Book Review: Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman

Posted by My Heart Song

10/29/2012 

After each of my miscarriages, I've find myself devouring books. This is due in part to needing to rest more, to relax and let my body heal... lending itself to more time for reading. But it's also partly due to my search for others who have been through loss, others who can relate to my pain and remind me that I'm not alone. 

After my most recent miscarriage, a friend who has been through miscarraige herself suggested two books to me. I immediately looked for them at my local library. They only had one, so I quickly checked it out and read it within 3 days. The book was Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman.

Mary Beth Chapman is the wife of Christmas musician Steven Curtis Chapman. They lost a young daughter in a tragic car accident a few years ago. To make the situation even harder, it was their own teenage son who was driving the car that struck and killed their young daughter. 

Reading this book challenged me, but also gave me permission to feel some of the emotions that are common (but not "respectable) to feel during times of loss. I found Mary Beth Chapman to be very transparent and vulnerable with her emotions, her own need for medicine to help manage her depression, and her struggles with God. On a totally separate note, this book reveals the Chapmans' heart for adoption and orphan care, which is near to my heart too.

This is a book I'd recommend to others going through the grief process, especially for Christians who are trying to reconcile God's will with tragic life circumstances. 

I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians 3-4: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." God can use others, like Mary Beth Chapman, to share their story and share the comfort they have received in order to comfort others, like me. I thank Him for the ways He can reach us, speak to us, comfort us.  
 
This book was the first support I felt, the first tool God used this time around to hold me up when I felt like collapsing.