Patriots and Providence

#28: Watch every Best Picture Oscar winner from 1961-2013.
"Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time...That's why Americans have never lost, and will never lose a war...because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans."
Sounds like a good line for Independence Day, right? Well, I thought so too. It was the perfect day to watch a movie like Patton. Actually, if you happened to see the Tracking page sometime in the last couple of months, you might've noticed that Patton was marked "in progress." That's because we actually started watching it on April 30th, but had to stop because we were falling asleep! (Not that the movie was boring; we were just really tired.) We kept meaning to pick up where we left off, but every time we thought about it, we were always in the mood to watch something else. By July 4th, it'd been so long since we started it, we ended up just watching it from the beginning again! Anyway, it was really good. I never really knew very much about the famous WWII general besides what everyone reads in history books, but the movie gave me a glimpse of his personality in addition to everything he did during the war. I've also discovered that I really like historical dramas, which is fortunate, because historical dramas make up a good portion of the movies I have left to watch...!

#10: Read 30 non-academic books.
Wednesday night, I finished My Husband Wants to Be a Church Planter...So What Will That Make Me? Long title, good book. Each chapter was written by a different person and addressed different aspects of balancing church planting with family life: things like how your children might be affected, money management, time management, dealing with loneliness, finding your role within the new church, and making time for your husband amidst the madness. I started reading this with the ladies in my small group, since every couple in the group has a mutual interest in church planting. We got through the first several chapters, but we were all coming and going out of town so often that it was rare to have a Sunday evening when all five of us were together to discuss what we'd read. Anyway, I think it was really helpful. Most of the women who wrote chapters are church-planting wives themselves; it was nice to be reminded that there are plenty of people who have been down the same road we're thinking of taking. It is possible to plant a church, and it is possible to keep your sanity and keep your family first in the process. God is faithful; where He guides, He provides. What a comfort!