Amazing Freedom This is a wonderful devotional book. I love the various voices of the eight different Women of Faith contributing to it, and each of their distinct writing styles. Each author is witty in their own way, and they all have a wonderful perspective on life. “The book is divided into three sections “Freedom from…” “Freedom to….” and “Freedom for…”. Each section contains multiple short stories that range from two to four pages, each starting with a quote or a scripture. The invisible thread of each story appears to be “been there, done that”. These women collectively left me laughing, crying, encouraged, and often with something to reflect on as I move throughout my day. Here are just a few words of wisdom that stuck with me.
1.Fear is a ravenous beast that eats away at our faith and paralyzes us until we are unable to move.(19)
2. Communication problems are one of the major reasons for a spouse to think, there’s more. How easy it was for me to think there’s someone out there who will hang on to my every utterance and, when I become silent, beg me to talk more. (26)
3. Rest we need to take time to rest, don’t wait until you are forced to rest by breaking a limb or getting sick or losing your job. Get rejuvenated while things are going well. (63)
4. Authentic self– Be comfortable in your own skin and see what happens. (240)
5. Life – the jarring incident reinforced to me that we don’t know what a day will bring. We live a life of surprises. We may not have a clue that life is about to take a careening left turn. Everything may seem usual when suddenly a high-powered crisis hits us broadside- bam! And nothing in the landscape of our life ever looks quite the same again. (114)
6. Advice His advice that day sounded too simple. I wanted to respond “well, easy for you to say!” But I knew that they had given me the simple gift of the truth. (70)
I read the book over the course of 47 days. Some days I read more than one story, other days I skipped as that is life. I say that to say, you can read a short story daily, or you could read the 261 pages as a beautiful short collective of stories all at once. I would recommended this book as it focuses on the freedoms we have in life, when so many think that believing in any type of religion is restrictive.
