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book review

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Book Review: “Tackling the Taboo” by Terica Turner

Posted on July 21, 2023

I’ve known Terica for about 18 years. Through those years I have come to love her deeply.  I have hurt with her as she’s traveled some difficult paths and endured some heartbreaking losses. In the midst of loss and pain, she suffered through some manifestations of mental illness that I could neither understand nor help to alleviate. I did not know how to help, but I knew I loved her, that her potential was great and that it was also buried beneath the torture of several severe results of deep depression and anxiety. 

But Terica, as she relates in her book “Tackling the Taboo” not only successfully navigated, over a period of several years, her own mental illness to become the salt, light and leaven that God intends for his people to be, but she’s now also successfully helping others who struggle with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses to overcome and be fruitful in the kingdom of God. 

“Tackling the Taboo” is raw, open and honest. Terica doesn’t hold back about the deep and tormented struggles of those dark days. Rather, she uses her own journey as a catalyst of hope for those who are dealing with mental illness, and maybe even more importantly, as a motivator for God’s people to educate ourselves about mental illnesses and prepare ourselves to help those who struggle. 

Using Biblical principles and examples, Terica helps us see the power that Christians can have in helping family members and those in the family of God to manage the symptoms  and even overcome the stigma that mental illness has carried through the years. Free of medical terminology that could bog us down in such a study, Terica just walks us through a subject (and life reality) that many have been hesitant to acknowledge or address. She does it from the honest perspective of someone who traveled to a very tortured spot in her life and then relied, first on God and then on the therapeutic and medical resources He has provided. It’s easy to read, but very practical for our personal lives and our sisterhood. 

This book’s an easy read. A couple of hours and you’ll be good to go…good to go with understanding and a better clarity, to help someone out of a deep depression…good to go help someone understand the value of medication in improving mental health, while working to implement a holistic plan, too…good to go find help when you potentially encounter mental illness in your own life. It’s an overview—a jumpstart motivator for anyone who needs to plunge deeper into finding help for schizophrenia, agoraphobia, paranoia or any number of mental illnesses. 

Tackling the Taboo is the story of a personal victory for eternity for Terica. I love that. I mean I love that on a very personal level. But, better yet, it’s a resource every woman living for Him will need at some point in this sojourn we are making together! I  think it can help lots of women to the throne. 

You can order from kachelmanpublications.com or you can find it on Amazon.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“If Mama Ain’t Happy”….Read it with me!

Posted on March 24, 2022

I have not read this book yet…at least not all of it. I’m just like you…I opened it up, turned to a couple of the funny parts and belly-laughed with my husband as I tried to read aloud about the insanity of Lads to Leaders in the Opryland Hotel:

“It was just one of several programs throughout the brotherhood aimed at making leaders out of our little ones who flush our debit cards and leave the seat up. This worthy goal was inspired by the same guy who tried to construct a replica of the Eiffel Tower from mayonnaise. 

But we go along with it. We are convicted deep in our hearts by the idea that our coming will eventually result in the breakdown of communism in Cuba through our future generation, and by the fact that the rooms are half price for the weekend. 

If you don’t participate in a program of this type, let me urge you to, because there’s no way you can understand the dynamics until you’ve been there–until you too, have traveled three hundred miles with a sculpture of Elisha stuck in your hip, only to have someone fall on it and crush it as you round the hotel portico. “

I have not read it all. But still, I want to tell you that I recommend it. I know it’s author too well–so well that I’m a little afraid I may be the butt of the joke in one of the humor segments. But it’s the serious parts of the book (the bulk of it) that I really want to recommend. See, I know her family. I know her faith. But most importantly, I read daily the book from which she teaches. I already know her work will be deeply centered in the Word (All of the Publishing Designs books are faithful to the Book.)  If Mama Ain’t Happy will convict and motivate me to do His will. It will make me better. I already know.

I hope you can read it with me. You can get it at lots of places, but one place is from the author, herself. I bet she would even sign your copy!  Celine is at sparksremarks@hotmail.com.

Here are her other books. You should order all of them if you are new to her work. They are that good!

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

“Finding Him”…One More Thing

Posted on September 14, 2017

One more thing about Rebekah Colley’s new book “Finding Him”. It’s truly great preparation for baptism for your 11-13 year olds. I’m not presumptuous enough to assume that you do not know when your girls are mature enough for that step that takes them from the world and into the kingdom of Christ. But, as someone who lived through that precarious time in my kids’ lives, I know we are thankful for every tool that helps us and, most of all, helps our children to know when obedience to the gospel is truly obedience, rather than the fulfillment of a parental expectation, a conformity to a group of peers or an emotional response that’s largely void of understanding.

