Look at It This Way: Straightforward Wisdom to Put Life in Perspective
Women stuck in a rut get a bracing pep talk from this unpretentious Christian self-help manual. The author, a speaker and seminar leader at Moody Bible Institute, addresses a litany of women's problems-domineering husbands, guilt feelings about children (living and aborted) and aging parents, people who betray confidences, wounding slights from co-workers, resentment of seemingly perfect sisters-in-law, wanting to be a lady but feeling like a tramp-and draws her sermonettes equally from Bible stories and homespun anecdotes about such matters as rude waiters, balky appliances and interior-decorating disasters. She expounds a sketchy psychology based on a "grid" made up of childhood experiences, people we know, emotional makeup and life events, which sometimes gets "bent" and needs "straightening." Her advice, though, is practical: learn the right ways to ask for what you want, don't be controlling and meddlesome (especially with adult children and their inappropriate fiancées), don't fret over might-have-beens, remember that "if something doesn't work, change it." Above all, let go of the past, for "the cheerleader has to put up her pompoms" and "take her place with other mortal women at the supermarket." But women feeling trapped in lives not quite of their choosing can, with God's help, change their fate, choose constructive action over self-pity, abjure their "impossibility mindsets" and discover their "unlimited potential for moving on." Silvious is not a brilliant or profound writer, but she has a feel for the psychological predicaments of everyday life that many readers will appreciate.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.