I remember one of those rare times my dad told me a story about his wartime experiences, about his unit’s Chaplain and his unshakable faith. After a long day out on patrol near enemy lines in Italy his unit had found a deserted home to spend the night in. After they ate dad noticed the Chaplain seated by the window catching the last of the daylight, reading. Dad approached him and asked him “Padre, don’t you think you are taking an awful risk sitting there by the window?”. The answer he got was a calm, “son, if the good Lord is ready for me today, it wont matter where I’m sitting” and he returned to his book.

My mind went back to that story many times as I read Walsh’s book. He, who possessed that unquestioned trust in the one to whose hands he had entrusted his life. Walsh recounts her struggles to learn to take the leap of faith that let her trust as he had. She didn’t emerge from the battlefields of war ravaged Italy, she emerged instead from the war within that clinical depression engages us in.

That trust and the peace that comes with it didn’t come to her in a flash of almighty insight. It came to her one small piece and step at a time as she learned Christ doesn’t take us out of the pain that life brings us, he comes to hold us as we go through it together. She takes the reader through her own journey, not back to where she was before depression crumpled her but forward to where her growing trust in the Father was leading her, a step at a time.

For anyone who has been down the path of struggling with depression, Walsh’s writing is oh too real. I found myself brought to tears, something almost unheard of for me, as I saw flashes of myself in her story. I haven’t moved to her level of trust in the hands of the Father as she has or the openness about the journey.

As I read, she guided me through her commentary on ten stories from the bible which illustrated the depth and importance of trust. The book gave me much to consider, much to pray on and much to inspire myself to. Well worth the read.

NOTICE: I received this book from Nelson Thomas to read and review. You want to get some books to read and review you can find them at www.booksneeze.com

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Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh

When I was learning to drive, one of the first principles I learned was that the car was going to head in the direction I was looking. That understanding answered one of my main fears about driving — how was I ever going to keep that car in it’s lane?

Some thirty plus years later I effortlessly keep my vehicle headed in the right direction. Now, if I was playing closer attention, I’d be able to exercise more control over my own life.

Andy Stanley in ” Principle of the Path” demonstrates that life is not just a series of random events driving us from one point to another — holding on for dear life. Life is in fact a series of paths we choose either deliberately or by failing to change direction, when we can see we’re heading down the wrong path.

Sometimes we end up on the wrong path because we have a fool for an adviser — ourself. We’ve engaged the fool because we’re too stubborn or proud to admit we need guidance from another. When we fail to seek help from those who have gone before us, we usually fail to attain what we want.

So, how do we choose the right path for us? That car didn’t go in the right direction because of some magical property in my eyes, it went there because I gave that direction my attention.

In exploring “Principle of the Path” you can learn how to better direct your life in the direction you truly want to go instead of feeling dragged along by chance.

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Principle of the Path by Andy Stanley