Kay Warren

show more 當看到週遭的人需要憐憫與幫助的時候，儘管心生同情，但你有勇氣伸出援助的手嗎？還是自忖無力以對，就悄然離開呢？當面對許多慘不忍睹與令人驚懼的景況時，你能克服自己人性的軟弱，勇敢的走進其中嗎？華凱怡赤裸裸地直指我們漠視人們需要的問題核心，就在於未能對主「降服」。
向上帝降服並不容易，膽怯者絕對做不到。
向上帝降服是你所能踏出最勇敢也是最危險的一步。
勇敢的降服會帶來喜樂和痛苦，悲傷和歡欣，但卻能使你比以前更深地認識上帝。華凱怡踏出了那一步，選擇勇敢地向上帝降服。這決定改變了她的生命、婚姻和未來。她邀請你也作出同樣的決定。

《勇敢的降服》是一本充滿勇氣的書；書中沒有偽裝，也沒有矯揉造作。閱讀這本書可能不會給你輕鬆、愉快的感受，但假如你渴望追尋更清楚的人生目標，那你就適合閱讀《勇敢的降服》這本書了。書中每章的最後會列出幾個簡單的步驟，可以幫助你開始實踐向上帝降服的原則。這些步驟看起來好像都非常基本淺顯，但是有特意設計的，目的是讓你可以清楚掌握降服的真義。書後附有「小組討論指南」，除了可以幫助你整理出你的閱讀心得和感想外，幫助你在思索如何回應書中內容的同時，引導你去改變你的思想和行為。
華凱怡介紹了許多對上帝說「我願意」，並且為世界帶來了美好改變的人。他們運用了他們的技術、能力、信心以及願意冒險的決心，成為上帝手中強而有力的器皿和工具。你信靠上帝嗎？你也能像他們一樣！ 請你準備好來接受挑戰，接受安慰，接受定罪，接受催迫，也準備好被改變。向主降服並非「最佳」的生活方式，乃是「唯一」的生活方式。 show less

I love the picture of Christ as joyous. I love thinking about the context of his words with his disciples and thinking of him not being condescending but encouraging. The Winnie the Pooh analogy for personalities was . It’s not easy to choose joy no matter what your personality type is.

When fighting with your husband or others, you have to change your thinking, realign it with Christ’s words, before you can change your feelings.

“If there is a secret to joy, this is it: choose the show more eternal over the temporary. show less

I’m always a little hesitant to read books like this one, with the sun-shiny cover and the flowers and the gold ink letters. Thankfully this book didn’t feel as fluffy as the cover, though I didn’t find it particularly new or captivating either. In the book, Warren defines joy as “the settled assurance that God is in control and all the details of my life, the quiet confidence that ultimately everything is going to be all right, and the determined choice to praise God in all show more things.” I think this is a very astute (though it doesn’t contain nearly enough exclamation points). She talks about joy and sorrow running as parallel train tracks, “running inseparably throughout our days… One of the toughest challenges in life is to learn how to live on both of those tracks at the same time.”

But how do we do this? Throughout the book, she gives some good real-world examples of how to cultivate more joy in life, such a focusing on grace, trusting God for the future, creating balance in life, and practicing acceptance. She also talks about how to be a joy-builder in the lives of the people around us, instead of a joy killer. For me, the idea that stood out most was to “avoid the small potatoes.” These are the stupid little things that get to me throughout the day. Little annoyances that turn into complaints. These complaints can launch me into a bad mood, and sap all my joy for that day. Just this morning I was all grumbly because this pigeon was cooooooing outside my bedroom window. Instead of just shutting the window, I lay there, saying, “Leave, evil pigeon!” over and over. It never left, and I never went back to sleep.

As Tim Hansel said, “Pain is inevitable, but misery is optional. We cannot avoid pain, but we can avoid joy.” Warren makes a good case for joy being an active choice, one that we have to daily choose to make.

Read my full review here: http://letseatgrandpa.com/2012/05/25/book-review-29-choose-joy-by-kay-warren/ show less

This is a fantastic resource for ministry wives! Kay is open and honest about her struggles and hard times and gives practical and very biblical answers for how to live our lives before God and His people. I highly recommend this to all ministry wives out there no matter your age but if you are just starting out read this immediately and it might make the path a bit smoother. I wish I had read something like this 28 years ago when we first started.