Another Joyce Meyer book worth reading

 I don't know why I seem to be reading so many Joyce Meyer books lately, but as I look back over my reading list for the past few years, I have read quite a few of her books.  She just has some books that I've wanted to read.  I'm probably not done reading books by her, but I'm not choosing her books necessarily on purpose.  With that being said, I do always receive a lot of great insight when I read books by Joyce Meyer and BEAUTY FOR ASHES is no different.  If I could, I would go through and highlight her the passages/words/phrases that stood out for me throughout this book.  

The only problem I have with BEAUTY FOR ASHES--if "problem" is the right word--it isn't, but I can't think of anything better that fits right now--is that Meyer focuses this book on victims of physical abuse.  Because I am not really a victim of abuse, that part of the book kind of got in the way for me, but that is not to say that

the book isn't valuable even for those who have not suffered abuse.  It's just that abuse is the basis for everything she discusses in this particular book.

I look forward to the day when God will "give [me] joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a heavy, burdened and failing spirit, and beauty instead of ashes" (Isaiah 61:3).

Joyful Mourning

I started reading JOY COMES WITH THE MOURNING by Holly Besser because I found it on the internet and, like many women who have gone through the loss of a child, I read as many books about child loss as I can.  Part of it is a shared community--knowing I'm not the only one.  A part of it is probably morbid and that I still every single with the sadness of my losses.  But another part of it is wanting to know how others who have been through child loss deal with the pain that is with us each and every day, no matter where we go, no matter what we do.

JCWM definitely met my expectations for a book about child loss.  I do find, though, that when I do read such books that my depression tends to come back in full force and no amount of medication makes it better.  The sadness can be overwhelming.  I have to be very careful when I read books like this and make sure that I don't let "it" take over.

If I have anything negative to say about this book (and I don't see it so much as negative so much as it was distracting), it would have to be the "other testimonies of God's grace, peace, and joy, after the loss of a child."  The book is mostly about Holly Besser's story and adding in the stories/testimonies of others made it confusing for me as to whose story I was reading about.  Now that I'm finished with the book, I'm not sure which parts were Holly's and which were the testimonies--they're all running together as one entity in my head.  It's a great idea to add the stories of others, but I found it to be distracting rather than encouraging.

Still worth the read if you want to read inspirational stories of other women who have suffered child loss.