| Personal Preferences |
| by Stephaney M. Beddow |
Your personal library of books sitting on your shelves
out in the open reflects much of what you aspire to be
or what helped to mold your values and character over
time. It also shows people what you would like them
to see about you.
When people walk into someone’s home, they often
see books that exist to educate, amuse, or impress.
These may even be books that have never been read by
their owner. They may look antiquated or have been
passed down through family and friends. Some of these
books give you the familiar feelings of who you were
before becoming an adult with so much burden and so
many decisions to be made and a comfort and reminder
of what the days were like when someone was there to
take care of you and provide for you when you had no
worries in the world.
They may remind you of the happiness of childhood or
the escapes you took as a child into these books. For
me personally, the books that I read as a child will
always be part of my personal library. I believe that
what has kept me reading them, even into my adult
life, is that anything can happen. When we were
growing up my father would ask us, “If the sky was the
limit what would you want?”, or “If money was no
object, what would you do?” Children’s books are a
reminder to me of those colorful and limitless
possibilities in life that no boundary can contain.
Your bedside or private books seem to hold a
different purpose. This set of books that you use, daily
or weekly, may be a better reflection of who you are
today, why you live the way you do, and why you make
the choices that you make day after day after day.
Your nightstand books may be the very source of
wisdom that helps to pull you through your day and
through the emotional ups and downs and insecurities
that try to defeat you. They strengthen and empower
you. We each have many roles in life. Whichever of the
many hats that you are wearing at that moment, you
feed yourself the words that will be embedded in your
heart, your mind, and ultimately on your tongue. These
words are released out of your mouth as you speak the
results of your understanding of these words into your
decision making and into the building up or tearing
down of others.
Many of us have a book that encourages us to dare
to live a different way and gives us courage to be who
we dream of being but can't without support. Daily
meditation books sit within our view every morning
that help us not to go back to a way of life that was
(continued)
out in the open reflects much of what you aspire to be
or what helped to mold your values and character over
time. It also shows people what you would like them
to see about you.
When people walk into someone’s home, they often
see books that exist to educate, amuse, or impress.
These may even be books that have never been read by
their owner. They may look antiquated or have been
passed down through family and friends. Some of these
books give you the familiar feelings of who you were
before becoming an adult with so much burden and so
many decisions to be made and a comfort and reminder
of what the days were like when someone was there to
take care of you and provide for you when you had no
worries in the world.
They may remind you of the happiness of childhood or
the escapes you took as a child into these books. For
me personally, the books that I read as a child will
always be part of my personal library. I believe that
what has kept me reading them, even into my adult
life, is that anything can happen. When we were
growing up my father would ask us, “If the sky was the
limit what would you want?”, or “If money was no
object, what would you do?” Children’s books are a
reminder to me of those colorful and limitless
possibilities in life that no boundary can contain.
Your bedside or private books seem to hold a
different purpose. This set of books that you use, daily
or weekly, may be a better reflection of who you are
today, why you live the way you do, and why you make
the choices that you make day after day after day.
Your nightstand books may be the very source of
wisdom that helps to pull you through your day and
through the emotional ups and downs and insecurities
that try to defeat you. They strengthen and empower
you. We each have many roles in life. Whichever of the
many hats that you are wearing at that moment, you
feed yourself the words that will be embedded in your
heart, your mind, and ultimately on your tongue. These
words are released out of your mouth as you speak the
results of your understanding of these words into your
decision making and into the building up or tearing
down of others.
Many of us have a book that encourages us to dare
to live a different way and gives us courage to be who
we dream of being but can't without support. Daily
meditation books sit within our view every morning
that help us not to go back to a way of life that was
(continued)
|
causing personal destruction.
It’s undeniable that so many of us lean on the
life map of our Bible, given to us by our Creator.
This is the one book that has the end all answers.
This is the one book that we may or may not open
every day, but just the comfort of knowing it’s there
warms us. This book, hopefully, inspired you to
become who you are, reminds you where you are
standing and why, and urges you forth in your life
one step at a time. It shows you where you will be
and the comfort, love, peace, and joy that lays
ahead.
