Info: Copyright 2016: Nashville: Nelson Books
Rating (on a scale of 1-4 stars): ✮✮
Where Acquired: Library check out.
What it's about: Drawing from personal experience, TerKeurst tackles the insecurity-inducing results of being uninvited—unwanted, rejected, and unloved. She offers prayers, scriptures, and encouragement for those suffering from this type of mental damage.
Favorite Quotes:
We project the lines of rejection we heard
from our past on others and hold them accountable for words they never
said. And worst of all, we catch
ourselves wondering if God secretly aggress with those who hurt us. p. 8
In my research on rejection, I discovered
two core fears that feed a person’s sensitivity to reject; The fear of being
abandoned [and] The fear of losing one’s identity. p. 17
What the mind focuses on, it feasts
on. p. 24
Live from the abundant place that you are
loved, and you won’t find yourself begging others for scraps of love. p. 30
No, God’s love isn’t based on me. It’s simply placed on me. And it’s the place from which I should
live…loved. p. 40
Grace given when it feels least deserved
is the only antidote for bitter rot. p.
80
Acceptance is like an antibiotic that
prevents past rejections from turning into present-day infections. The need for belonging runs deep. The need to belong goes beyond the need for
superficial social ties…it is a need for meaningful, profound bonding. p. 94
No amount of outside achievement fixes
inside hurts. Those hurts have to be
soothed by replacing the ties with truth.
p. 98
Rejection isn’t just an emotional
feeling. It’s a message that alters what
you believe about yourself.. And the minute you sense that happening is the
minute you must stop the runaway thinking with truth. p. 105So even as the closed doors and rejections seem more prevalent than the new opportunities you’d like to see, even as you’re seeking to readjust your thinking, remember that there is an abundant need in the world for your contributions to the kingdom…your thoughts and words and artistic expressions…your exact brand of beautiful. p. 125
What I liked:
- The Kindle Edition has real page numbers.
- The author gets high marks for grammar and mechanics.
- The first two-thirds of the book weren’t so great, but the last third was powerful. The prayers and scripture passages included were quite encouraging.
- Her incessant comparing herself physically with other women and self body shaming really got on my nerves. If this was an attempt at self-effacing humor, it missed the mark tremendously.
- I felt like this book was only for wives and moms. The whole book was written like a mommy blog...a long, whinny mommy blog.
- OK, y'all already know how much I loathe the "aside box." This book used its twin brother; what I call the "repeat bar." It's a placement of text in large letters that repeats what the author JUST said. Make...it...stop!
-
I read the first two-thirds of the book back in July. Then my check-out expired and I had to put the book on reserve again. I didn’t get to re-check the book until this past week. The only reason I was willing to wait so long was because I’d gotten so close to the end of the book. Otherwise, it would have been relegated to my DNF category. After finishing, I’m really surprised that the wait list for the book was so long. It wasn’t worth it.
After enjoying TerKeurst's book Made to Crave, I was looking forward to this offering. However, I found this book to be very disappointing. It was as if the author was saying "Crap happens; get over it. If you're excluded, it's your fault for not being the right kind of...whatever." While giving encouraging scriptures to see us through lonely times of rejection was helpful, I was hoping she would tackle the issue of stopping this nonsense. Yes, I understand that the world is going to reject us because of the cause of Christ. However, I wanted her to tackle the blatant rejection among Christian women--those given the power to decide who gets "invited" or "uninvited." Why do we who are supposed to be sisters in Christ continue to cut each other to ribbons and toss out those who don't fit a very outdated, mutually exclusive mold? Why do we as women of God keep allowing the world (and uninformed church people) to obliterate the beautiful image that God beautifully formed in His Word? The author didn't do any of those things. In fact, the way the book was written seemed to exasperate the situation.
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