It’s been a little while since I posted my Friday Five, but here we are. I hope you are staying warm wherever you are. For the most part, Tucson has been an incredible winter with a few days in the ’70s (I know, I know), but I love it when it is in the ’50s, and 60’s here for the winter!

Favorite book:

I recently read Fathered by God: Learning What Your Dad Could Never Teach You by John Eldredge. This book walks through the stages of being a man: boyhood, cowboy, warrior, lover, king, and sage. And while each stage and year have parts of all of these, the masculine journey can be broken up into these parts. A few things stood out: don’t king a man too early, and this happens to a lot of boys when they’re told: “you’re the man of the house early.” While sometimes that can’t be avoided, it causes a lot of harm. Many older men who are in or entering the sage chapter continue to try to be a king, which leads to frustration to them. And lastly, if you don’t give a boy a chance to be a cowboy or a warrior, he will look for ways to do that later in life, and it is often destructive. 

I am getting closer to the end of The Last Kingdom series and love this series. It just keeps getting better and better. If you haven’t checked it out yet, please do. It’s a fun read.

Favorite podcasts:

I just discovered a new podcast, The Paterson Podcast. This is a podcast by the company that helps people create life plans. Katie and I are getting ready to start one as we turn the corner of heading into our 40’s and looking at the second half of our lives and what we believe God holds for us. I’m excited about this process and what we’re going to learn about ourselves through it.

I also just discovered Gabe and Rebekah Lyons’s podcast Rhythms for life. Their episode with Pete Richardson of the Paterson company (see above paragraph) was incredibly informative for us as we look towards creating a life plan. Still, my favorite so far has been the episode with Curt Thompson on what to do when you feel overwhelmed.

Favorite blog posts:

I loved this article on what makes a person rich: IQ or personality. Fascinating.