Mo Isom tells her story of how God changed her life through her suffering. She grew up in a stable and loving home. She had great success as a soccer player in high school and college. But in the midst of this outward success, her dad was battling with pornography, and their family was crumbling. She talks of seeking to control her life through controlling what she ate. She soon received the positive affirmation she was seeking as people noticed how thin and beautiful she was becoming. Boys were interested, and she realized what great power she held over these young men. This eating disorder quickly imprisoned her. Then her father took his own life during her first year of college. And shortly after her father's suicide, she was in a near fatal car crash. The book begins with her in this desperate state.
She says that she felt like God had forgotten her and abandoned her. Why else would he allow such hard things? But now she looks back and realizes that God used these hard things to finally help her surrender to Him and stop trying to control her life and live for herself.
Mo says in her conclusion: "But what I love about a living, breathing relationship with God is that it centers around our brokenness and it makes a home amid our vulnerability. There is inherent humility in the gospel of Jesus Christ. To say that we've been set free is the confess we were bound up. To say that we've been washed clean is to confess we were impure. To say that we've been made new is to confess we were full of broken things. The beauty in all of those confessions is that they echo with glory."
I enjoyed this book because I looked at some of these issues such as suicide and eating disorders in a new light. And I felt like she didn't write this book to air her dirty laundry but to really bring glory to God for what He did in her life. It's such a book of hope from the perspective of a young person.
It's a little scary to read as a mom of five girls. I was reminded of the pressure on girls to be beautiful and thin and sucessful. I was reminded of how much my girls need my love and affirmation. And mostly that going to church alone isn't going to help them weather life's storms. My girls need to come to their own, personal surrender to Jesus and their own realization of the depth of His love for them. Only in His love for them can they be truly secure.
I would recommend this book to high school girls and older. The book is full of sports, but I still enjoyed it even though I don't know anything about soccer or football!
Negative elements: This book deals with some mature themes including suicide, eating disorders, pornography, and per-marital sex.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
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