Book Review: Shopping for Time

This little gem just arrived last week. I'm rereading it now, with pink-ink-loaded pen in hand. I found it helpful and challenging on many levels.

What I liked:

The practical yet gracious tips for stewarding time with eternal goals in mind were so helpful.

I loved the glimpse into Carolyn's relationships with her daughters. I've wanted those kinds of relationships with my girls, but had no idea how to go about it. I'm getting a clearer picture.

The evaluation questions - not a list of rules, but questions to help each woman assess her priorities.

The gentle reminders that I'm not called to do everything, but to make sure I'm spending my time where the Lord wants me to spend it.

The sweet grace that infused the book. No standard ways of applying the principles, but lots of practical words of advice and encouragement to do what you can, not what others do.

The one thing I had to get past:

The shopping metaphor. I hate to shop and really don't understand the coupon clipping, sale brochure perusing, and time taken browsing through aisles upon aisles of things I neither want nor need. I'm more of a consumer hunter than a shopper, so when I do know what I want, I look online, find the website (or local store) with the lowest price (including shipping), and order it. {Oooh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is-a comin' down the street. Oh, please, let it be for me!}

I don't like going to stores and, more often than not, not finding the specific item I'm looking for. What a waste of time and energy. And yet, looking online, I've found some beautiful things that I love and that have lasted a long time and that just aren't available at the local mall. (It probably doesn't help that I don't like most of the women's clothing styles that are available right now, and haven't really for the last 15 years or so. I'm waiting for the sixties and seventies to go away (and never come back!) and the classic styles of the eighties to return. I see glimpses, but we've got a long way to go.)

I'm glad I pushed myself through the metaphor (I skimmed those parts) to get to the meat of this thought-provoking tome. I highly recommend it and will be purchasing copies for Anna, Judith, and Rebekah tomorrow so we can read it and discuss it together.

SDG!