Hi everyone!
This morning on the blog, I’m featuring Elizabeth:
wife & mother of two sweet boys from Oklahoma, and blogger over at sunshineinmynest, who I first connected with on Instagram. Today I’ll be sharing some of her top 2017 spiritual growth books. Elizabeth and I both believe in Jesus. We believe that we are sinners, in desperate need of a savior, and we have both come to know and place our hope and trust in Jesus as our savior. We are both passionate about being wives and mothers and showing Christ to our children in the everyday, mundane moments at home with our babies. It is truly special when the internet does something good, like connecting you with other believers that are miles apart, that can still encourage and inspire you to grow and step out in your faith. I have been encouraged many, many times as I have followed along with Elizabeth on her Instagram over a year ago! I hope you find a new read for 2018 from her booklist below. You can find the direct link for each book by simply clicking the title of the book!
Elizabeth read this book THREE times last year and she’s leading a Mom’s night out book study on this one this year now! She said it makes her so excited to be a mom and shows her how beautiful this calling can be! …This book is definitely on my booklist for my goal of reading 10 new books this year!
“How to make home your family’s favorite place to be …all year long.
Does your home sometimes feel like just a place to eat, sleep, and change clothes on the way to the next activity? Do you long for “home” to mean more than a place where you stash your stuff? Wouldn’t you love it to become a haven of warmth, rest, and joy . . . the one place where you and your family can’t wait to be?
There is good news waiting for you in the pages of The Lifegiving Home. Every day of your family’s life can be as special and important to you as it already is to God. In this unique book designed to help your family enjoy and celebrate every month of the year together, you’ll discover the secrets of a life-giving home from a mother who created one and her daughter who was raised in it: popular authors Sally and Sarah Clarkson. Together they offer a rich treasure of wise advice, spiritual principles, and practical suggestions. You’ll embark on a new path to creating special memories for your children; establishing home-building and God-centered traditions; and cultivating an environment in which your family will flourish.” -Amazon Description
This daily devotional by one of my favorite Christian woman authors is a devo 
that Elizabeth said helps her when she is feeling terrified about her kids rebelling and walking away from the faith, or even moral choices.
Daily encouragement for parents who realize the things they want most for their kids are things only God can do… so they pray.
As parents we want to protect our children; we want them to move forward in life; most importantly, we want them to take hold of and grow in Christ. And while the advice offered by parenting experts can be helpful, at some point we realize there are no simplistic formulas or sure-fire methods. We need wisdom from God’s Word for this all-important task.
In The One Year Praying through the Bible for Your Kids, trusted author Nancy Guthrie weaves together wisdom and insight from each day’s reading in The One Year Bible, providing encouragement through the triumphs and turbulence of parenting. Day by day you’ll find your dreams and desires for your children are becoming shaped more by Scripture than by the culture around you. Worry less, pray more, and help yourself to a daily dose of perspective, hope, and grace as you parent. -Amazon Description
Elizabeth is currently reading this with her husband, and after hearing her talk about it, is definitely a book I would like to look into reading with Dakota. Elizabeth said her and her husband did the video study over the summer with friends and it stimulated lots of good conversation for them. They are reading aloud the book to one another right now in the evening, and she said it is a short book, so it is definitely doable to spend a little time doing with your spouse each day!
Does your marriage fulfill your dreams? Are you not yet married but eager to wed? 
Are you afraid to marry because you’ve seen so few happy marriages?
R. C. Sproul offers this practical guide to help married couples—or those seeking to get married—develop the skills of marriage. Diligently scriptural, The Intimate Marriage shows how marriages can have an abundance of joy when grounded in the wisdom of God.
Sproul walks through some of the toughest things couples struggle with today: communication, sex, roles, divorce, anger, and more. He shares what the Bible says about each, as well as lessons he has learned from his own marriage of forty years.
“My hope is that your marriage will be an adventure, exciting and fulfilling,” says Sproul.
Questions at the end of each chapter will help couples apply these biblical principles to their marriages. -Amazon Description
Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible With Both Our Hearts And Our Minds: Jen Wilkin
Elizabeth said she enjoyed reading this book and gives you a quick view on how to inductive bible study. If you’re looking for a read that helps you in learning just HOW to study the bible, this sounds like a great read by another credited Christian woman author.
We all know it’s important to study God’s Word.
But sometimes it’s hard to know where to start. What’s more, a lack of time, emotionally driven approaches, and past frustrations can erode our resolve to keep growing in our knowledge of Scripture. How can we, as Christian women, keep our focus and sustain our passion when reading the Bible?
Offering a clear and concise plan to help women go deeper in their study of Scripture, this book will equip you to engage God’s Word in a way that trains your mind and transforms your heart.
These last two reads are Elizabeth’s all-time most helpful reads:
Timothy Keller is one of Dakota and I’s favorite Christian authors and our book shelf (that’s currently in storage) is typically filled with TK books, including this one. After learning this has been one of Elizabeth’s most helpful books in her Christian walk, I have to add this onto my 10 new books for 2018 goal list. Once I finally find the box it’s packed away in… I will be eager to begin reading it.
The New York Times bestselling author of the forthcoming God’s Wisdom for Navigating Life uncovers the essential message of Jesus, locked inside his most familiar parable.
Newsweek called renowned minister Timothy Keller “a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first
century” in a feature on his first book, The Reason for God. In that book, he offered a rational explanation of why we should believe in God. Now, in The Prodigal God, Keller takes his trademark intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and uses the parable of the prodigal son to reveal an unexpected message of hope and salvation.
Within that parable Jesus reveals God’s prodigal grace toward both the irreligious and the moralistic. This book will challenge both the devout and skeptics to see Christianity in a whole new way. -Amazon Description
Elizabeth said One way Love by Tullian Tchividjian showed her how radically she needed God. She said it showed her how sufficient His (Jesus) work on the cross was for her and that no matter her striving, what He had done was already enough.
This book sounds like an amazing read to help a person truly grasp the amazing grace of that the gospel brings a person! I am also adding this to my 10 new books for 2018 list. …Elizabeth is really helping me get a great start on this goal of mine this year with all these great recommendations! 🙂
encounter with God’s inexhaustible grace—His one-way love. Sadly, however, Christianity is perceived as being a vehicle for good behavior and clean living—and the judgments that result from them—rather than the only recourse for those who have failed over and over and over again. Tchividjian convincingly shows that Christianity is not about good people getting better. If anything, it is good news for bad people coping with their failure to be good.
withlovefromcourtney.com 