When you pick up a crossword puzzle or word find
book from your nightstand, is it because you know
there is a concrete solution and it helps you to
forget that you need solutions to your own problems
in life? What about a fictional Christian book? Are
you drawn to it because it gives you those
daydreams of superhero powers that inspire and
motivate you to go out into the world and save the
lost? Do the parenting books there reassure you that
you have obtained the skills necessary to cultivate
and groom a young life and grow it into a well
rounded contribution to society and that you have
what it takes to be that nurturing mother or father
that you aspire to be? Do you have books by your
side with characters, fiction or non-fiction, that live
just like you do? Do these characters give you that
feeling of unity, have similar illnesses, share in the
joy of parenthood, or live in grief and unfamiliar
territory with unexpected events just like you do?
Books helped to create you and mold you. Books
inspired others to create the situations and events
that adversely surround and affect you every day.
What did you read that you still remember that one
sentence or quote that strengthens you to believe
what you do? What book do you see the cover of
everyday that helps make you what you are?
Choose your books carefully. Don’t just have
books to amuse and impress, but have books with a
purpose. Be who you are and make the decisions you
make, but do this knowing where you came from and
where you are heading. The books we surround
ourselves with will build up or destroy our entire
being and ultimately those around us. Have a
personal library built from books that you remember
from your past. These should be books that educate
you, that you can refer to, that can comfort you, and
that you remember as a child that helped to grow
you.
At the same time, have a stack of books readily
available that you can see, read and touch everyday
that will give you the knowledge and wisdom that
will help take you in the direction that you want to
go in. These will help you to build the type of true
character that you desire.
It’s undeniable that so many of us lean on the
life map of our Bible, given to us by our Creator.
This is the one book that has the end all answers.
This is the one book that we may or may not open
every day, but just the comfort of knowing it’s there
warms us. This book, hopefully, inspired you to
become who you are, reminds you where you are
standing and why, and urges you forth in your life
one step at a time. It shows you where you will be
and the comfort, love, peace, and joy that lays
ahead.
When you pick up a crossword puzzle or word find
book from your nightstand, is it because you know
there is a concrete solution and it helps you to
forget that you need solutions to your own problems
in life? What about a fictional Christian book? Are
you drawn to it because it gives you those
daydreams of superhero powers that inspire and
motivate you to go out into the world and save the
lost? Do the parenting books there reassure you that
you have obtained the skills necessary to cultivate
and groom a young life and grow it into a well
rounded contribution to society and that you have
what it takes to be that nurturing mother or father
that you aspire to be? Do you have books by your
side with characters, fiction or non-fiction, that live
just like you do? Do these characters give you that
feeling of unity, have similar illnesses, share in the
joy of parenthood, or live in grief and unfamiliar
territory with unexpected events just like you do?
Books helped to create you and mold you. Books
inspired others to create the situations and events
that adversely surround and affect you every day.
What did you read that you still remember that one
sentence or quote that strengthens you to believe
what you do? What book do you see the cover of
everyday that helps make you what you are?
Choose your books carefully. Don’t just have
books to amuse and impress, but have books with a
purpose. Be who you are and make the decisions you
make, but do this knowing where you came from and
where you are heading. The books we surround
ourselves with will build up or destroy our entire
being and ultimately those around us. Have a
personal library built from books that you remember
from your past. These should be books that educate
you, that you can refer to, that can comfort you, and
that you remember as a child that helped to grow
you.
At the same time, have a stack of books readily
available that you can see, read and touch everyday
that will give you the knowledge and wisdom that
will help take you in the direction that you want to
go in. These will help you to build the type of true
character that you desire.
What books do your friends, family
and guests see when they walk
into your home? Do they see what
you want them to see or do they
see the composite of your true
character?
and guests see when they walk
into your home? Do they see what
you want them to see or do they
see the composite of your true
character?
| Stephaney Beddow's Previous Columns: January 2010 Books With Purpose July 2009 A Passion For Book Dealing Comments and questions for Stephaney Beddow can be sent to stephaney@braxtonbooks.com |
| Books With Purpose |