If you clean your room I'll take you to the library...

Isn't reading the best? I forget how much I love it until I find the time to get back into my books, and suddenly I'm craving the days when my mom would take my sister and I to the library and we'd leave with stacks of books so high we could barely carry them. Or, when going to the bookstore to choose one new book seemed like the greatest prize in the world. I remember the time when my pick was, The Very Quiet Cricket, by Eric Carle. Upon opening the last page the book made a chirping cricket noise. This special effect clearly blew my six-year-old mind. I don't know if, "extreme excitement," even adequately describes how incredibly cool that was. The memory that is probably my most favorite takes me back to the nights when my mom used to read chapter books to us. We'd all gather around her in my parents big bed, and listen intently, completely captivated by the images we were reeling in our heads. Bottom line; Reading is amazing. This past week I've been reading C.S. Lewis', Mere Christianity. It is great. Really insightful, and thought provoking. I read over this quote last night, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

“The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of putting yourself first—wanting to be the centre—wanting to be God, in fact. That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a mistake. . . . What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come . . . the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

What a profound and truthful statement for our day. Everyone is seeking to make themselves happy, and everyone is looking everywhere else, but the right place. It is only when we turn our lives over to the Lord, and we focus on becoming Christ-like, that we will truly ever be happy. I had a teacher who would always use the expression, "turn your arrows outward." I love that. We have been promised that those who lose themselves in Christ will find true happiness. I take that to mean, maybe if we'd all stop focusing on trying to make ourselves happy, and we aimed to serve others we would actually be happy. I know this is definitely something I can work on.