PUT THAT BOOK DOWN AND EAT YOUR DINNER!!!

Those are words that I never expected anyone to direct to ME. Very few times in my adulthood, has anyone had to encourage me to eat anything. But, NEVER in my entire lifetime did anyone need to coax me away from reading a book. I've always had many other things that I would prefer to be doing than reading any old book.

You know me. I L-O-V-E writing but until tonight, I never had much desire to read anything. Well, that's not quite truthful. In high school, I read Billy Graham's "Book of Angels" from cover to cover and loved every single page of it. That is the only book that I read in it's entirety except for the girls' story books. Leighlyn pointed out the other day that when I began reading "chapter" books to them, I would read the first chapter or two and then simply lose interest. The girls would then finish reading the books if they were interested in the ending. (I was able to finish their storybooks. LOL!!!)

How I became this way, is a mystery to me. Daddy loved reading westerns that were written long before he was even a twinkle in his father's eye. Mama is a school teacher. If she ever had a spare moment left over at the end of the day after grading papers, etc, she enjoyed reading love stories. That didn't happen often enough though. For much of my childhood, Mama took class after class during weekends and summers as she went from having her Bachellors Degree all of the way to receiving her Masters Degree in Education. She read a multitude of books along the way.

Lori prefered to do little more that read when she was a child. Ha! Ha! Our family laughs today when we remember how many times Lori isolated herself in the bathroom with a book while Lona Sue and I cleaned house. Lori loved all types of books but somehow, she never seemed that interested in reading "The Ins and Outs of Modern Day Housekeeping". LOL!!! Though I despiced her reading back then, I can tell you that I am quite impressed with all of her knowledge and wisdom today. Much of that came from the books she read.

Lona Sue was the scholar of the family. (Actually, I was the only one who was not! LOL!) Reading was one of her strong points, too. This is embarrassing but that is not going to stop me from telling you about it anyway. Ha! In high school, I was supposed to write a report on some country. Though I was able to write book report after book report and get "A's" on each of them, faking a report on a foreign country wasn't going to cut it. So, when I was 16 and Lona Sue was 6, Lona Sue offered to read the encyclopedia for me. Between Lona Sue and me, I got an "A" on that report also!

Fast forward to March 9th, 2011. Remember last week when I posted information about Todd Burpos's "Heaven is for Real"? Well, I ordered the book over the internet. Within a couple of days, it was delivered right to our front door. Though I wanted to start reading it right away, things didn't turn out for me to do that until today when I was battling the virus that has been dealing with our family as of late. It really seemed strange to reach for an adult book! Ha! But, like Billy Graham's "Book of Angels", this book is a toughie to put down. I am almost to Chapter 3 already. Not bad for reading for less than an hour!

If you have already read this #1 New York Times Bestseller, you know exactly what I am talking about. Let me tell you if you are interested in reading a book that will touch your life F--O--R--E--V--E--R, reach for this book.

Rev. Burpo and his assistant, Lynn Vincent, have done an outstanding job of keeping the wording simple enough for just about everyone. It is anything but dry reading. Humor is mixed in frequently which really helps to keep this story human.

I urge A-L-L of you to purchase, borrow, anything except steal, this book! If you have any doubts what-so-ever if God and Heaven exist, you won't have any problem believing after you begin reading this book.

If you would like to be put on my list for borrowing my book when I finish reading it, send me an email to slblaus@gmail.com, call me at 375.4584 or leave a comment under this post.

VLE-B