Review: Letting Go of Perfect by Amy E. Spiegel

Letting Go of Perfect
Amy E. Spiegel

Genre: Christian Life, Women's Issues
Hardback: 288 Pages
Publication: May 1, 2012
by B&H Publishing

Have you ever felt as though you didn’t recognize yourself in the mirror and yet you’re frantically trying to keep that image together? Felt bound by the dreams you had for life that you now realize have forced other expectations on you? Or maybe you’ve laughed at one of those insanely ridiculous moments in the day when absolutely everything goes wrong and no matter what you do, the grand purpose seems elusive.

Let’s be honest. We all have a standard in our head that we believe is the perfect Christian woman, wife, and/or mother. Yet, have you ever really examined what that standard is? Yes, God absolutely has standards for what those roles are to be, but is He our source, or is it the peer-pressure-don’t- be-the-odd-one-out-on-Sunday-morning drive to fit in that is driving us away from authenticity and raw faith to outward performance?

Amy Spiegel knows this struggle well and notes, “so many of the women I know seem to feel the same tension in their own lives, teetering on the edge, praying someone will be there to catch them if they fall.” There is a grand purpose to where you are today; join Amy in Letting Go of Perfect to look at what it means to truly know the woman in the mirror as well as the God who created, redeems, and equips her.

Review

Amy Spiegel makes a lot of great points on how to let go of the image of the perfect woman that bombards us in our daily lives. Many of these speak to my own heart, and I appreciate the message that she's sending out to us.

My problem with this book is with the organization. I know that many women love this book and how Spiegel shares details from her own life to drive home a point. I too appreciate how Spiegel draws from her own life to show us how we should direct attention to what God intends for us rather than what the world tells us we should be. For me, however, it was easy to get lost in the storytelling and forget the point of the chapter, and it was difficult to see how the threads connected. The narrative just didn't work for me.

What I would have liked to see was more time spent with specific incidents and exploring how they relate to the topic being discussed instead of jumping from event to event without fully connecting them together. This includes spending more time on tying these specific incidents to the gospel and, thus, sharing with us how to let go of perfect as defined by the world for a gospel-centered life living in God's word.

Again, not every book is for everyone. This book just didn't happen to be for me. If you like book and movie references and are looking to relate to someone who's gone through the struggles of wifehood and mommyhood and come out with a stronger faith, this might be for you.

Rating: 2 stars