By Jamie Maletta
Joyce Meyer is an American New York Times bestselling author, Bible teacher, and the face of Joyce Meyer Ministries, a Christian non-profit organization from Missouri. Joyce has written numerous books, guiding readers to work through various circumstances from a place of faith. According to the Joyce Meyer Ministries website, Joyce has written 130 books, with a number of those translated into 155 languages, over 37 million copies distributed worldwide free of charge, and millions of copies sold. Needless to say, I think she’s a big deal.
I love self-help books, and when I first chose something by Joyce Meyer, I had no idea her approach was rooted in Christianity. What’s funny is, I actually chose a different Joyce Meyer book (Authentically, Uniquely You), and happened to be sent the wrong title. It also sat for some time in my (always seemingly large) TBR pile before I picked it up. I believe that sometimes certain things or circumstances come to people when they need them most. Beautiful mishaps, one might say. I’ve been on a pretty significant personal journey lately, and not only was this not the original book I had chosen, but when I did pick it up and begin to read, it was during a time I needed to read those words most, months after I’d actually received it in the mail. I believe this was no coincidence.
Joyce explores the many benefits of thankfulness, being grateful, being generous, and expressing and feeling a sense of gratitude and contentment, and what that all means from a place of faith. She often pulls quotes and stories directly from the Bible and perfectly manages to “bring it back to the basics,” explaining how thankfulness, gratitude, generosity, contentment, and the like can be dated back to Biblical times and were always held with importance (and still should be). Joyce discusses how this way of being (or the lack of it) can affect your everyday life, and how powerful these traits are. She doesn’t skip over the fact that life can be hard, and there are times when thankfulness can feel more difficult, but she also addresses such situations with understanding and reason.
Personally, this book put a lot of things into perspective for me. Things I was aware of, and deep down thankful for, or maybe even presently aware I was thankful for, but life’s distractions had just pulled me away from the conscious thought of being thankful daily. I sometimes find myself forgetting just how grateful I should be, and how blessed I am. This book felt like a bit of an epiphany, like the wake-up call I needed, and I’m going to put what I’ve read into practice. I look forward to exploring what else Joyce has written.
Thank you to Penguin Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.