Enter her latest book, Looking for Lovely: Collecting the Moments that Matter.
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| Photo courtesy of Matthew Hernandez @mdez |
Looking for Lovely sounded like a great book for me. Collecting moments? Yes. Loveliness everywhere? Yes, please. I'm still in awe that not only did my copy of the book come in an envelope complete with party confetti, it's signed by the author!
And then I started reading. And it was hard.
I'm not sure why this book was such a difficult read for me. Is it because so much of it touched the tender parts of my heart? Because I completely related to the self-loathing and pain and "broken crazy" Annie Downs describes?
Yes. Yes, I think, to all of the above and more.
It has become even harder for me in recent years to believe in the deepest parts of me that I am truly worthy of the love of God - of the sacrifice of Christ - of the calling of the Holy Spirit. Years of rejection and self-doubt have caused me to brush off compliments and think it's all for you and none for me. I am not awesome. I am not worthy. Yet, the Word of God says otherwise, doesn't it? Yes, ma'am, it does.
Hence, my struggle.
Enter Downs and her lovely teal and confetti-sprinkled book that begins with pain and talking about quitting and beauty and something she calls "broken crazy" - a phrase that is just general enough of a descriptor to be completely identifiable - and you have a perfect storm of Pattie tears.
Music and painting nails and nature walks and traveling around the world. These are the lovely things. These are moments for Annie; may we find our moments too.
I recommend this book to women, mostly, but to anyone looking for lovely in the pain and brokenness of life. For it is in the brokenness that light shines through - and stained glass can be formed from pieces - and mosaics can be designed from shards - and our perfectly imperfect selves can allow the light of Jesus to shine through and be glorified.
This book is a lovely follow-up to Emily P. Freeman's Simply Tuesday from last year. Where Emily's book is about finding beauty in the ordinary, Annie's book is more about finding beauty in our painful situations.
Annie's own prayer for her book is found here.
To learn more about the book you can go to the book's website here.
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Disclaimer:
No affiliate links are included. I was given an advance reader copy from the author and her publisher in exchange for my honest review and promotion of the book. Except for the first photo, all other photos are my own.
3 comments:
What a great and honest review! Thank you! I am stopping by from the launch team, collecting Lovely everywhere I go today! So thankful to have read Annie's words - and her heart - in these pages! Great post!
Loved your review!
Hello, fellow launcher! So glad to read your review. And VERY glad when I saw you included Simply Tuesday too. I read that book just before Looking for Lovely, and LOVE it too!
By the way, have you listened to Annie's podcast where she interviews Emily?! It is one of my favorites, especially to hear them talk about their writing processes. It made my wannabe writer's heart swoon!
And one more thought on Simply Tuesday: if you look at my Instagram account (@EchoesPhotography), you'll see I'm in the middle of a photo/quote series with Simply Tuesday art every Tuesday. Enjoy!
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