Sitting and waiting at doctors’ offices or riding long hours to visit new doctors hundreds of miles away has given me a little time for reading, and one of the books in my bag this week is Revived & Renovated: Real Life Conversations on the Intersection of Home, Faith and Everything in Between by Victoria Duerstock and Paige Rien.
Being able to review books is one of my favorite parts of blogging, and when the opportunity to read and review this book came up, I jumped at it.
Why?
Well, to be honest, I live in an ongoing renovation. Literally and figuratively.
My home is older and in need of some fixing up, which is not always easy to do with four kids running around.
My life…well, it’s a work in progress, too.
That’s what grabbed me from page one of this book. The authors take all the words we associate with HGTV and relate them to our real lives.
Revive, renovate, restore, renew, repurpose, recover….just to name a few.
All things I want to do in my home, as well as things I want to see the Lord do in my life.
Victoria and Paige approach the book as an ongoing conversation and offer tips for looking at your home in new ways, as well as for approaching your life with fresh perspective.
Chapter One hit on the current theme of my days: do the next right thing.
Reading it, I felt freed from the overwhelm of ALL THE THINGS through encouragement to do just the next thing. That applies to my life (hello, constant errands, endless texts and loads of laundry) and to my home. I can’t refinish my kitchen floor today, but I can mop it.
There’s encouragement in that, isn’t there?
I love the fresh perspective on things like being repurposed. I’ve never really thought about why we recover or repurpose furniture, but the reason is simple: to take something we love and make it more useful.
Doesn’t God do the same with us?
The process isn’t always easy, but the results? Beautiful.
I’m excited to look at the renovation needs around my home with fresh eyes, and I’m even more excited to know that God is still working on me, too.
And, do you know what? He actually completes his projects.
“He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)
You can learn more about the book Revived and Renovated here, and if you’d like, be sure to enter this giveaway for a chance to win your own copy!
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Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for free so that I could review it. I also received compensation but was not expected to offer a positive review. The opinions above are my own!