I was provided this book for free by the publisher to post
an honest review.
At first I was struggling with this book, her theology
doesn't exactly match with my main line Methodist theology and there were some
distinct areas where we parted ways, but the more I read these devotionals the
more at peace I felt. Despite our vastly different lifestyles I found her
devotionals useful in my own life and found myself thinking well, "we
aren't so different after all are we?"
I really liked how she deferred to God for the answers to
the questions we can't know the answer to, like one person is spared while
another falls ill or dies. It's hard to trust God in the walk when the path is
scary. It's hard to trust God to protect your loved ones when they are out in
the world. But she makes a point in that only God can know God’s ways and we
are not called to understand them, just trust that He will provide for our
protection in His way.
Her devotion on hurrying children really hit me as just before
reading that section I was speaking to someone about how slow my daughter is in
the morning and how frustrating it is to me. I had to stop an think of how impatient God
could get with me. He’s been waiting more than twenty years for me to do some things.
There are so many ways she took a topic in a surprising
direction leading me to say, “hmm, I never thought of it like that before.”
I nearly put the book down early on because her theology is
so different than mine and I assumed she had nothing to teach me. I’m very glad
I stuck with it and took away what I needed and appreciated her cultural differences.
In the United Methodist Church we say we are United in Body not in thought.
Which means we are all Methodists but that doesn’t mean we agree on everything.
There is strength in diversity.
