a true story about love, loss, friendship, and perseverance.

A high school team sets a 151-game winning streak under the leadership of coach Bob Ladouceur. But when tragedy strikes, they must find it within themselves to get back up and push forward.

It has officially been released! Head over to Family Christian and grab your copy of When the Game Stands Tall.

Get this movie as a gift or grab it for yourself! And while you’re there, check out the Tenth Avenue North Cathedrals CD! Or check out the 50% Off sale going on now through December 24th!

Tenth Avenue North Cathedrals CD $9.99!

December 5, 2014December 9, 2014 - Amy 9 Comments

I’m a really big Christian music fan. I sing in the shower. In the car. In the kitchen. While sweeping. While cooking. Pretty much doing anything. I love when a good song comes on the radio. I especially love when these guys come on the radio!

Tenth Avenue North’s latest album Cathedrals is out now! Huge fan of theirs. So many of their songs have spoken to me. This latest album had me wondering why they named it Cathedrals. I mean, I love cathedrals. They are so beautiful!

Takes me back to visiting this incredible cathedral in Poland last year! The detail and architecture in these churches are amazing. So grand and beautiful. But why name an album Cathedrals? Here is a little bit about this album:

This collection of songs explained that once we know that we dont have to save ourselves, we are freed up to be honest about our struggles. We can admit that we feel worn, and we need redemption. We are free to struggle, but hallelujah, were not struggling to be free. The band was struck by John Dunns memorable quote, no man is an island. With these new songs, Tenth Avenue North encourages us to get off our self-made islands of isolation, to break the chains of shame that have kept us there, and find communion with God and each other. Tenth Avenue North encourages us to realize Gods spirit doesn’t dwell in buildings; He dwells in us for WE ARE HIS CATHEDRALS.

I adore this statement.

He dwells in us. We are HIS cathedrals. We are grand. We are beautiful. God has paid close attention to every single detail in each one of us. Just as the builder creates the architecture of a majestic cathedral, our great Builder has created us with His incredible spiritual architecture unlike any other.

This album has their newest song on it that you may have heard “No Man Is An Island”. Such a great song.

Right now at Family Christian, you can get Tenth Avenue North Cathedrals CD for ~~25% off with the coupon code CYBER!~~ $9.99 with NO COUPON NEEDED!

Do you get the Family Christian catalog? There may be an even better coupon in there! Be sure to check out the Family Christian website for ALL the latest coupon codes. You may be able to score an even better deal.

This would make a fantastic gift idea! Hubby, if you’re reading this…hint hint. 😉