At the beginning of this year, I decided to try listening to more audiobooks1 as an alternative to reading books in physical form. In 2018, I was able to get through three excellent books in audio format much more quickly than if I had attempted to read them, and I feel I got much more continuity out of the experience as well.
Life in Christ is about self-death, not self-care, and it’s the only path to real living.
- Lydia Brownback, Are Your Resolutions All About You?
Our family has finally recovered from more than a week-long stomach bug that was probably Norovirus. For most of us, the actual sickness didn’t last for more than a day or two (thank God!) but it took a while making its way through four kids and two parents.
After breakfast this morning, my oldest son noticed that his younger sister wasn’t feeling well. She recently had the stomach flu, so she was resting on the couch and sipping ginger ale until she felt better. Anyways, my son came to me and asked whether he could go to our greeting card stash and pick out a special card for his sister. I showed him a creative alternative, and soon he was writing his own “get well” card at the kitchen table.
This morning we didn’t go to church because of a stomach bug that has been slowly working its way through our family. Instead, I decided to look up a sermon online for our family to watch. I happened to come across the website of David Platt, and found video of a sermon he preached last year regarding the importance of valuing Christ over comfort. This was definitely thing thing we needed to watch as a family; it was very convicting for me and it started a great conversation between me and my wife.
After hearing a podcast episode on the Art of Manliness with the author of Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon, I was intrigued about the Apollo 8 mission and added the book to my reading list. It wasn’t until close to Christmas when I knew I’d have some time to do a bit of reading that I decided to pick it up.
