Left To Tell Part I

Today I'd like to start a series of posts about an incredible book, actually a series of books, that I just read. Last week on Quick Takes I listed six books that were on my list of "Books That Impacted My Life". Well, make room for number seven.


Last week my daughter had checked out "Left To Tell" by Immaculee Ilibagiza. A friend of mine had gone to hear her speak a few weeks ago and was very moved by the event. My daughter read the book in about four hours and so I took the opportunity to snatch it up myself. Let's just say I was blown away.

This book is the story of how Immaculee survived the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Words cannot describe how incredibly moving this book was. I will warn you that she is very graphic in her descriptions, but it serves a very good purpose. I don't think the full impact of exactly what happened in that country would have hit me as hard if she hadn't told exactly what kind of atrocities were committed against her people.

There are so many good lessons in this very humble and well written book. I think I might take a few days to bring out some of the ones that struck me the most. For today, however, I just want to say something about being prepared. There has been a lot of talk that I've heard and read about preparing for things that might be coming. In our house we've gone around about what that means. Is that spiritual preparation, physical preparation or both?

I can say that after I was done reading this book, I was even more convinced that any time that we spend preparing our hearts and minds spiritually will put us farther ahead than time we spend preparing physically. Immaculee had nothing to fall back on for 91 days except her relationship with God. Even if she knew what was coming and had prepared physically (meaning stored up food, water, etc), in this case it wouldn't have done her any good. What did benefit her was her faith in God which was something that had been nurtured and developed throughout her 24 years of life.

I truly believe that if we've been homeschooling our children in preparation for some earthly event (and not just Heaven), then the time that we have spent preparing them spiritually will be the greatest asset they will take with them as we move forward in time.

I can't say enough about this book. I think it is a must read for anyone who is concerned about what lies ahead for our country in the near future. You won't walk away from this book depressed. Instead, you'll be energized to take your faith even more seriously.