The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate: a Book Review

I just finished an inspirational read I was able to get for Free (love that!) on my Kindle Fire.  A 2014 Christy Award nominee entitled The Prayer Box.

Tandi Reese is running from a drug-filled, abusive relationship. She chooses the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a haven for her and her two children. Though she finds herself in a place she once spent time as a child, not all the memories are good ones.

Yet here she is, renting a cottage from Iola Poole, owner of the historical house and property on which the cottage sits. One day, after Iola unexpectedly passes away, Tandi finds herself cleaning out the old rickety home in exchange for rent. After a bit of snooping, Tandi finds a closet filled to the brim with boxes. Each box is filled with letters written by Iola -- letters to God.

All throughout the book, we see Tandi struggle with many emotions that are holding her back from a better life for her and her children. Feelings of abandonment, unworthiness, and the inability to trust are a few at the top of the list.

Through Iola's letters, we first learn about her past. They also provide inspiration and encouragement to Tandi while she works to build a meaningful, fulfilling life with positive relationships. Of course, along the way, Tandi realizes she is not really alone -- God's grace is all around her.

I rarely highlight passages in books, but found myself doing so in this one. Here are a few I wanted to remember and share.

Nothing that had happened since I'd been on this island had happened at random. I'd been given shelter for my family, food to eat, work to do.

Given.

Gifts. I'd wanted to earn my own way, to do this myself, to form a new life on my own, but instead, this had been given to me. This life. This place. These letters.

This revelation.

Prayers are answered in ways we don't choose. The river of grace bubbles up in unexpected places.

(Another!)

Thank you. I wanted to write it on paper and fold it up in a box to remind myself, the next time I couldn't see anything but mountains ahead, that where there's a mountain, there's always a river flowing nearby.

Ultimately the river is the more powerful of the two.

(One more!)

All my life, I'd let the ties of blood control me, limit me, define me, yet I'd ignored the ties of love. I'd shielded myself from the people who tried to slip inside the armor, who told me that I was worthy.

The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate -- highly recommended!

Shared at Simple Life Sunday, Simple Saturdays Blog Hop, Simply Natural Saturdays, and some of these other fine hops.

I was featured!

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