The Lucado Inspirational Reader: Hope and Encouragement for Your Everyday Life by Max Lucado

For more than 25 years, Max Lucado has walked with us through life’s journey. With wisdom, grace, and compassion, he’s covered topics like salvation and victory. Comfort and the cross. God’s love and ultimate grace.

“The Lucado Inspirational Reader” gathers the most memorable one-liners, paragraphs, stories, and teachings from a lifetime of inspiring bestsellers into one volume. These are the words that you’ll want to turn to time and again for hope and encouragement.

It’s filled with illustrations, anecdotes, and quotes for those times when you’re looking for just the right words and indexed for easy reference. Spend a few minutes or a few hours being refreshed and encouraged by messages straight from Max’s heart to yours.

Personal Thoughts:

It’s been awhile since I posted a review for inspirational book on this blog. And to be honest I haven’t read much inspirational books since I started focusing on reviewing fictions. Other than my bitten copy of daily inspirational book which is a decade old, I haven’t read much books from this genre for quiet awhile. Though I still got few titles on my shelf that are waiting to be crack. Hopefully I got the chance to read those books soon.

The Lucado Inspirational Reader is a collection of stories, quotations and bible passages compiled from the previous works of this best-selling author. It is divided into different categories such as comfort, encouragement, faith, forgiveness, hope, passion, purpose and so on. You can read this by chapter or by part and it doesn’t require a much amount of time to enjoy and experience the inspiring messages and thought-provoking ideas that the author is trying to convey.

Max Lucado is one of those authors from this genre that I know I wouldn’t get wrong. The last book I read written by him was a modern parable entitled God’s Mirror which I bought from a book sale with an audio book cd included. I don’t have the book with me anymore since I pass it to a friend few days after I read it but that book is a short inspiring read.

When I was still in highschool I used to collect inspiring stories. Stories that I got from newspaper articles, magazines and emails. I organized them creatively and bind them like a book. I don’t have that collection anymore with me, I lend it to someone and never got it back. This book reminds me of that collection. The stories in here are also inspiring and uplifting. But this book is a lot better because it is more organized and easier to carry. My collection is bigger since the stories are printed in a letter size paper. And the pasted articles makes it more bulkier to look.

The Lucado Inspirational Reader is a comforting, inspiring and soul-lifting book. And like what I always do with books that inspire me, I’ll be passing this one too. Even I want to keep this for myself knowing there will come a time that I’ll be wanting to read this book again, I still preferred sharing this to someone I know who will love and appreciate the book like I do. Someone who needs an inspiration, hope or a simple cheer to remind her that life is beautiful. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get another copy when I need to read it again.

If you have never read any books of Max Lucado or if you are a fan, this book is an awesome collection that you should not miss. An inspiring and uplifting read for everyone.

This review is based on a copy I received courtesy of the publisher, Thomas Nelson via BookSneeze.com in exchange of honest review.

Quotes: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

Aside from reading fictions I love reading inspirational books. Almost one third of my bookshelves consist of these type of books. If fictions are my distractions and way to escape reality, inspirational books are my guide to reality. I’m not writing a review for this book, but instead I’ll list some of the interesting quotes found in the book. Most of these quotes are good reminder of things we already know but needed to be reminded of and some insightful and thought provoking questions in life.

LIFE
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”

“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams, it’s about how to lead your life, … If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.”

“Time is all you have and you may find one day that you have less than you think.”

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. “

“I’ve never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion. We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn’t matter. Life is to be lived.”

“We’ve placed a lot of emphasis in this country on the idea of people’s rights. That’s how it should be, but it makes no sense to talk about rights without also talking about responsibilities.”

“There are more ways than one to measure profits and losses.”

“It’s not helpful if we spend every day dreading tomorrow.”

“You’ve got to get the fundamentals down, because otherwise the fancy stuff is not going to work.”

“When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, it means they’ve given up on you.”

“Too many people go through life complaining bout their problems. I’ve always believed that if you took on tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you’d be surprised by how well things can work out. “

“Not everything needs to be fixed”

“… I was hugely impressed… was the ultimate example of a man who knew what he didn’t know, was perfectly willing to admit it, and didn’t want to leave until he understood. That’s heroic to me. I wish every grad student had that attitude. “

“An injured lion wants to know if he can still roar.”

“Most people who have told a lie think they got away with it … when in fact, they didn’t”

“Never make a decision until you have to.”

“Have something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

“You don’t beat the grim reaper by living longer; you beat the grim reaper by living better.”

“If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds.”

“Somehow, with the passage of time, and the dealines that life imposes, surrending became the right thing to do”

You may not want to hear it,but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better.”

SUCCESS

“The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls. “

“If you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float through it.”

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams, it’s about how to lead your life, … If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself, the dreams will come to you.”

“The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have. “

“Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. “

“The questions are always more important than the answers.”

“It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you get hit…and keep moving forward.”

“A lot of people want a shortcut. I find the best shortcut is the long way, which is basically two words: work hard.”

“You can always change you plan, but only if you have one.”

“One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose.”

