Ordinary on Purpose by Mikala Alberston, MD

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Surrendering Perfect and Discovering Beauty Amid the Rubble

Mikala just wants life to be perfect--she has it all mapped out exactly how she wanted it to go, exactly how she envisioned her life to turn out. But it has all gone badly awry. Married to a drug-and-alcohol dependent husband, her world comes crashing down at her feet. And once it unravels her, Mikala learns to stand up and to really live the life she has been given, to really live relying on God to give her the strength.

When her husband goes away to rehab, Mikala doesn't know how the story will end and she is tired of holding it all together. She can't just put all the blame on her husband, she has to learn how to give up her perfect life and embrace her ordinary life.

This book is the story of that journey. It's the story of learning to embrace the "sunset moments" as Mikala calls them. "Because even on the darkest and hardest and saddest of days, beauty appears. Often where I least expect it. And even if that beauty is only fleeting, like the sunset, it is my daily reminder of God's love." I really like that idea of looking for the beauty in the everyday and in the fleeting. Life is ordinary, but it can be so beautiful.

Another quote I really needed was this one: "He chose me for messy motherhood. Because He knows that despite my imperfections and the countless ways I'll get it all wrong, I'm just the right mom for the job." 

I enjoyed this book. There were a few things that gave me pause in it. It did feel like Mikala ran the house on her own and I wondered how active her husband really was in their lives, but at the end of the book she brought him into the picture a little bit more. Our beliefs would be somewhat different as well, but over all this is a good book and a good reminder to accept the imperfections and messiness of life because that is where the real living takes place.

I received this book from Bethany House and was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

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