As I mentioned in my last post, I am now writing reviews for
books that I receive for free in return for my honest review. I have just
finished reading a book called Every Piece of Me by Jerusha Clark. According to
the cover, this book will help with “shattering toxic beliefs and discovering
the real you”. Over the course of the book, Jerusha explores 7 “I am:
statements that Jesus said, and reflects on what that means for us as his
daughters.
While I did enjoy this book, I had a hard time focusing
while I was reading it. Did it change my life? No. Did I learn things? Yes.
There were several times when I got out my highlighter to mark a section that
really stood out to me. I don’t regret reading this book, even if it took me
awhile to get through it.
Really, I think that this book would be better suited to
read as a Bible study sort of thing, where you read the chapter and then
discuss it with other women. The author includes discussion/reflection
questions and recommended reading following each chapter. If you have a group
of women looking to have a Bible study of some sort, I would say that this is
an excellent book to consider. It was just hard for me to focus and get all
that the book offered just reading it alone.
The main thing that I liked about this book is how it make
me think more about my life/myself and how I think about things. At one point,
the author says “He laid down his life so you wouldn’t have to run ragged. He
died so that you could be free of endless pressures to perform” (Every Piece of
Me, pg. 116). So often, women feel that they need to be perfect, and we strive
to present ourselves that way. But in Jesus, we can embrace every broken part
of ourselves, and that is truly an amazing thing. I’m also the kind of person
who often has a hard time saying no, especially to church things. I mean, aren’t
I being a selfish person if I say no to helping out somewhere that needs help?
I’m being a pretty bad Christian then, right? This was my mindset for years and
years, but recently I’ve started to learn that it is ok to say no sometimes. I
don’t need to fill every need in my church; God doesn’t ask me to do that. “No”
is a word that I have been learning isn’t a BAD word, and this book again
helped me to grow in that area of my life.
So yeah, I guess I would say that if you’re looking for
growth in your life, this is a book that will probably help give you insight
into some area of your life that God wants to work with you on. I hope you enjoy
it!
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group
and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
