Book Review: Choosing To SEE

Mary Beth Chapman's life was not how she planned it. All she wanted was a peaceful life of stability and control. Instead, God gave her an award-winning singer/songwriter husband, crazy schedules, and a houseful of creatively rambunctious children. Most difficult of all, she would live through loss that she never could have imagined.

In Choosing to SEE,Mary Beth unveils her struggle to allow God to write the story of her life. She wrestles with some of life's biggest questions: Where is God when things fall apart? Why does God allow terrible things to happen? How can I survive hard times?

No matter where you find yourself in your own life story, you will treasure the way Mary Beth shows that even in the hard times, there is hope if you choose to SEE.

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My heart broke when I first heard of the untimely death of Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman's five year old daughter Maria. I wanted to read this book not for the gory details surrounding their heart breaking loss, but to learn how a family moves on from a devastating tragedy like this while clinging to their faith.

Mary Beth is painfully honest and open as she takes the reader through her life and dreams for her future. She wanted to marry a quiet stable man and have some children. But God had different plans for her life, plans that included an award-winning singer/songwriter for a husband, six children (three biological and three adopted), a devastating loss and a ministry for her to lead.

She fought it. She questioned it. She longed for something simpler. But she held fast to the Lord, and lived the life He willed for her with grace and authenticity.

With a beautiful foreword by her husband Steven Curtis Chapman, and a powerful prologue by Beth Moore, this book reveals a woman after God's own heart. Her story is one of submission, forgiveness, healing and a deep faith. She shares her struggles, fears and disappointments with such transparency, and I found myself relating to her in so many areas.

This book is about more than the loss of their daughter. It's about believing in what we cannot see, trusting that God has a plan for our lives, and the redemptive love that comes from loving and serving Christ.

"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group".