Book Review: Searching for Sanity by Lindsey Bell

It’s no secret that I love to read.  It’s also no secret that I love using devotionals to grow my faith and that I often seek books for encouragement and information for parenting.  You can imagine how much I love it when those things all come together in one package, right?

Book Review: Searching for Sanity by Lindsey Bell

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This post contains affiliate links; please see disclosure for details.)

Searching for Sanity: 52 Insights from the Parents of the Bible  by Lindsey Bell is like nothing I’ve read before.  With devotions for 52 weeks, Searching for Sanity provides practical application, questions for reflection, prayers, and activities to last throughout the year.  Parents from the Bible are the focus of each week’s devotion, but reflection and life application are weaved in beautifully.

What I loved about the book:

It’s not just the popular crowd – I love that it doesn’t focus on only the more well-known biblical parents.  Achan, Jephithah, Jeroboam, and Korah don’t often get the spotlight when parents in the Bible are discussed.  Yet, in Searching for Sanity, we’re reminded that we can learn from the lesser-knowns, too.

Book Review: Searching for Sanity by Lindsey Bell

The good, bad, and extraordinarily human parents – I appreciate that the inspiring stories of parents like Hannah and Mary are included, but I equally appreciate the attention to the less-than-inspiring parenting.   If you’re like me, it’s sometimes the stories of the extraordinarily human parents that teach me the most.  I’ll happily learn from the mistakes of others to keep myself from going down the wrong paths!

It’s not overwhelming – Let’s be honest, if you’re going to commit to reading a book for an entire year, it can’t become a chore.  The daily and weekly chunks need to be short, sweet, and doable in this already too-busy world.  The average weekly devotion in Searching for Sanity is only a couple of pages.  As far as daily commitments are concerned, each week contains additional activities for five days.  Not too much, not too little, and yet just enough to keep your focus on the point of each week’s reading.

It provides flexibility – Each week comes with questions for reflection.  I think these would be great to use as journal prompts throughout each week.  They could be done all at once or spread out over a few days.  If you’re not into journaling, those questions can simply stay put at the end of each weekly devotion for you to answer however you like.

Book Review: Searching for Sanity by Lindsey Bell

What I didn’t love:

My only criticism of Searching for Sanity is that the book cover didn’t suggest that it’s a devotional.  When I initially downloaded it, I had no idea it was a devotional.  The title of the book intrigued me and I selected it based on that alone.  Although I love devotionals, I’m not always in the market for a new one.  To be fair, had I done a little reading on Amazon, I would’ve found more about the book type fairly quickly.

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All in all, Searching for Sanity is a devotional that I happily recommend to other Christian parents.   The lessons and encouragement shared each week are reminders that we all need to hear.  Better yet, they’re presented in a format that’s easy to follow for busy parents, which is all of us, right?


3 thoughts on “Book Review: Searching for Sanity by Lindsey Bell”

  1. Hey Emily,
    Thanks so much for taking time to leave this thoughtful review of my book! And I’m so glad you enjoyed it:) Your review made my day. Thank you! PS If you have a few moments, I’d so appreciate you copying this review and posting it on Amazon, B&N, or Goodreads. Your review was so thorough that I know it will be very helpful to other shoppers.

    Thanks again!
    Lindsey

    1. You are so welcome, Lindsey! I really enjoyed it. (FYI, I posted it review to Amazon and Goodreads yesterday, but will be happy to add it to Barnes and Noble too.) :)

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