Soul Restoration: Hope for the Weary

If you love Terri's writings like I do, you will really enjoy this devotion type readings. I have read every one of her books and wait anxiously for a new one so when I found this, I jumped on it. I call her by her first name because I feel like I know her. She opens herself up in every book and she's the kind of friend we all need.

This is a beautiful collection of meditations, many being reprints of afterwords from Terri Blackstock's novels and some written especially for this collection.By sharing her personal experiences and thoughts, she helps the reader gain spiritual insight into his or her situations. The thoughts are all gentle and loving and there's no preaching here. This is a case of the author opening up and expressing herself and it's up to the reader to respond or not. I've only read two of her suspense novels so far, but I see thoughts that were expressed in both INTERVENTION and DOUBLE MINDS. The devotion "For The Mothers" ties in with INTERVENTION. In "Prodigal Daughter", she deals with her experience as a writer, and compromises with her Christian ethic that she made in order to sell more copies of her early books. This idea of compromising in order to spread one's artistic work to more people is dealt with in DOUBLE MINDS.However, the devotion that meant the most to me was "When the Smoke Clears" based on my personal key Bible verse, John 15:5. I guess a complete review should have some kind of criticism, but this is such a minor one that doesn't affect the value of the book. If I had the opportunity to talk personally with Terri Blackstock, I would suggest that she be aware that an occasional stray male such as myself might happen to pick up one of her books, and that some readers have sons as well as daughters. Since I'm sure that 99.9% of her readers are female, this isn't a big point, but I can't help wishing that she at least acknowledged that one of us guys might read this and feel excluded by her obvious talking to those of her gender with no sense of application to the masculine situation. I do mean this comment kindly and realize that maybe it's necessary in her mind that she be talking exclusively to women.The last observation I want to make here is that non-Christians may well find much of value and much to think about by exposure to such a gentle and sensitive approach to Christianity. Yes, this small volume would make a great and meaningful gift for someone in your life, but also a great and meaningful gift for you to give yourself.