The Warren & The World Vol 13, Issue 23

ByCarolyn Clare Givens

It’s time for summer travel, which means time with family and adventures—those times can be a ton of fun, and they also can be full of stress. As you’re adventuring, remember that being together is just as important as the adventures at hand. 

Around the Web

HALT-B: I don’t do all that well with tired

The folks at A Life Overseas have a great piece up on how to check yourself when you’re on your way to making poor choices about how to react to your family—or anyone else!

  • HALT-B stands for things that can lead us to make poor choices. Poor choices can lead to sin and distance and shame and regret. While none of us are at our best when we are hungry-angry-lonely-tired-or-bored, some will be easier to roll with than others.
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Depictions and Derisions

Selah Bell writes on the power of illustrated middle grade novels.

  • This week, I downloaded a copy of George MacDonald’s book Phantastes. I don’t always read prefaces but this one was very short so I read it and found that in listing the reasons for this specific edition, George MacDonald’s son Greville MacDonald had written the following, “The first is to rescue the work from an edition illustrated without the author’s sanction, and so unsuitably that all lovers of the book must have experienced some real grief in turning its pages.”
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*The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson

Hayley at Redeemed Reader has a starred review of an Anna Rose Johnson book.

  • 1940, England: as war threatens, one family journeys to Wisconsin for a fresh start in The Blossoming Summer.
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Entering into the Joy of Others

Lisa Updike shares the practice of entering joy.

  • Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a blessed ebb and flow of challenge and loss, peace and rest. Joy and sadness. Births and deaths. Serving and receiving. And though we intellectually understand that we will have trouble in life, it still can catch us off guard. When the time of trouble persists, we cry out like the psalmist did, “How long, Lord?” We wonder, “Does the Lord even see me?” If we are in a particularly long, hard season we may wonder why the Lord is richly blessing others and not us. Well, at least that’s what I do. My guess is that I am not alone.
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Around the Warren

Review: The Outsider

Adam Huntley reviews a retelling of the book of Ruth.

  • I’ve read the book of Ruth scores of times, in five different languages, two of which I actively contributed to translating into minority languages of Central Africa: Gbaya and Bhogoto. I’ve written a scholarly article on one of its verses. Even my wife’s name is Ruth. When we got married, the pastor’s sermon was tongue-in-cheek-entitled, “It’s All About Ruth.” In thirty minutes, he summarized the whole book. I love this story. It is woven into my days as beautifully as Ruth’s life was woven together with Boaz’s.
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Summer on the Mountain

Sarah Dixon Young tells the tale of the story spoon.

  • There’s an iconic photograph of my grandmother holding the story spoon.
    The story spoon was just a regular, long-handled, wooden spoon, but in her hand, it became a fairy’s tail, a magic wand, a hooked witch’s nose, a shovel, or a tiger’s claw. My brother and I spent summers with her in the mountains of North Carolina, and we were never bored. With just a simple wooden spoon, she would mesmerize us in the hangry time before supper.
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Something to Do with Your Kids

It’s the time of year to get messy and make art. Try this fun foot painting!

Something to Watch

Destin at Smarter Every Day explores impact flashes—a mysterious event that occurs when two objects strike at high speed.

Thanks for reading. We’re on your side. 

–The Story Warren Team

Carolyn Clare Givens
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