20 July 2016

I Don't Wait Anymore by Grace Thornton, 2016

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In I Don’t Wait Anymore , Grace Thornton challenges readers to find their calling and purpose from God and go after it with completely committed hearts. Have you been waiting for life to turn out the way you expected?
You’re not alone.
There are lots of us out there who feel that way. Grace Thornton is one. She had dreams, plans, and ideas for what life should look like. For one, she thought she’d be married. She thought she’d have kids. She thought God would bring her the life she’d been waiting for because she knew He was good and she tried to be obedient.
But that’s not what happened. Not at all.
So she found herself wrestling with God. Who is He if He doesn’t bring along the life, husband, and 2.5 kids she thought He was supposed to? And where should she go from there?
When she got brutally honest with herself and asked the hard question, “Why do I think the world has more to offer than God does?” the answer was stunning. Her honesty led to the path God had for her. One that would write a story for her life that was even better than the one she had dreamed for herself.
This positive and encouraging book offers inspiration to anyone who wants to live a fulfilling life right now. Grace decided to let go of her expectations of the way life “should be” and grasp God’s hand for the adventure He had for her.
You can too.

(224 pages)

I had credit to get another book from the BookLook Bloggers program, but there weren't any books that I was dying to read. I decided to give I Don't Wait Anymore a go, to see what sort of peace Grace Thornton offers for people who don't wind up with spouses. I haven't exactly been waiting for a husband (I'm only seventeen!), but I've been facing a lot of crossroads when it comes to moving forward with my adult life and I was curious to think about what my life could be like if I never get married.

It turns out I Don't Wait Anymore is actually a devotional, so each chapter offers a specific Christian lesson and then has room for you to answer a specific question about your own relationship with God. I don't usually use devos (I always forget to do them), so it took me a little while to get through this one. I wound up doing it in spurts over the course of a few weeks: some days I did three, and others I did none. If you did one chapter a day, though, it would take about two weeks. There's a very pretty light-brown ribbon you can use to hold your place, and the paper itself is thick and smooth - very luxurious, and great for writing on. The pages are all white where the text is, and then a very pretty shade of light green underneath it.

So yeah, physically the book is great as a devo. What about the text itself? Well, I have to say that it's truly wonderful to see how God has blessed and shaped Grace Thornton's life. Her insights on what it means to follow God (to bring Him out of your pocket into every area of your life, and to focus on pursuing Him instead of on what you get out of Him) are convicting and thought-provoking. It's wonderful to see all of the amazing opportunities Grace has gotten (including moving to England for two years!) - opportunities she wouldn't have had if she'd been married. She also has a lot of God-loving friends (none of whom I could ever keep straight) to cheer her on, which is really great.

No book is perfect, though, and I do have a few small troubles with I Don't Wait Anymore: for one thing, every couple of pages a line or two is offset into its own paragraph, put into a slightly larger font, and made green instead of regular old black. This is done to emphasize particularly meaningful or impactful statements/thoughts, the way they do it in magazines, and it looks very pretty when you flip through the book. Here's the problem, though: you know how in magazines the lines that are made big are ones that are also still in the articles? Well, here they took lines from the devo and highlighted them right where they were. To read what Grace is trying to say, you have to read the highlighted text in context along with all of the normal-sized text surrounding it. I kept accidentally skipping over the ornamented text, though, and then I'd have to go "wait, that's not just ornamental!" and go back and read it. That got kind of annoying after a while, but it certainly wasn't a deal-breaker.

Anyway, I'm no devo expert - I've done a grand total of two in my life - but I really enjoyed this one. If you're a Christian (female or male) who struggles with finding God's plan for your life, then I highly recommend this book. It definitely made me look at my future in a whole new light.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.

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