Brokenness

Secrets Of The Pastor’s Wife by Christina Ryan Claypool is a powerful and thought provoking Christian novel that will aim straight at  your heart and emotions.

The novel has the themes of secrets, betrayal and hurts. If we keep secrets eventually they will weigh us down. “Haunted by old secrets.” God does not want us to live under a burden. He will send people across our paths to help us to release our deepest sorrows.

There is also the theme of forgiveness. “The same forgiveness you extend to others, you must extend to yourself.” Often the hardest person to forgive is the face in the mirror.

In our pain we may turn away from God, believing ourselves to be abandoned by Him. “So many times we don’t know why, but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care.” If we focus on our pain, we are not looking to God and we cannot see Him through our pain.

We all have a God-shaped hole that nothing else will fill. Nothing else fits. “Endeavouring to fill the empty hole… with some addictive behaviour.” Everything but God is meaningless and we will be on a path to self-destruct.

The wife of a pastor is often invisible. Parishioners look to their own interests and past the pastor’s wife to him. God knows the need for a good friend and will send one across her path.

I found Secrets Of The Pastor’s Wife an incredibly powerful and emotional read. It is heart breaking to witness the isolation, the hurt and the pain but God is the God of restoration and He can and will restore lives.

I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON