Seasons of the heart

Seasons of the heart by Donna Kelderman is a daily devotional book published by Reformation Heritage Books.  Seasons of the heart is subtitled A year of devotions from one generation of women to another. 

The book comprises short excerpts from the writing of Christian women of previous generations-one for each day of the year. The readings are short usually around two to three pages. Helpfully, the book finishes with short biographies of the writers. 

The writers vary from the famous: Catherine Parr-sixth wife of Henry VIII, to the well known in Christian circles such as Susanna Spurgeon and Frances Ridley Havergal to the previously unknown to me such as Susan Huntington and Isabella Graham. None of them seem to have had simple, trouble free lives and perhaps it is this that makes their writings so useful. There are wives, mothers, widows, single women, rich and poor amongst the writers.

There are some real gems in these writings. They are ideal for reading in a short free time, perhaps, while feeding the baby or after putting the children to bed but they are the sort of reading that it is best to contemplate. 

A little taster from today's reading:
If on earth sacred music raises the heart to heaven, what will be the music of heaven itself? No voices there will sing holy words without feeling them, which is-alas-too often the case here below; but all shall feel what they sing, beyond what we can now imagine. 

Elizabeth Julia Hasell

Recommended but like all devotionals of this nature, this is in addition to, not instead of Bible reading. Yet, these are short enough that most of us can find space for them in our busy lives.

I received the Seasons of the heart,  from Reformation Heritage Books, in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. The opinions are all my own.