It's been a week....

...and I've successfully managed to avoid the "Merry Christmas" blog that always seems necessary. I DO hope that everyone had a very good, safe and relaxing Christmas (and boxing day).

I always look forward to getting books for Christmas, and I thought that I would list some of the authors that I'm excited to read this year. The first book is a book on marriage that Kristin and I are going to work through together, slowly reading and discussing (as it includes questions!) over the next few months. It's called "Sacred Marriage: What if God designed marriage to make us Holy more than to make us Happy?" by Gary Thomas.

This is not to imply that we're not happy (we are!), only to suggest that Kristin and I intend to always seek God in our lives - and we'd like to seek to honor and know God more fully through our marriage. As we work through this book, I'll be sure to drop quotes and thoughts for your encouragement.

Other authors that are "on deck" are DA Carson, CJ Mahaney, JI Packer, John Piper and RJ Foster. Should be a good year! I also hope to pick up some fiction from Dekker and/or Peretti. As always, I'll keep you posted.

I also hope to enjoy past and future editions of TableTalk and Christian Research Journal magazines!

What will you read this year?

I hope to post my reflections on Chapter 1 of Sacred Marriage in the next day or two, titled "The Greatest Challenge in the World: A Call to Holiness More Than Happiness", but in the meantime, here's a quote from WH Auden that appears at the beginning of the book.

Like everything which is not the involuntary result of fleeting emotion but the creation of time and will, any marriage, happy or unhappy, is infinitely more interesting than any romance, however passionate.