Sunday, April 25, 2010

Book Review: Beautiful Things Happen When A Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh


From Amazon:
"Do you ever question God's ability to catch you when you fall?
Do shame, fear, and brokenness keep you from fully trusting God?
Do you secretly believe your dreams are unreachable?
You are not alone.
Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God is all about trust. How we fight it. How we learn to do it. How it transforms us.
Shelia has lived a life ruled by "hidden places" of insecurity and brokenness and knows the overwhelming beauty of a life wholly handed over to Christ. As you encounter her struggles and triumphs, you also meet ten of the Bible's transformed-Tabitha, David, Paul, and others-who teach us that in spite of overwhelming circumstances, just one trusting encounter with Christ sets beautiful things in motion."

This is the first book I’ve had the privilege of reviewing for Thomas Nelson publishing, and unfortunately, I was disappointed by it.

I thought for a long time about why I was disappointed and why it took me an inordinate time to read. The main problem for me was there was nothing for me to do with the information given. She tells a lot of great stories, but I didn’t really understand how they related to me and how to use the information in my own walk with God.  Also, the writing was formulaic. Each chapter started with a personal story, followed by a thesis statement, followed by more stories, concluding with a lead-in paragraph to the next chapter. While this was comfortable, it was also slightly mechanical.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, it was biblically sound and she brought out some interesting points about the bible characters she covered in each chapter. I liked her use of different translations of the Bible, mostly using the Message which matched her storytelling format better than some other translations would have. It would be a good book for anyone who relishes in a good story. Apparently, I’m just not one of those people.

Would I read it again? Probably not. It just didn’t hold my attention. I had a difficult time reading it all the way to the end because it just felt like head knowledge, not something I could figure out how to apply to my life.
 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

1 comment:

CrowtoCrone said...

I think of these books as "Annie Dotes" from a derivation of anecdote. The author had some great ideas and wanted to illustrate the points. Unfortunately, the illustrations to further explain actually diminish the author's information. It sounds like this is a book that could have been much shorter but the author needed some filler.