Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Review: The Heart of the Amish by:Suzanne Woods Fisher

The Heart of the Amish: Life Lessons on Peacemaking and the Power of Forgiveness
About the Book:
Everyone has been hurt. Everyone experiences conflict, great and small. Everyone has someone to forgive. But sometimes we just can't bring ourselves to forgive someone who has wronged us or we don't take the need to forgive seriously--not like the Amish do. Forgiving others in order to live at peace is woven into the very fabric of their faith. To the Amish way of thinking, "You can't love the stream without knowing the source. " We must forgive others, they believe, because God forgave us.

"The Heart of the Amish" invites readers into the world of a people renowned for their ability to forgive. Through true stories gathered from a variety of Amish communities, bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher illustrates how they are able to release their pain and desire for revenge, and live at peace with others. Her in-depth, personal research uncovers the astounding yet fundamental way the Amish can forgive anyone from the angry customer at the grocery store to the shooter at Nickel Mines. Readers will learn how to invite God into "their" stories, apply lessons from the Amish to their own circumstances, and find the freedom that comes with true forgiveness.


My Review:
 Forgiveness is a hard one. Especially if you are the one that has to forgive even though you know that you are not at fault. I have been stuck in several situations where the person that is angry at me doesn't know the full story and they assume you feel this way or that and are angry with you about it. I have had to several times take a step back, pray about it and ask God what to do, mainly because I was so incredibly upset at the other persons behavior.

 But never fear God is there and He will be there with us through it all, even through adversity. He shows us and guides us through the process of forgiveness. He gets us to a better place, we could never do it on our own. He is awesome, that way. And He knows what it feels like to have to forgive even when we know we aren't at fault and that others just don't get us. I'm grateful that He gets it!

 The Amish and Anabaptist movement leave by forgiveness. They practice it everyday and to be honest I bet it is easier for them to do because they have to do it so much. The author, Suzanne Woods Fisher knows this all too well because she has written about, studied, and researched these movements for many years. As a result she has put together some things that may benefit those of us that are trying to engrain forgiveness into our lives to be better for Christ.

 Included in The Heart of the Amish provide stories and lessons of deep forgiveness at the end of each there is a place of reflecting. I really like that part. My favorite quote from the book is "If you have 70,000 thoughts per day, you have 70,000 chances to do it better. This book will really help you "to do it better!"

**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Revell.

No comments:

Post a Comment