Uninvited by Lysa TerKeurst

Living Loved when you Feel Less Than, Left Out and Lonely.

I saw this book on the review site as an option and I was like, Less than? Left Out? Uninvited? I don't really need that book, I guess. Then I saw there was a online study about it and giveaways associated with it and other people wanting to read it, so I was like why not? I've heard about Lysa, why not get the book while I have a chance?

So I did, and am I ever glad I did. I'm not sure if I'll know where to stop on this review. When I wrote the subtitle this morning, I was like how could I have thought I didn't need it? I can definitely struggle with feeling like I don't quit make the grade either as a wife or a mom or a friend or a relative, etc. No, I don't feel like I've suffered severe rejection, but there have been moments. Lysa had to deal with her dad walking out of her life, that's not happened to me. Yeah, my dad left, but I was older and it wasn't his choice. God called him home--big difference.

One of the first things that stuck out to me in the book was the concept of Living Loved. I am loved by God no matter what. If I live out of the love God has for me and not expecting others to fill that love void in my life, that will make a big difference. It will change how I respond to those moments of rejection or those moments where someone may criticize or even just make a comment that I want to take the wrong way and get all down in the mouth about. If I am living out of the love God has for me, those things won't pull me under.

Probably, in some ways, the chapter that hit me the hardest was the bonus chapter called "What's it Like to Do Life with Me?" Most of the book dealt with how people have hurt us and how we should respond, but this chapter turns it around and helps us to look inward and see where we might be part of the problem.  Not a really fun thing to do, but very, very necessary. The chapter concludes with a little assessment about how you respond to things that you are to answer true or false too and then get a close friend, spouse, etc. to answer as well and see how their answers compare. Lysa looks at four aspects of character taken out of Proverbs 4: 23-27, attitude (Am I a know-it-all?), propensity away from affirmation (Are my words building up or tearing down?), altitude (trying to see from someone else's vantage point and not just my own), and then actions (how have my past actions affected present relationships and do I need to backtrack, ask forgiveness and then show that I am willing and eager to change).

At the end of the book, Lysa has a section where she lists all the Scripture verses she used throughout the book and then also a section where she lists the points she doesn't want us to forget. I thought that was a nice addition to the book. I didn't reread all the Scripture again, but it's handy to have available.

So just a few quotes, I'll see if I can keep it to a few.

"Honesty isn't trying to hurt me. It's trying to heal me."
"The mind feasts on what it focuses on. What consumes my thinking will be the making or the breaking of my identity."
"Live from the abundant place that you are loved, and you won't find yourself begging others for scraps of love."
"How dangerous it is when our souls are gasping for God but we're too distracted flirting with the world to notice."
"People who care more about being right than ending right prove just how wrong they were all along."
"We have an enemy, and it's not each other."
"People can't fix from the outside a perspective that needs to be rewired on the inside. Only God can do that."

As you can tell, I really liked this book. It stomped on my toes. I know I can be so easily offended and I think it's too often because I am depending on man to meet my needs instead of God. I definitely recommend this book if you are in the same shoes.

This book was given me by BookLookBloggers for the purpose of reading and writing a review. All opinions expressed are my own.