This book is about the foundational appreciation for the sacrifice of our God and the building of a real relationship with Him that is the construct of true devotion that lasts a lifetime. It’s not too lofty for your 11-year-old, though.

Maybe best of all is the availability of a chatroom where girls can discuss any questions and concerns with the author. She is studied and, best of all, has the eternal interests of your daughters in her soul. She is unassuming and humble. She just wants girls to know, in her words, “what she wishes she had fully appreciated, at their ages.” Her degree is in Bible, but, more importantly, her heart is in that great Book and in its exposure to as many as will listen in her lifetime. I’m glad she is ours, but even if she wasn’t, I’d recommend this material. It can make a difference for good that the devil just cannot unravel.  I hope she’ll write the sequel soon. I think that’s the plan.

I hope there will be a small legion (at least) of girls who get the whole series in their teen years (as well as “GIFTS” and “Pure on Purpose” and “Seeking Spiritual Beauty” and “Everyday Princess”.) I think their families and congregations in the year 2030 will be stronger and better for it. It’s just a little part of a parental insurance plan for a future that doesn’t end. I know that’s forward thinking, but moms have to be about that!

I’m finding that the market is not saturated with truly good materials for teen girls and even less saturated with those materials for boys, though The Colley House is trying to remedy that.  I’m happy to see new and sound books for those who still have the important decisions, for the most part, in front of them. Let’s help them “find HIM”  before they go about finding that other “him”. 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

This! Destined to be Dog-eared…

Posted on June 6, 2016

unnamed-7Allen Webster says “More than 20 years in the making, (this book) seems destined for a rare shelf-life of a generation or more in church libraries across the brotherhood. More importantly, I foresee worn and marked copies on elders’ nightstands and in preachers’ studies. 

Each year at Polishing the Pulpit Glenn Colley’s real-life scenarios are the most popular elders’ classes. These give shepherds the opportunity to discuss difficult situations using “rubber bullets” instead of the “live rounds” they must use in making decisions back home.

This book gives God’s men the opportunity to prepare ahead of time for challenges and to find solutions when the heat is on. Churches across the land will find their elders making better decisions. I highly recommend Awake at Night.” 

Alan Highers says “This is a practical book. It has grown out of actual sessions with elders who share their problems and difficulties. There are suggested solutions and recommended procedures for dealing with a wide variety of real situations that elders encounter. This is a virtual ‘handbook’ for an eldership. I know of no other book like it. There are many worthwhile books discussing the qualifications and duties of elders, but there is little in print to help elders in handling sensitive issues that arise within a congregation. This book fulfills that need.”

But I say—“Just get it!” For many years I’ve been languishing about leadership; the famine we’re in for lack of elders who are willing to do the hard things that are required for leading the church through an era of cultural relativism and ignorance of the scriptures in the body, itself. I’ve been encouraging mothers to do all we can to bring up our boys to be elders; to put backbones in them for the battles that are inevitably facing our congregations in the twenty-first century church. We need to be raising our girls to be the helpers, encouragers and comforters of these up-and-coming men of God. We simply have to make it our aim…our project, if you will…to put the qualities in our children that will make them ready for some difficult engagements with the devil’s forces in the next generation, should our God choose to let our world continue.

This book is the most “real” thing I’ve seen for preparing church leaders. Over the years, my husband has collected real, but anonymous problems elders have faced in recent times, for the purpose of an elders’ workshop session he conducts annually at Polishing the Pulpit (http://polishingthepulpit.com). The scenarios chosen for the book are designed to prepare and challenge today’s Christian men to lead God’s people with wisdom and courage. They include situations involving divorce and remarriage, other moral issues, doctrinal questions and sin in the lives of elders, themselves. While this is not necessarily a “happy” book, it’s a book filled with hope. It’s a bold attempt to transform the problems elders face today into teaching tools for tomorrow’s leaders. The “solutions” given in the book are both scriptural and practical.

I know the editor of this volume is my husband, but I’m really not promoting him. I want this book to fall into the hands of current elders who need resolve to stand against sin and division. I hope it falls into the hands of others who are already determined. They’re praying and working and loving and leading their flocks and are worthy of double honor and our encouragement. I hope it falls into the hands of young fathers who are already planning and preparing to take the reins of leadership when their turns come, because great leaders don’t just “happen” when old leaders die. I hope it falls into the hands of your sons and mine as we work to develop leadership skills in them—skills that will bless the kingdom. 

One lady left Huntsville last weekend with enough copies on hand so that each of her elders could have one. Do you know elders who are struggling, young men who can be tomorrow’s leaders, men who could present this material to the men of your congregation? The governance of the church has been perfectly designed by God. It’s up to us, though—mere humans— to develop qualified men who are up to the challenge of this greatest office to which mortals attain. I believe when we give this book to our elders, fathers, preachers and sons, we give strength to our congregations.

