Life Lessons from The Muir House

I was there when the idea for a blog tour surrounding The Muir House was planted and quickly grew into life. When Mary DeMuth asked, “Who would like to participate?” I immediately threw my name into the hat. I get to help a friend out, read a new book, and have a new adventure in blogging. Sign me up!

I learned a couple things from reading The Muir House that I’d like to share with you here, today.

First, Mary knows how to write.

Her writing style has the rare ability to pull out emotions from me (something not all that common for me when I read books). Just this week while talking to Skye I likened Mary’s writing ability to that of whoever writes Law and Order. And while I’m certain there are varying opinions as to the writer’s ability on that show, I think who ever does it is phenomenal. Why? Because I can’t watch an episode of Law and Order without feeling the pain of the victim, going through the frustrations of the detectives and attorneys, and finally tasting either defeat or victory in the courtroom. Mary writes in the same way… phenomenally. In just a few short chapters Mary was pulling emotions out of me that haven’t seen the light of day in some time.

However, I try not to watch Law and Order because it pulls out too many emotions. I feel too much pain. I get too frustrated. I have made myself physically sick when a show doesn’t turn out the way I think it should. The Muir House is like that for me.

Mary is so successful in pulling me into the story and having me feel the pain of Willa and the frustrations of Willa that after just a few chapters I rifled off an email and told Mary that I kept getting extremely upset over the storyline.

For me, and my neanderthal approach to emotions, it was overwhelming.

The second thing I want to draw your attention to are the life lessons that run deep in the book.

Originally, I intended on only addressing a few of the lessons in this entire post, however, that all changed in light of the week I’m having.

Now, I want to point out a few of the lines that rang so true in my own heart and delve further in only one of the lessons.

Here are the lessons that I think we could all learn from and should dwell upon:

We all have things from our past that bewilder us. ~ Blake pg 139

Family’s the people who love you well, who go out of their way to bless you. ~Rheus pg 148

I think a man’s as good as he treats those he loves. ~ Hale pg 211

Don’t let life happen to you. Make life happen. ~ Rebbie pg 283

However, there is one life lesson that has really hit home with me this week, and that is this:

Seems God had to strike me with [something] to get my attention. pg 311

When I read that sentence I stopped. It’s mid paragraph… I never stop mid paragraph. But I did this time. I stopped and said, “This is how I am. This is what God has to do to get my attention.”

In order for Skye to get a point across that I don’t want to see, she has to go extreme. Over the top. Make the point so big, so bold, so painful that there is absolutely no way I can miss it. Otherwise I more than likely will.

I do the same with God. If He wants me to do something He has to tell me multiple times. In louder voices or through more painful circumstances. Otherwise I’ll ignore Him. I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing.

And typically I’ll end up going back to God when it all falls apart shouting, “Why’d you let this happen God?! Why didn’t you warn me?!?!”

This week I’ve been confronted yet again with how I am slowly but surely destroying my health and welfare. This time, instead of it being stress and anger and frustration, it’s my diet. Realistically I should replace the former “instead of” with “in addition to”.

And this confrontation, combined with the health issues that spurred me leaving my job to go full time self employed, has rocked my world to the core.

So when I read those words, “Seems God had to strike me with [something] to get my attention.” I knew I needed to focus on them. I knew I needed to share with you.

Why?

Because I hope and pray that you are smarter than me. That you are not as stubborn. That you are not as full of your own wisdom and intelligence. So that when God speaks to you, you listen. Don’t make God strike you with something to get your attention.

Listen to Him.

Watch for Him.

Heed His wisdom and guidance.

So that when the time comes you can live a life not wasted.

You can live the life you were intended for.

~Ivan

If you’d like to find out more about The Muir House blog tour, please visit here. Yesterdays post by Augusto Pinaud can be found here. And be sure to keep your eye’s out for Monday’s post by Leanne Penny which can be found here.