Beyond Ordinary {A Review}

What a great book Beyond Ordinary was.  It is written by Justin and Trisha Davis, of RefineUs, in a he said/she said format about what it takes to have the extraordinary marriage the God intended for us.  They use their own experiences of living an ordinary marriage for years to help others transform their own relationships.  They not only share truthfully about issues that all marriages go through and how to overcome them, but also share about how they worked through and overcame the ultimate betrayal in any marriage.

It was a perfect reminder that an extraordinary marriage does not come easily.  It requires prayer, intentionality, love, honesty, sacrifice, forgiveness, a strong oneness with God and with your spouse, and so much more!   Living an extraordinary marriage requires time and energy.  It sounds easy enough, but thinking about living this way versus actually living this way are two different things.  An "ordinary" marriage can be easily slipped into, over time.  It's unintentional and happens as spouses slowly drift away ... stop fighting for each other ... stop pursuing each other.  A slow fade.  It's something we can all identify with at certain times in our marriage.  But this is the last thing that most spouses want, and it certainly isn't what God intends for our marriage either.

"God is fighting for you right now.  God is fighting for your heart.  God is fighting for your husband.  God is fighting for your wife.  God's vision for your marriage is extraordinary!  Don't stop fighting.  Don't stop pursuing.  Don't stop sharing the truth.  Don't stop forgiving.  Don't stop praying.  Don't lose hope.  The vision you had when you said 'I do' isn't nearly as extraordinary as God's vision for your marriage. ... God's vision for your marriage is oneness.  It is possible, but it has to be intentional.  You have to choose it, day after day, moment after moment.  One step at a time."

Justin and Trisha Davis' book is a beautiful story about love, grace, forgiveness, and redemption.  I enjoyed it on so many levels, but also really liked that I was able to identify with both of them at different times throughout the book.  They hit on just about every issue that could come up in a marriage and also thoroughly discuss how to overcome those problems.  It's a book that all people can learn from, whether married or not.  Even spouses living an extraordinary marriage will be happy they read this book.  It's a reminder that the oneness God designed for your marriage is a choice that is most definitely worth fighting for.

BeyondOrdinary from RefineUs Ministries on Vimeo.

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)

A review {Easy Canvas Prints}

I was asked to review Easy Canvas Prints - they sent me this 8x10 canvas for free in return for the review. I am happy to say, overall I am very pleased! I have *many* different company's canvases hanging on the walls of my home. So far, Simply Canvas, White House, Buckeye, EZcanvas, Canvas Print Factory, Canvas on Demand, Canvas Press Pro and now Easy Canvas Prints. They are a mix of pro labs and consumer labs. Although this is not my favorite (hands down, that would be Simply Canvas), I think it's a good quality consumer canvas. The color and contrast were very close to my monitor - I had not calibrated recently when I took these pictures, so my screen looks a tad blue and the contrast is slightly off compared to the canvas.

One of the features I really LOVE about this canvas is the mirror wrap option ... normally, you need about 3 inches extra going all the way around the image to wrap the canvas onto the frame. With this image, it's impossible to do that because the crop is too close - part of my head would have been cut off. The option most companies have is a plain color wrap around the canvas (I would have chosen black in this case) ... this is not my favorite thing to do though. I really love seeing the image wrapped around the frame. In addition to the color wrap, Easy Canvas Prints has a mirror wrap option that solves this problem - it gives the same effect as wrapping the image around the frame but you don't lose any of the picture. You can refer to the 2nd image above to see what it looks like - I really love it!

I would definitely suggest Easy Canvas Prints for consumer canvases - especially for the price, you can't go wrong!

Easy Canvas Prints