I've always loved reading anything I could about Billy Graham. Ever since my psychology teacher (my favorite teacher of all time, Mrs. Sherry Schippers!) my senior year of high school explained how she'd once been in the same room with him, and could just tell that he was a man whose greatest desire was to follow Jesus with all he had. A year or so later while attending Taylor University majoring in Christian Education, her description of him still lingered in my mind. But it wasn't just his life that interested me, but that of his wife, Ruth Bell Graham. I remember, specifically, that when they met soon after he'd transferred to Wheaton College, he simply knew as soon as their eyes met, that he was going to marry her. Likewise, Ruth was just as impressed, and could somehow tell that he was more interested in pleasing God than any other man she'd ever met.
And that was the main reason I've been so transfixed by this couple.
If two such people who loved God so much, who were seeking God's will for their lives, and obeying HIM were able to recognize their soul-mate with such precision—I wanted to be just like them. I prayed that I would be able to live so God-focused and obediently that when I met my future husband, I would also know. And you know what? God answered that prayer. It wasn't right away, of course. And it didn't come without a few bumps in the road from my getting a little side-tracked by life-- but when I finally woke up and turned my brain back on, broke up with my "friend-relationship" I'd been trying to make into a "dating-relationship" for about three years—I almost immediately met Jonathan (my wonderful made-for-me soul-mate husband). And just like Billy Graham and Ruth Bell met and knew back in 1942—Jonathan and I met and knew in 2003.
I've read plenty of books about Billy Graham and Ruth Bell Graham throughout the years, but never a book consisting of such a compilation of quotes regarding everything you could think of!
I loved having all this wisdom and knowledge at my fingertips and look forward to using these quotes in the woman's ministry newsletter that I help write for my church.
I received a free hard copy of this book from BookSneeze in return for giving my honest opinion and review. I give this book 5 stars.
4 comments:
Great review, Dawn. I love how Billy and Ruth met, that they just knew the other person was The One. That's so beautiful. It's a blessing that you and your husband shared a similar experience. True love :-)
Dawn, I too have always loved reading about Billy Graham's life, and I'm transfixed by anything pertaining to his devoted, loving wife, Ruth. I once read that while she was raising her slew of kids in Billy's absence, she sometimes didn't have time to read her Bible and pray as much as she wanted, so she left a Bible open in almost every room of her house. If she had a few spare minutes while breezing through a room she would sit down right there and read and pray.
ALSO...I WANTED TO TELL YOU that you are the winner of my drawing for a copy of my "Daughters of Jacob Kane" series!!!! So, could you please send me your mailing address so I can ship these out to you hopefully by tomorrow?
You can send your address to:
smac(at)chartermi(dot)net
Hope to hear from you soon, Dawn. (((Hugs)))
Thanks for the review and I loved your story. Would love to hear more about your meeting with your hubby. I'm sensing a sweet romantic story here. :)
Thanks, Sheri!!! Maybe I'll work more of the story into one of my reviews. :D
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