Every mother has a unique set of issues with which she is dealing as she parents. Perhaps your child has special needs. Or maybe you have a child who is suffering from serous illness. Or you may struggle with your kids’ attitudes or misbehavior. Perhaps your financial struggle is so deep, you find it difficult to feed your children. Maybe your husband is no longer in the picture and what you thought would be a shared parenting journey is now a solo one.
Whatever your struggles, it can be easy to lose hope at times. Even the strongest Christian can question when God will intervene or perhaps even if He cares about our woes. Look at King David – the man after God’s own heart – and read his Psalms. Yet, we do know our hope is built on God and His promises – sometimes we just need a little perspective and reminder.
I will be honest. I was excited when given the opportunity to review Katie Majors new book Daring to Hope. Many of you may know her better by her maiden name – Katie Davis and her original book Kisses for Katie. Katie Davis was a young college aged woman, who through a variety of circumstances ended up living and ministering in Uganda. Oh, and she adopted multiple children as a young single woman!
Her original book told the story of how her life came to be in Uganda as a single mom of many children, ministering to the people in her community. This new volume continues the story, but really is about much more than that. It is her spiritual journey of learning to trust in God and find hope in Him when everything around you seems hopeless.
Honestly, one of the best parts of this book for me was curing me of my tendency towards “Cinderella Syndrome”. It’s easy with the demands of parenting to feel as if your life is sacrificial and filled with humble, thankless tasks. It can be rather enjoyable at times to even throw yourself a little pity party. Reading this book can give you a harsh, but possibly needed wakeup call. I know nothing I have ever dealt with comes close to the daily cleaning of the leg of a man who was burned so badly his bone was exposed. Or watching someone die who would easily live with better medical care. Or losing an adopted child to a birth parent with questionable ability to parent the child you have loved for several years.
Christians have a tendency to whitewash their struggles a bit. Or at times become melodramatic about nothing much at all. Majors has found a way to share the grittiness of every day life in her world without becoming saccharin sweet or melodramatic. She is real about the spiritual struggles she has when faced with the harsh realities in her life. Yet, she is also able to convey how she has found hope in the hopeless through her relationship with God.
This book would be a great read even without the spiritual sharing. Majors is a great story teller and tells the rest of the story after her first book ended without making her romantic life (or lack thereof) the center of the tale. She skillfully weaves her faith throughout the book without sounding too preachy. It’s not a book full of tips (although there are a few to be found), but rather a heartfelt sharing of her story and her faith journey.
I suggest you read this story to encourage yourself as a mother, but to also share it with your pre-teen and teen daughters. If you haven’t read the first book, this one stands alone. For many though, you will enjoy the story part of it more after having read the beginning of the story in the previous book. Either way, this is a classic, you will want to enjoy and share.
This book was given to me for free in exchange for my honest review. Affiliate links are included for your convenience.