“Give yourself permission to dream. Fuel your kids’ dreams too. Once in a while, that might even mean letting them stay up past their bedtimes.”

“Another way to be prepared is to think negatively. Yes, I’m a great optimist. but, when trying to make a decision, I often think of the worst case scenario. I call it ‘the eaten by wolves factor.’ If I do something, what’s the most terrible thing that could happen? Would I be eaten by wolves? One thing that makes it possible to be an optimist, is if you have a contingency plan for when all hell breaks loose. There are a lot of things I don’t worry about, because I have a plan in place if they do.”

“Complainning does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won’t make us happier.”

“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you. “

“No job should, be beneath us. And if you can’t(or won’t) sort mail, Where is the proof that you can do anything?”

“If I work hard enough, there will be things I can do tomorrow that I can’t do today.”

“…engineering isn’t about perfect solutions; it’s about doing the best you can with limited resources.”

“Sometimes all you have to do is ask, and it can lead to all your dreams coming true.”

“I don’t believe in the no-win scenario”

“Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want”

“The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures. The person who knows only success can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls.”

“Your patience will be both appreciated and rewarded”

“If you want something bad enough, never give up (and take a boost when offered).”

PEOPLE

“People are more important than things.”

“Focus on other people, not on yourself.”

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.”

“When we’re connected to others, we become better people.”

“A good apology is like antibiotic, a bad apology is like rubbing salt in the wound.”

“Halfhearted or insincere apologies are often worse than not apologizing at all because recipients find them insulting.”

“Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.”

“Go out and do for others what somebody did for you.”

LOVE

“Look, I’m going to find a way to be happy, and I’d really love to be happy with you, but if I can’t be happy with you, then I’ll find a way to be happy without you.”

“When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.”

“Kids need to know their parents love them. Their parents don’t need to be alive for that to happen.”

The Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino

“Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

In writing this review, I decided not to focus much on the technicalities of the book but on the lessons it tries to deliver. In this book we come to know Timothy Noble, an eleven-year-old child who try to live his life to the fullest. He is not very good at baseball, but he kept on trying, the whole time with determination and a big smile on his face. Although some of the older and better kids laughed and smirked at his constant mistakes and misses, he was never put down and never stopped. He was by far the worst player of all the kids who tried out. But he never never give up.

Let me tell you about my friend Rose. She used to call me “Little Angel”. I can’t remember what is the reason behind that nick name she gave me. But once in awhile,  when I did a little something for her she said to me “anghel talaga kita” (you’re really my angel). I guess, we can be like my friend Rose. She managed to see some of her friends as her angel. She try to appreciate every little good thing in a person. And in a way, it makes that person feel appreciated. I believe that each person we encounter in our lives is given to us for a purpose. They are meant to teach us something no matter how little it may be. We just have to be more open. Like with children, there are so much to learn from them. They are young, vibrant, full of hope and optimism. They live in the moment without much worries of what’s next to come.

As for the book, Og Mandino is one of my favorite authors. I love every book of him that I’ve read and The Twelfth Angel is no different. It’s uplifting and simply moving. It’s an easy book to read. An enjoyable and entertaining story with easy to recall characters and not complicated plot. The story is not something unique but the purposed it serves as an inspirational tale is clearly accomplished (at least to me). There are so much to learn from this book. It reminds us how to fully live our lives. To enjoy everything every moment of everyday. To never lose hope and be brave. It teaches us that life is full of purpose and wonder. That we are put on this earth for a reason, to make a difference and find our purpose. And when we find that purpose we will have every reason to keep going even when the going looks impossible and hopeless.

The Choice by Og Mandino

thechoiceAfter reading “The Choice” and “Secrets For Success And Happiness” I’ll be reading 3 other books of Og Mandino: “The Greatest Success in the World“, “The Greatest Miracle in the World“, and “The Return of the Ragpicker“. These books arrives yesterday at our office and I am really excited to start reading them. But before that, I just want to write a bit of review to one of Og Mandino‘s books that I already read – “The Choice”.

THE CHOICE by Og Mandino

This story chronicles the life of Mark Christopher, as he transforms himself from the “Mr. Success” of the corporate world into becoming a writer to pursue his passion. His dreams come true beyond his wildest expectations, and then the unthinkable happens. Og Mandino explores what lies beyond the golden doors of success, fame and wealth, and reveals for us the most precious commodity of all: the freedom of choice.

This book made me realize the importance of following our dreams and our heart, regardless of what the people around us think we should be doing with our life. We do not simply react to our surroundings, we have a choice. We can choose our response, we can choose our actions, we can choose our attitude, and therefore, we can choose our own future.

If you are looking to step out of your own comfort zone and pursue your true dreams, then this is the book for you!

Quotes from “The Choice“:

“Every day all of us make hundreds of choices, most of them so menial and habitual that they are almost as automatic as breathing.”

“Choice! The key is choice. You have options. You need not spend your life wallowing in failure, ignorance, grief, poverty, shame and self-pity! There is always a better way to live!”

“…when one’s avenue of retreat is cut off there is only one way to go–forward.”

“Those who live in unhappy failure have never exercised their options for the better things of life because they have never been aware that they had any choices!”