{"id":4345,"date":"2011-11-08T07:06:19","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T12:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4345"},"modified":"2011-11-08T07:06:19","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T12:06:19","slug":"book-review-choosing-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meganstrange.com\/?p=4345","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Choosing to SEE"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My earliest memories of Christian music revolve around “For the Sake of the Call”, “No Better Place”, and “Let Us Pray” by Steven Curtis Chapman in the early 1990’s.\u00a0 The summer before my junior year of high school, I prayed to receive Christ at youth camp.\u00a0 The camp theme song that year was “The Great Adventure” by Steven Curtis Chapman.\u00a0 At our wedding, SCC’s “I Will Be Here” was sung and continues to be our song.\u00a0 I have always enjoyed the way that SCC can tell such a captivating story of Scripture, hope, and redemption through his music.\u00a0 Now that I have read Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope<\/a> by Steven’s beautiful wife Mary Beth, I see that hope and redemption is the theme of the Chapman family and their ministry.<\/p>\n

This book is obviously a labor of love and stewardship on behalf of what God is doing and will do through the Chapman family and in particular, Mary Beth Chapman.\u00a0 In May of 2008, this family lost their precious daughter Maria in a tragic accident.\u00a0 Maria was the youngest of three sweet girls that the Chapmans have adopted from China.\u00a0 That story is obviously the foundation of this book as it propelled the Chapmans to consider what matters most and how God wanted to use their story for His glory and the good of others.\u00a0 Mary Beth was very brave to share her own struggles with depression and doubt over the years.\u00a0 I really appreciate her transparency and know her desire is to help other people…ladies and moms in particular…gain victory in this area.<\/p>\n

There are tons of funny stories throughout the book and when I closed the book, I felt as if I had walked away from spending some time with the Chapmans.\u00a0 This was a pretty wide open look at all things Chapman.\u00a0 I am not a super emotional person, but I can assure you that I shed some tears as Mary Beth recounted different events such as her wedding, special times with each of her children, the adoptions of their three youngest, the death of Maria, the wedding of Emily, the way that Caleb showed what it meant to truly be his brother’s keeper, and the way that Will Franklin’s “cloud of witnesses” walked him through the darkest days of his young life.\u00a0 This is a story of victory and redemption.<\/p>\n

Do yourself a favor…read this book and hug your family tighter.\u00a0 God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.\u00a0 God doesn’t guarantee us an easy life, but He does promise to carry us through the darkest times if we will run to Him.<\/p>\n

I highlighted a few things while reading and have pasted them below..<\/p>\n