TWO Gift Ideas for Gals… — Elizabeth Hoagland

Friends! If you’re still on the hunt for a great gift for a friend or relative, I’ve got TWO ideas for you, both from the same author, Jenifer Tucker. Look at these beautiful book covers:

My friend Meredith, who lives in Nashville, gifted me with Breath as Prayer. Let’s savor the subtitle:

Calm Your Anxiety
Focus Your Mind and
Renew Your Soul…

Oh, yes, I’ll take all three of those, please!

And then recently, Jennifer came out with another book, Present in Prayer: A Guided Invitation to Peace through Biblical Meditation. I discovered it from an email from Faith Gateway. Just from the excerpt that was posted, I quickly ordered it!

After reading some of it, I’ve ordered several copies for gifts. It’s been a great resource for our Bible study group as well—more on that in a minute.

Please allow me to share a couple of snippets from both books— perhaps you can choose one or both for yourself or a friend or family member.

Ann Voskamp wrote the Foreword to Breath as Prayer. Take a look:

We readers get to learn all about breath prayers—the basics and techniques. Later in the book, we’re gifted with eighty-four themes which fit into twelve broader categories, Prayers of:

The themes are only two pages each, with a main thought, a brief devotional, a Scripture and then the “inhale, exhale” part with phrases.

Here’s an example from everyone’s favorite, the 23rd Psalm:

INHALE: The Lord is my Shepherd.

EXHALE: I have all that I need.

Yet another favorite section offers “Breathe Deep and Know: You can rest behind God as your shield, knowing He will help you and protect you.”

Then follows the devotional, followed by the Scripture Psalm 28:7 -

And the breath prayer closes the section:

INHALE: You are my shield.

EXHALE: I trust you to help me.

See how simple these are? Oh, and there are all kinds of benefits for our brains, our nervous systems, our minds, not to mention aligning our breathing to the “rhythm of His grace.”

Now let’s jump into Present in Prayer: A Guided Invitation to Peace Through Biblical Meditation.This book is based on one of my all-time favorite Scriptures, Philippians 4:8-9, a/k/a “the Philippians 4 Filter” which says:

There are thirty meditations in the book which focus on each of these categories/traits. We learn the book’s goal is “to help our roots grow deep and help our minds find greater peace as we grow in our knowledge and trust of God.”

Prior to these meditations, we get a crash course in different aspects of prayer:

Seeds and Souls: Cultivating a Deeply Rooted life of Faith,
Silence and Stillness: Slowing Down to Let God In,
Meditation and Mindfulness: Being Present with Purpose, and
Lectio Divina: A Framework for Christian Meditation.

Funny, another book I’m reading also includes information on Lectio Divina which is Latin for “divine reading.” It dates all the way back to the sixth century by Benedict of Nursia as a “metaphor of reading, praying, and meditating on Scripture that emphasized listening deeply ‘with the ear of your heart.’”

Linger longer was a phrase at a hotel where John and I stayed years ago and it has stuck with me with such great memories. Likewise, Lectio Divina “is a way to slow down and linger over Scripture, to savor the Word in a way that brings deep nourishment to the soul.”

This section opens with a lovely quote from Brother Lawrence:

We readers get to learn the five parts of Lectio Divina and then see how Jennifer shows us how to use them in prayer. In the “Read (Lectio)” section, she starts with a this-will-make-you-think verse, Proverbs 4:20-22:

Each attribute of the Philippians 4:8 Filter has three to four meditations. Each of them begins with a brief devotional followed by the Scriptures to read thru’, followed by two prayers: an opening prayer and then ending with a “surrendering prayer.” A few phrases are repeated in each meditation, but they’re so good, they’re worth repeating!

My favorite phrase Jennifer uses in the surrendering prayers is:

I believe either (or both) of these books would make a great gift and likewise they would be great tools to use in a small group. Our Tuesday Bible study gals, otherwise known as Blessings on Burlington, are loving Present in Prayer. We open and close our discussion sessions with it.

Now run, don’t walk to your nearest bookstore and grab one or both copies of Breath as Prayer and Present in Prayer! You and your family and friends will be so blessed!

I pray you and your family have a most blessed Christmas season and may we all remember “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

Merry Christmas!

And may you and your family have a most blessed and Happy New Year! We will learn from many more good books in 2025, Lord willing, as it’s always the scenario of “So many books, so little time…”

‘Til next time!

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”