Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn't Show Up the Way You Thought He Would?

This book reveals the human struggles that we all deal with. Things don't always turn out the way we planned and many Christians struggle with unanswered prayers. I appreciate what Pete Wilson delves into in this book, sharing stories of pain from his own life and the lives of others.

However, there seemed to be one element to this book missing that I kept waiting to show up, but never did. That is the fact that Christians have an enemy, aka Satan, who's objective is found in John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy..." When we accept the call of God on our lives, follow Jesus and make it our goal to bring salvation to the world we have to know that the enemy hates this. He would love nothing more than to derail us from succeeding. He'll hit us with anything he can and so many times this looks like the disappointments mentioned in this book...relationship failures, disease, death...the enemy wants to steal from us - our peace, our joy, our finances, kill us - in the spiritual and the natural, and destroy us - so that we don't fulfill the reason we were born. He knows that we are a force to be reckoned with and if he can distract us from our purpose and disguise himself so that we don't know how to fight back we will end up defeated.

John 10:10 continues to say..."I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." God is for us. God is on our side. He sent Jesus so that we would have life. I was disappointed that this book made it seem like every "Plan A failure" was from God. I think the biggest lie we fall into is the thought process that "God sent me this sickness, God killed my child, God took away my job...because He wants to teach me a lesson." Does that sound like the God of John 10:10 - or could that mindset be exactly what the enemy wants us to think so that we waste our energy asking God "why" instead of fighting back and telling the enemy he can't steal from us, he can't destroy us and he can't kill us. The enemy is a bully.

Although I can identify with the struggles in the book because I've been through some myself and had many close family members and friends who have gone through them - no true victory comes from our "Plan B" situation until we begin to exercise our faith, find out who we are in Christ, learn what authority we have on earth and begin to walk in it. If we can get revelation on that it will change how we respond to every adverse circumstance. I believe this is a great book in raw form and that the author meant well, but unfortunately I would not recommend it.

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years | Donald Miller

The honesty of this book is refreshing. Not only is the story inspiring, but the pages leaves you reflecting on your own life throughout the entire book. Donald Miller does a beautiful job at humbly describing his own life's journey while pointedly hitting your heart and spirit with questions that you need to answer for yourself. Often times stories are a way for people to escape and forget about their life. But this is no ordinary story. This is one that brings you in, but doesn't allow you to forget about your real story - it leads you into a journey of discovery for yourself.

I'm amazed at how Miller weaves different stories into this book. In one chapter we're finding out about the movie being created on his life - only to discover that this movie is really leading us into Miller's own discovery of his story. He takes the reader on a journey and as he describes and discovers what "story" really is - we get to find out the true definition by learning about his and uncovering our own.

I would highly recommend this book. Especially to those who are inspired to write. Also to those who have thought about what their life is all about. After you read this, pick up Blue Like Jazz too!

The Language of Love & Respect - Eggerichs

As a young woman I have read my fair share of relationship books, whether they be about dating, marriage or the guy/girl dynamics and in most of these types of books they have outlined the different needs a man and woman has. Men want respect. Women want love. Easier said than done. Because I have heard this model before I was interested in how this author would portray the dynamic in this book, being titled itself, "The Language of Love & Respect."

The author uses Ephesians 5:33 to help the reader understand a marriage relationship. This was refreshing to me because as a Christian woman I use God's Word as final authority, so seeing this dynamic in the Bible was key for me. This book not only uses the Bible to show what a godly marriage should look like, but it also gives practical tools. Not all of these will come in handy at this point in my life as I'm not married yet, but I believe it would be of great use to those who are married.

The only drawback is I felt that the book was a bit wordy and at times repetitive, so I wish the author would have cleaned up his ideas and made it more succint, but the content of the book is great. I would recommend this to readers who are married or are close to that stage in their life. Understanding the importance of communication and how to center a marriage around God's Word is key to success.

The Sweet By & By - Sara Evans

When I received this book I didn’t know what to expect, especially since it was by an already famous recording artist Sara Evans. But I ended up enjoying the read. The thing I liked the most was the realness of it. You could tell that the characters were close pictures of reality and that made it fun to turn each page. Jade shows her struggles from the past and how it is she can combine this past life of hurt into a new life with her future husband. This book is an easy read and I finished it quickly, but it was because I had a hard time putting it down. Sara Evans did an excellent job as an author. It causes you to reflect a little on your life and how you handle situations and maybe others would relate more to her specific story but I think it was nicely written.