Everything by Mary DeMuth

What I enjoy the most about Mary’s books is that she is transparent. I feel a kindred spirit to her because she speaks out loud what her innermost feelings might be. I have felt those same raw emotions and have dealt with what life has handed me growing up in an unchristian home and I’ve seen, heard, and felt things no-one should ever bear. Mary has too. When she writes certain passages it resonates me to the core. My core (at times) represents shame, fear, worry, and then guilty for feeling all of those things knowing that I should be more faithful. She has some powerful paragraphs and sentences that stop you in your tracks.

Everything is divided into three parts:

*Head – What We Think

*Heart – Who We Are

*Hands – How We Live

Part of section one includes the topic of worry. This is what Mary says about worry and it shook me to the core. Worry is a weighty monster with poisoned tentacles. It clutches at us, grabs our mind, steals our breath, our will. It lurks. It pounces. It colors how we perceive the world. But God whispers peace in the midst. At the heart of the matter, we know with our heads that worry will leads to no sleep and stress. It doesn’t change what’s going to happen. We need to be able to hand our worries over to God. I like the image of a box. Write all your worries on a piece of paper and place them in the box. Then picture Jesus and him coming up to you and reaching his hand out to you and requesting that you give him the worry box. And then he wraps you in his embrace and tells you it’s all mine now. I already know the future and it’s good. It’s Jeremiah 29:11 – you’ve read it. You’ve memorized it. Now, live it. You have the future at your hands and I’m right beside you.

Mary DeMuth touches on much more such as choosing forgiveness and healing. Sometimes it’s easier to wallow in our woes rather than face our challenge head on. Forgiving the other person (easier said than done – I know!) is actually releasing you not them. It’s releasing you to move on with your life and live it abundantly. And I learned a long time ago that forgiveness doesn’t mean that you forget what happened or that you have to be their friend. It just means letting go. After all, God has forgiven us. Why is it so hard to forgive others?

Finally, Mary gives you 10 disciplines that if you apply them you will find great growth. One such is the discipline of gratitude and she refers to Ann Voskamp’s book called, “One Thousand Gifts.” Focus on what you do have in life. If you live in America, you have much more than you realize that we so easily take for granted such as running water. We rarely go without it. Or electricity. Oh, how we moan if either is out for even a few hours. It’s all over Facebook that our power is out. Poor Me! We happily post it from our IPhones and get the attention that we all so deserve!

I recommend this book for others who want to tackle that weighty monster of our lives such as worry, letting go of the giants, choosing to heal, and tackling the disciplines.

I was given this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.