Reading

Books about Books

Rebekah MattLeave a comment

Fellow readers, why do we love so much to read books about books and reading? This category of books is so large that you could probably devote an entire year to it and never run out of reading material.

Just recently, I read three fairly short books back-to-back about books and reading—not intentionally, though. One was a book my son was reading for his high school English class (and I’m his teacher, so I read it, too). One was a mostly-forgotten classic that I was lucky to find even one copy of in my library’s catalog of nearly 5 million items. And one was an Amazon suggestion that I had first read 30 years ago.

Two are fiction; one is nonfiction. Two are delightful and charming (even laugh-out-loud funny); one is chillingly prescient. Their publication dates span fifty-three years, and reflect the tremendous changes of the early to mid-twentieth century. Here’s my take on each of these very different books, followed by a list of other books about books that I’ve loved … and a few that I haven’t.

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Faith

“Trust in the Lord” … But How?

Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Back when my husband and I first became Christians, one of the passages that we most loved in our brand-new Bibles was this one: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

For two people who had been leaning very much on our own understanding, the idea of trusting in God was both a welcome challenge and a restful change. We spoke often of this new concept and we frequently reminded each other to trust God in difficult situations. Throughout our 30 years of marriage, I suppose I had always thought that we were fully on the same page when it came to trusting God … but a chance conversation recently made me realize that trusting God doesn’t always look the same for everyone.

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Faith

Show Up for What God Has for You

Rebekah Matt7 Comments

What’s more comfortable than getting up before dawn on a cold winter morning?

Staying in bed, that’s what.

But for the past couple of years (including cold winter mornings), I’ve been getting up early and going to the gym. Not every day, of course—just a few times a week. And before you jump to conclusions about the kind of person I am based on what I just wrote …

If you took into account every single year of my life up until I was in my 50s, “going to the gym” was a completely foreign and detestable concept to me. It could not have been more out of character or less expected in my life. But somehow I’ve developed this new habit, and sure enough, it’s paying off in terms of my health and fitness. Not only that, I’ve grown to really enjoy it and I miss it when I can’t go.

This article isn’t to encourage you to go to the gym, though. It’s also not about those Bible verses on the benefits of rising early (unless you want to read them—which is entirely optional: Mark 1:35, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 5:3, Psalm 119:147).

What I really want to talk about is that no-filter picture above, of a gorgeous sunrise. The sunrise that I never would have seen if I hadn’t made a difficult decision, months before, to move past my inertia and my fear of change and my feelings of intimidation.

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Reading

My Year-End Favorite Book List – 2023

Rebekah Matt2 Comments

I love year-end “best of” reading lists. I love the ones from people whose reading tastes I mostly share (for obvious reasons), but I’m also interested in lists from people who I’m pretty sure I have very little in common with. Because a reader is a reader, and even if we are not alike in other ways, we both love books. If someone loves them enough to make public their honest year-end favorite book list, then more likely than not, I’m happy to look at it.

I only started keeping an actual “books I’ve read” list in 2018. Why it took me so long, I’ll never know. What I would give today if I had a list like this for every year of my life. If you’re not already keeping a list, I encourage you to start in 2024!

That said, here are my favorite books that I read in 2023:

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Parenting

Not Neurotypical: A Love Story

Rebekah Matt8 Comments

Neurodivergence is the water that I swim in.

As a child, I knew from a very early age that I was “different.” Different from my family, teachers, and classmates, and as I got older, different from my coworkers, neighbors, and extended family. I knew this in my heart, and I also knew it because people told me—and, especially in childhood, usually not in positive ways.

Now, “neurodiversity” wasn’t a term for most of my life, and I had to somehow define or name this thing about me, so I thought of myself as a “black sheep.” I had no other word for my differences, those things about me that I had been told to keep hidden, so that I would fit in with others, have friends, and not be so weird.

In God’s good plan, I married a man who was also “different.” Not in all the same ways that I was different, but still. He was clearly swimming in neurodivergent waters, and we had an immediate “You, too!?” connection. In retrospect, it’s not surprising that we, being two “black sheep” kinds of people, would produce children who (mostly) did not fit into the typical mold. And yet, for whatever reason, I was completely surprised and unprepared when I gave birth to a not-neurotypical child.

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Faith

That Bible Verse You Don’t Like and What to Do About It

Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Out of the 31,102 verses in the Bible, it’s entirely possible that you don’t necessarily like every single one of them. That some of them might actually get under your skin.

There may be a particular verse that causes a reflexive bristling or even an eye-roll—if not outwardly, then in your heart. Something that annoys you or angers you. A phrase that scares you a bit, or causes you to question the goodness of God. A verse that you choose to ignore rather than confront.

What are some Bible verses that a reader, even a Christian reader, might not like? Here are some examples I came up with off the top of my head:

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Parenting

“My Greatest Accomplishment”—I Get it Now, Mom

Rebekah Matt7 Comments

My mom’s 40th class reunion was coming up, and in preparation for that, she had to tell them her greatest accomplishment so they could put it in the program next to her name.

“It’s you,” she told me. “I’m going to put that my daughter is my greatest accomplishment.” Then, with matter-of-fact truthfulness, “I don’t have anything else to put anyway, but even if I did, I would put you, because you’ll always be my greatest accomplishment.”

We were talking on the phone when we had this conversation—her in a recliner in the living room of her trailer, with a book in her lap and a cat on the nearby couch; me in my tiny kitchen, tethered to the wall by a stretched-out phone cord, stirring a pot on the stove and keeping one eye on my toddler and preschooler.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard her say this, but I’d never really understood it. What did she mean, I was her “greatest accomplishment”?

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Reading

Same House, Different Worlds: A Mother-Daughter Reading Story

Rebekah Matt2 Comments

Shared interests are one of the best things about having kids.

At some point, Lord willing, they will begin to love something that you love: Hunting or fishing. Gardening or cooking. Baseball, running, or golf. Cars, trains, or motorcycles. Concerts, movies, or video games. Dogs, cats, or babies. Crocheting or carving wood. Those times when you bond with one of your offspring over a shared love of [whatever] are some of the priceless payoff moments of having children, for sure.

My mother and I both loved to read—we bonded over books we discovered together, books we gave to each other, books we couldn’t wait to discuss, books that inspired us, puzzled us, and made us swoon. My mom and I didn’t have much in common, but from my childhood through my mid-forties when she passed away, books were our common ground. 

So naturally when I had a daughter of my own, I eagerly anticipated sharing books together, reading in tandem, and the wonderful discussions that would follow. (I just assumed she’d be a reader; the possibility of two book-loving parents having a child who did not even like to read never once entered my head back then.)

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Faith

My Church Dissolved—But Did It Fail?

Rebekah Matt5 Comments

Have you ever been through a church dissolution? Either a church you helped start from the beginning or you were simply present at the end?

I have.

Twenty years ago this month, my family was part of a core group that planted a church. Forty-seven people were bound together by shared dreams, exciting plans, multigenerational camaraderie, a love for the gospel, and high hopes for what we envisioned years down the road: a strong, healthy congregation, a building of our own, and God’s Word being preached, taught, and shared with others. God was doing a good work, and we had the incredible opportunity to be his hands and feet, establishing a new church in a new place for his glory.

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