Sunday, August 17, 2014

Balancing It All book review

Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose

Balancing It All: My Story of Juggling Priorities and Purpose

 
“How do you do it all?”

That’s the question that wife, mom, actress, and best-selling author Candace Cameron Bure is often asked. And it’s a question that women everywhere are asking themselves as we seek to balance all of our roles, responsibilities, and opportunities.

So, how do we do it? Working since the age of 5, Candace has been in a balancing act for nearly her entire life. She is the first to tell you that there is no miracle formula for perfect execution in every area of your life, but there definitely are some lessons to be learned, lessons that come to life in Candace's story.

Come along and dig into Candace’s story from her start in commercials, the balance-necessitating years on Full House, to adding on the roles of wife and mom while also returning to Hollywood. Insightful, funny, and poignant, Candace’s story will help you balance it all.


 My Review: 9/10

I recently read Candace Cameron Bure's previous book Reshaping It All and enjoyed the family stories and recipes and Biblical motivation. I guess I expected this book to be exactly the same format but with the focus on balance this time. It is entirely different and I liked it better! I got it on loan from the library, but I think I'm going to have to get my own copy because there was so much I want to be able to refer back to. It's stuffed full of advice with personal application, ideas and wisdom.

I thought it was great that she shared her private journal entries when they were applicable. It showed me that no matter how great your love for God is, we all have moments when we feel super distant and like we're messing everything up. I think sometimes we might be afraid to let those feelings out, thinking that if we say it or write it, then they become a permanent truth. But that's just the devil at work, trying to make us fearful, ashamed, guilty, etc. The truth is that we need to acknowledge our feelings and deal with them, work through them and then we can move on. Then we can see that those times of weakness did not define us and they did not last.

I also loved her remarks on marriage and child rearing, especially: "People talk about marriage being a 50-50 give and take situation, but it's more than that. It's more than compromise. It's about giving 100%, finding your role in that relationship and honoring all aspects of it." Yes! I just had to explain a smaller scale of this to my two girls. I explained that while compromise is awesome, sometimes they need to sacrifice- that's what love is. And being completely unwilling to love one another is what was causing a lot of their fights. Ms. Bure is right on about this. Her Biblical wisdom on respecting your husband was also exactly right. It also happens to be a very unpopular viewpoint in our culture, which makes me appreciate her speaking up even more. Those gems are quotes that I might make into art or include in wedding cards.

Lastly, I was very strongly impacted by her illustration of a prayer partnership with her friend. Immediately, I thought, what a great way for me to grow closer to God, keep perspective of my prayers and blessings and also be held accountable; it's easy to pray something like, "God, please help me to get in better shape and eat right!" and then forget about it, do nothing to change your life, your habits, your self discipline. But having someone to whom I'm sharing my prayers with, knowing that they are praying for me too, and updating each other on prayers that have been answered, reminds me of the things I say I want, and helps motivate me to make changes too. I've implemented this with my sister in law in the last week and it has already been making a difference in my life, in ways I wasn't expecting.

In short, I recommend  this book so much that I will likely buy it for others. It has been a God send.

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