Sunday, May 15, 2011

Plain wisdom

When I think of plain, I usually conjure up images of dowdy, tasteless, regular, ordinary, and well, plain. I don’t usually think Amish. But maybe it’s because we don’t live alongside an Amish community, maybe not.

In return for a review, I received the book “Plain Wisdom” by Cindy Woodsmall and Miriam Flaud, from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers, for free as part of their Blogging for Books program.  I figured this was a great partnership considering I love to read and free books sealed the deal.  I found out about the program from my friend
Lisa and I’m so excited to keep up with it.

This is such a delightful book. I really enjoy almost all books Amish or olden days so I was sure this would be a hit. The book is made up of short little snippets of life happenings from the voice of Cindy, the Englischer, and Miriam, an Old World Amish woman. The Introduction depicts the books as this: "a collection of events in our lives-from early childhood to just a few months ago-and the lessons we've learned, insights we've discovered, words of wisdom, Amish recipes, pictures of the Amish culture and even a touch of Amish and "Englischer," or English, humor."

"We get only one chance at making a good first impression.  Being imperfect humans, we tend to be overly cautious, afraid of messing up. But when we're not our true selves, we can lose more than we gain." (pg.127)


That's one of Miriam's (Amish) many nuggets of wisdom found in this book.  Miriam and Cindy share from their lives, short excerpts depicting the blossoming of a true friendship.  Interwoven with life and tradition is the strengthening of faith, encouragement from the scriptures, and the love of friends.

I was so greatly encouraged by Miriam, most of all.  There is a beauty and truth behind her words and we would all be blessed to slow down, savor the moments, and enjoy a little time just being plain. I would recommend this book to any woman at any age. 

I was given this book for free by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

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