Brain Candy

Well, guess what. I managed to avoid Little Man's flu but have come down with a cold. Thankfully it's not too bad, but I have been feeling generally out of it and have been pampering myself with lazing around (as much as possible with a one year old son), drinking honey-lemon tea, eating chicken noodle soup, and reading brain candy books.

Now, when I read fiction, I usually like something classic and mentally stimulating. (Remember that this is the girl who devours anything Jane Austen and who thoroughly enjoyed her journey though Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.) But sometimes I need a mental break. Usually I turn to carefully chosen romances by Janette Oke or Grace Livingston Hill that while not super-intellectual, are at least solid in morals and encouraging in my walk with God.

Today I've been reading Grace Livingston Hill. She wrote over 100 books from the early 1900's through both world wars as a way of supporting herself and her daughters (I believe she was widowed). Most of her stuff is pretty fluffy, but it is clean, and rarely does she leave out an explanation of the Gospel. Her books provide good illustrations about how godly young people should respond to trying circumstances (I do have to laugh at some of the predicaments she puts her heroes and heroines in, though. That's part of the charm). ; )

Here's a particularly encouraging section that I found. The heroine muses:

"My King is all-powerful. What He has promised, I know He will
perform...I can trust Him perfectly to give me an allowance all the days of my
life of whatever I need. And yet, daily and hourly I distrust, and fear
and tremble, and dread lest I may be heft hungry some day. What a strange
contradiction, what an ungrateful, untrustful, unworthy child of the King I
am." Then she turned out her light and knelt to pray.

So, if you see some of her books at the thrift store and feel like you need some mental candy that is not entirely without nutritional value, you might want to see if you like it. (Be forewarned, though, that some of the 60's era cover illustrations look pretty skanky but have nothing to do with the content of the book.)

Anyhow, that's a whole lot of rambling on a not-too-important subject. Thanks for bearing with me.