Growing a Peaceful Heart
Summary
Growing a Peaceful Heart by Karen Whiting and a Sara DuBose is a collection of faith-filled stories taken from historical figures, Biblical accounts, and the personal experiences of both the authors and their friends and family. Read either in one sitting or as a thirty-week devotional, these stories are collected with the common thread of finding God’s peace through all circumstances.
Assessment
Growing a Peaceful Heart is a thirty-week devotional focused on the peace that God provides His children during trials, both enormous and mundane. Organized into three major sections — inner peace, relational peace, and being a peacekeeper — this book uses a variety of real-life stories to express Scriptural truths about God-given peace.
The writing style feels a slightly disjointed on occasion, with some missing context (or, perhaps, context that would make more sense to a different audience) and clunky sentences. That said, it isn’t enough to detract from the book’s overall message and purpose.
Theologically, the book has solid messages of faith, humility, repentance, and peace. Aside from the focus on peace, the stories within the devotional are not geared towards any particular audience, genre, or sub-message. Some of the devotionals are more family-oriented, some have practical relationship advice, all relate back to a Scriptural foundation of peace in one way or another.
Light-o-Meter
Writing Style: 3 out of 7 Little Lights
Organization/Formatting: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Fulfillment of Purpose: 6 out of 7 Little Lights
Theological Message: 5 out of 7 Little Lights
Overall: 4 out of 7 Little Lights
Talk
Overall I enjoyed Growing a Peaceful Heart! It is a delightful collection of edifying and encouraging stories from both Christians and non-Christians, all of which tied back to some Scriptural principle expertly. Some of the stories were sweet, some of them were sad, some where funny, and some were practical, but they all focused on finding peace through trusting God, repenting, or letting go. It is not as theologically deep as some devotionals, but it shouldn’t be; the peace that God gives us during trying times is a comfort, not a burden we must shoulder, and this book expresses that throughout its three major sections.
The writing style definitely tripped me up the most. Most of the stories were told in an approachable, easy-to-understand kind of way, which I really appreciated. It makes this book easy to recommend to a wider audience including people who’s first language might not be English. That said, a few of the stories were a bit unorganized. All of the information was there, but sentences or paragraphs were out of place, which made me have to read the story a second or third time to understand what was going on. This definitely isn’t true for every story in the book, with the bulk of which were easy to read, but the disorganized ones definitely stood out the most.
I very much enjoyed and appreciated the variety of stories that were presented in the book. It allowed for a variety of experiences and perspectives, which can be hit or miss when it comes to devotionals. Occasionally, that many different perspectives makes the devotional loose cohesion, which this book avoided wonderfully and stayed on topic. This would be a great book for anyone who needs a bit of comfort and a soft, faith-filled blanket to curl up under.
Wrap-up
Growing a Peaceful Heart is Karen Whiting and Sara DuBose’s blanket for the soul. This thirty week devotional is filled with stories of Christians and Scripture-based lessons on God’s peace, with an approachable writing style and heartfelt moments from across time.
Where to Enjoy
Christianbook.com: Growing a Peaceful Heart: Devotions of Faith, Encouragement and Forgiveness from Peacemakers Past, Present and Future: Karen Whiting, Sara DuBose: 9781617155789
Karen Whiting’s Website: Growing a Peaceful Heart
Sara DuBos’s Website: Sara DuBose - Home
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