It’s Christmas Season!
And that means I’m perusing my shelves for all the Christmas themed and Christmas-adjacent books! In the video below, I go through all the Christmas books I could find in my personal library. From picture books to middle grade fiction, there’s a little something here for everyone who enjoys a good Christmas tale.
Check it out below!
A couple of days ago, my wife and I visited our local used bookstore, and as I was searching the shelves, I gasped out loud at what I found! I actually couldn’t believe the price tag the store had on this, when I know how much it usually goes for online.
We also visited Cheekwood Estate to see their Holiday Lights Event! It was a lot of fun, even if it was a little bit chilly. Check out what we saw and what we found in the video below!
Christmas season is officially here! I know, I know, there are those of us who have been secretly listening to Christmas music for a couple of months now, but for the rest of the world, Thanksgiving has ended and it’s officially Christmastime!
To kick off the Christmas celebrations, we started decorating our house and I received a surprise book in the mail! Join me as we decorate, do a little unboxing, and get into the Christmas mood!
Let Earth Receive Her King by T. Scott Daniels
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have to admit: I’m always a little bit nervous when it comes to devotional books. I’ve read some that I absolutely love and some that I really didn’t care for, and then many, many devotionals that seem to fall in the “That was okay” category. Am I little picky when it comes to devotionals? Probably. I’m always looking to be inspired and encouraged, but also to be left processing in a thought-provoking way. When it came to the season of Advent this year, I picked up Let Earth Receive Her King by T. Scott Daniels, and honestly read it much faster than the day to day layout of the book prescribes. This was exactly the kind of devotional reading I really enjoy.
The book is divided into four sections, each one covering one week and providing a daily devotional from the first Sunday of Advent all the way through December 24th. The devotionals themselves provide a daily Scripture reading, a devotional, a blessing, and questions with space to record answers. The first devotional of each week also contains a hymn for the week, which I definitely found myself humming as I read.
The devotional content is superb. Each day’s reading is thought-provoking, and provides historical background, insight into specific language, as well as anecdotes from the author’s own life. I never felt as though the stories overtook the devotion or became too loose to connect to the leading thought of the day. The questions are also very engaging and provide some excellent self-reflection.
Perhaps the only downfall of this book is that it is specifically dated for the 2020 year, so unless you do some creative date-swapping in future years, it might be difficult to read according to each week as presented here. Otherwise this is certainly worth the devotional read. I found myself highlighting throughout the book as Daniels really made me think and contemplate the meaning of this season, which I always appreciate when it comes to devotionals.
