Everyday Grace by Jessica Thompson humbly speaks to her readers about the true love of God, and how by grace, our brokenness can be repaired.  I am intrigued with the idea of grace and what grace is.  Am I looking for grace myself or am I searching to extend grace to others?  Ms. Thompson uses this book to let us realize, accept and understand the grace that God gives us everyday and in turn extends and transform this grace in our relationship with others.  Don't get me wrong.  This is NOT a how-to or an advice book.  Ms. Thompson even point out says this is not an advice book and it won't contain a lot of advice.  What it is, is a narrative. It pulls out areas in the Bible and explains to us her ideas and translate it in terms of how we can relate to others with it.

It is simply said from the cover of the book, Everyday Grace: Infusing all your relationships with the love of Jesus.  I enjoy reading this book at first.  I like how it reads well,
like she's speaking to me.  I can tell she's a great speaker, and I would be interested in attending one of her sessions in the future.  How many of us emphasize the "doing" in our relationships, either from our other halves to with our family and friends?  Ms. Thompson does well in grasping this concept in the early chapters of the book.  She notes, "We can get so caught up in the doing that we forget the people we are supposed to love" (p43).  How many of us are guilty of it? I know I am from time to time.  God made us all unique in our own ways.  And how we relate to others all require us to first seek and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us.  I love how Ms. Thompson emphasized what God has already done for us for us to see what we need to do.  It's time to focus on the done and not what to do.  Focus on what your husband has done for you, and not what you think he aught to do.  That really is important. Extend the grace given to you to others.

God commanded us to love others, but remember, He first loved us.  "We love because He first loved us" - 1 John 4:19.  If we let that sink into our core being, our minds, our hearts and our souls, grace will humble us and extend that to others - especially our love ones.

I believe the book started off very well, but by the end, I felt it fell short. Nothing was amiss. Everything was what the way it was from the early chapters.  However, by mid-book, I felt a sense of repetitiveness.  True, the chapters are different headings, and the words are different, but somehow it felt off.  This may not be a helpful part of the review, since even I don't understand why I couldn't figure out what is wrong.  I do think the last chapter reverted back to the first 3-4 chapters and its goodness.  It summarized what is crucial - God's grace and what it means.

Ms. Thompson said in her book, "My hope is that this book will help you 'taste and see that the Lord is good' (Psalm 34:8).  That as I open up to you all that he is and all that he has done, your senses will be overwhelmed and he will be your treasure.  As you taste this multifaceted relationship with God, it will transform all of your other relationships." (p43).  I appreciate her frankness, her humility and her insights and this book did open up my mind or senses.  It open up discussions and thoughts with others as well, so with that it was achieved.  And personally, I love any books that brings Bible verses into the mix and give us a good explanation.

Then, also personally and lastly, my pet peeve is when books do not capitalize on the pronouns of God (for example, see above quote).

 Note: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Bethany House for an honest review.