by J. Robin Wood
               Published February 3rd 2015 by BJU Press/JourneyForth

* I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley to review.

I am a mom with daughters in their 20's and 30's and I imagined that it would be correct to say that I am in a position to read this book and relate very well to it. The author is a younger mother with toddlers and still I assumed that I could relate. Initially I did but I did not relate to how she presented her book. I could not grasp her analogy of "supermom" and relating it to the flesh that we all struggle with. Albeit "supermom" in this case represented sin, which I know is "the flesh". I felt that there was too much focus on sin, fleshliness, being unspiritual, selfishness but especially on sin. After a while I felt like I was being eaten alive by a literary shrike. A shrike is a bird that picks at its' prey until they die. I know I am being dramatic but there seemed to be little let up with all the self castigation. And suffice to say, I could have easily fallen into a self castigation party myself but I have done enough of that in my youth and not so distant past.

I am very aware that we as Christians should do quite a bit of sin awareness work but this book and approach was over the top and I wonder if some poor mother would sink into a depth of depression after reading this book. I do believe that I might be too harsh but I think as Christians it could be an easy downward spiral of concentrating on our flesh and sin too much. It in itself can also be a sin, a idol of sorts. I am so glad that we leave it at the cross each and every day. To be fair there were snippets of good moments in this book but not enough for me to carry over into my review. Thank the Lord for grace and His gentle care in how He pinpoints our failures, shortcomings and sin. I love how He shows this to us and how we can come to Him for renewal and forgiveness. There is a sweetness in the process, I end up feeling loved and not condemned. I would have liked to read more of that in this book. I think having a fair and balanced approach that is both Biblical and spiritually logical is key to a very serious issue.