by Colleen C. Mitchell
Reviewed by Sarah Lyon
We are taught that faith is a gift. Colleen Mitchell has given us a great gift with this beautifully written book about faith, our identity, and the Bible as an extraordinary spiritual resource that we sometimes fail to appreciate. In the Prologue, we learn that in 2009, Colleen unexpectedly lost her infant son who suddenly stopped breathing. She soon lost another child to miscarriage. She then moved with her husband and five sons to Costa Rica to be missionaries where she found "freedom and healing". Her healing was due in great part to her reflections on the lives of women mentioned in the Bible Colleen explains that "Whether you come to these pages in the midst of darkness or pain you cannot bear, or with the anticipation and joy of a new dream in your hands or a newly healed place in your heart, I pray that he will meet y0u here, in the stories of your sisters and build a vision for your life and your future that is whole and lovely and with a unique purpose. "
Colleen then reflects on the lives of the Blessed Virgin, Elizabeth-the mother of John the Baptist, Anna the Prophetess, The Woman of Samaria, The Hemorrhaging Women, The Woman Caught in Adultery. Martha and Mary of Bethany, Mary Magdalene, and several others. At the end of each chapter she lists several questions for reflection. For example in the chapter titled The Women Crippled by a Demon, she asks
1. What are the lies Satan whispers to burden my heart and discourage me? 2. How can I recognize when the Evil One has been at work in my spirit/ How does he cripple me? 3. What would it look ilke for me to walk in freedom those lies, to embrace my abilities and the identity i have in Christ? 4. How can I help other women let go of the lies by which they have topped low and help then stand tall in Christ again?
The answer the last question was to write this beautiful book that has transformed so many lives.