You can order here: https://thecolleyhouse.org

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Today! Women of Scandal

Posted on April 28, 2016

Cindy-Book-Mockup-Women-of-Scandal-Now-1040x400-1

Women of Scandal pre-release happens today. I don’t think it will be in the bookstores for a couple of days, but it is available today here: https://thecolleyhouse.org/store#!/Women-of-Scandal/p/65464960/category=3290197

I never thought I’d write a book with the word “scandal” in the title. That seems rather…well, scandalous. But this is the fourth book in the Crown of Creation series. It’s a quartet (for now) of study books that finds practical applications for women of God today in the lives of Old Testament women. The series began with Eve and is chronologically working its way through the Word. But these women of First Samuel and Second Samuel took this writer by surprise. The first chapter of this new book is about a woman who went into labor and died in childbirth upon hearing that her blasphemous husband had been slain in battle. The next chapter is about a woman whose husband tried to kill their son. Next came a group of singing woman, whose lyrics were so incendiary that they incited jealousy in the palace, which ultimately led to attempted murder. Chapter four was about a father who offered the hand of his daughter in marriage as  part of a twisted plot to have a rival killed. This was followed by a woman who sneaked her husband out the window to save his life and then placed an image under the covers in her bed. In the same chapter, you’ll find a man walking and weeping for forty-five miles in pursuit of his wife who is leaving him for her first and long-lost love. Women of Scandal was a title that just floated to the top in some extremely polluted literary waters. 

It’s one of the great blessings of my life to get to write about the Bible. It helps me sharpen my focus on heaven. But I cannot ever really take myself very seriously as a writer. After all, I’m just making some simple comments about the Book of Books—the one written by the finger of God. The very subject matter of my books (not to mention my own inadequacies) makes those books pale in comparison. My prayer is that Scandal will be something from which women of God today can read and learn; not something in which we will be involved. Scandal, after all, is the opposite of His peace that surpasses our understanding (Philippians 4:7).  

The first three copies will be complimentary and will go to Scarlet Mobley, to the library of the Maple Hill Church, and to Susan Brehm. All of these ladies participated in the Digging Deep podcast earlier this week. So if the three of you will email me at byhcontest@gmail.com with your street addresses, your copies will be on their way!

May Women of Scandal be a small tool for His glory. May His people be tethered to His Will and scandal-free till He comes to claim His own. Blessings on your Bible study. It’s the most important reading of this lifetime!

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: Book Review

Posted on September 30, 2013

LYH-Book CoverLoving Your Husband, by Patsy Loden, Publishing Designs

I began this review about three years ago when my friend Patsy Loden honored me with a treasured gift: the very first gift copy of her then new “Loving Your Husband.” So why did it take me so long? Several reasons.

First, I wanted this book to make my great marriage even better, so I plunged in, not just as a reader, but as a note-taker, homework doer. That takes time and reflection. The book is full of practical lessons best extracted from completing the introspective lists and letters that Patsy assigns.

But still…three years? I must admit that I had to prepare several hundred combined blogs, classes, lessons, and books in that time period and I would often have to just lay the book aside for weeks or even months at the time. But that’s another thing I liked about “Loving Your Husband”. I could read and benefit from applying even a short portion of the book and then, upon picking it up again, just dig right in wherever I had taken leave, seamlessly continuing the read and the rewards.

I think I can assure your enjoyment of the book, but, if you’re like me, there are times when you will hate it. If you are shortchanging your marriage, seeking self rather than service, Patsy will make you hurt for time wasted and hurry to time redeemed. Sometimes the prodding will be uncomfortable, but she will give you confidence in your ability to make your husband better and better to you. In fact, if you complete the book’s challenges, you will be well on the way to a more fulfilling relationship before you even turn the last page.

There are also unexpected bonus sections about parenting and widowhood. Knowing the Lodens as I have and finding myself fearful of one day losing Glenn and facing uncertain days alone, I found great comfort in the closing chapter written after Brother Woody’s death. Patsy writes:

My dear Loden had been telling me for a year, “It won’t be long before I take my flight home.” We chose to live each day to the fullest, loving one another and taking our pleasure in being together, experiencing life, and dwelling on the positives. Loden prepared for his death. What a great help to know he left our business and his life in order! He had showed Woody and Mark how to locate important papers. Woody helped me get started with the paperwork of closing his life. I truly dislike having to deal with all those matters, but I’m determined to master them; the Father will give me strength for the day. Because Jesus is with me, I am not afraid, and I joyfully look forward to what He has in store for me.”

I hope, if I am the one left one day, I can face the days ahead with such confidence. Patsy is still facing days with the grace that has characterized her life.