#REVIEW: Every Bitter Thing is Sweet by Sara Hagerty

Title: Every Bitter Thing is Sweet
Series: none
Author:  Sara Hagerty
Published Date: expected October 7, 2014
Publisher: Zondervan
Format: ebook
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9780310339946
Genre: Christian autobiography
Add to: Goodreads
Purchase: Amazon  | Zondervan | CBD

Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: In the age of fingertip access to answers and a limitless supply of ambitions, where do we find the God who was birthed in dirt and straw? Sara Hagerty found him when life stopped working for her. She found him when she was a young adult mired in spiritual busyness and when she was a new bride with doubts about whether her fledgling marriage would survive. She found him alone in the night as she cradled her longing for babies who did not come. She found him as she kissed the faces of children on another continent who had lived years without a mommy s touch.
In Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet, Hagerty masterfully draws from the narrative of her life to craft a mosaic of a God who leans into broken stories. Here readers see a God who is present in every changing circumstance. Most significantly, they see a God who is present in every unchanging circumstance as well.
Whatever lost expectations readers are facing in family, career, singleness, or marriage Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet will bring them closer to a God who longs for them to know him more. What does it look like to know God s nearness when life breaks? What does it mean to receive his life when earthly life remains barren? How can God turn the bitterness of unmet desire into new flavors of joy?
With exquisite storytelling and reflection, Hagerty brings readers back to hope, back to healing, back to a place that God is holding for them alone a place where the unseen is more real than what the eye can perceive. A place where every bitter thing is sweet."

My Review: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was a very difficult book to read. A lot of the book felt like the author was whining. Have I experienced infertility? Yes. There were years that I was convinced that I couldn't have children. But did I whine, like I feel the author is doing in this book? No. Did I feel the torment of believing that I would never hold a baby of my own flesh and blood in my arms? YES!
The biggest problem that I had with this book was the fact that she was able to adopt, not just one, not just two, but FOUR children! And that still wasn't enough for her, she still cried and whined to God. Why couldn't she just say, "Yes, God, this is the motherhood that You have given me. I am the mother You have chosen for these children. It doesn't matter if they are my flesh and blood or not."
The entire book to me felt like the author couldn't accept the blessings that were right in front of her face. That in itself made it very difficult for me to read.