Hi everyone! Quick question: do you have a goal of how many books you want to read in a year? If so, how do you decide? I’ve never done this, and last year was the first time I kept count of how many books I read. In total, it was twenty-six. I’m not sure if that is good or not, but if you average it – that comes out to two books per month. This year, I’ll keep counting again and see how many books I read, but I don’t want to pressure myself to read a certain amount of books.
One of the books I read late last year was If You Only Knew: My Unlikely, Unavoidable Story of Becoming Free by Jamie Ivey. This book was added to my list in 2019 when I first saw Jamie at the LifeWay Live Women’s Conference. However, I did not get the chance to read this book until the end of last year.
This post contains product affiliate links. I may receive a commission if you purchase after clicking on one of these links.
About If You Only Knew
This book is about Jamie sharing her raw, honest story about her struggles, coming to Jesus, and meeting her husband. I enjoyed Jamie’s vulnerability as she laid her life in this book. And she even names one of her chapters’ Vulnerability Breeds Vulnerability. In that chapter, she talks about the power of vulnerability and how being vulnerable with someone will lead to them being vulnerable with you.
We need friends like that in our lives. People, we can be vulnerable with and share our struggles. Reading about this reminded me of my story and how few people know the full details of everything I’ve gone through and done. Because yes, there are things I’m not proud I did, but those I’ve told, never judged me. They didn’t make me feel worse about what I did than I was already feeling.
Pointing to Jesus
One of the things that stood out to me that Jamie wrote was about being a safe space for people to share their struggles and stories. When someone shares their struggles, we shouldn’t judge. We should listen compassionately, love them, and point them to Jesus. That’s all! Especially the church. And speaking of the church – she is a pastor’s wife, and in her story, she sometimes didn’t feel worthy of that title because of her past.
We tend to make it seem like church leaders don’t struggle or have faults, but they do. Because they are human, just like everyone else. I appreciate Jamie sharing her struggles even after she became a pastor’s wife. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people pretend they don’t go through struggles, especially leaders in the church. Being honest with the church is more powerful than pretending life is perfect. Although I understand not everyone needs to know everything, and I am not saying they need to share everything, but let’s not pretend everything is always perfect.
Wrapping Up
I love reading and listening to stories because stories are powerful. They change things, and they connect people. Being vulnerable is hard, but it wouldn’t be as powerful as it is if it were easy. Again, I appreciate the vulnerability in this book and the message. We need to be a safe space for others to share their stories, not judge, just point them to Jesus. And vulnerability breeds vulnerability.
With Love, Heidy
Is a personal development newsletter an interest of yours? With a little bit of poetry? A little of opinion pieces? And some faith-based encouragement? Sign up for my Substack newsletter, Into My Thoughts
