Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Book for All Women!, July 29, 2009
This is an amazing story of redemption and grace. I expected a predictable memoir, but Deanna is a powerful writer who puts you right inside the story. I could not stop reading! Every woman should read this book...the themes are universal and the outcome is an encouraging reminder of God's amazing love. This book reminded me that it is never too late for any of us. Who doesn't have regrets from her past? Deanna shows us how to rise above circumstances and past mistakes, and continue to evolve during every season of our life. I loved the book and found it very inspiring.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Grace that continues to amaze, September 3, 2009
Review by: Dennis Gerard Embo, author of <The God That Prevailed>
St. Augustine of Hippo opens Book I, Chapter 1 of his <Confessions> with a doxology, proclaiming, "You are great, O Lord, and greatly to be praised: great is your power and to your wisdom there is no limit." Deanna Jones' spiritual memoir <To Be a Mother: Adopting God's Heart> takes the reader from a very dysfunctional childhood relationship with her human father to her ultimate and joyous discovery of God as her spiritual "Father" and deliverer. Hers is very much the story of a woman who enters adulthood alienated from God, but who in the end we see experiencing God's presence in very intimate and tangible ways. The immediacy of God's presence in so many of her personal experiences as she rises from intense inner pain and despair to wonder and elation is beautifully expressed in the pages of this book.
One aspect of the book I particularly appreciate is Deanna's level of candor in which she shares with the reader her youthful naïveté; her alternating fear and love for her mentally troubled father; her fits of rage against what she came to realize later was a very distorted concept of God as a fearful ogre like her human father; her inner turmoil as she grappled alone with her unplanned pregnancy, her decision to abort, followed by her life literally coming unraveled; her cherished dream of a successful career as an entertainer collapsing before her in a heap.
The remainder of the book can be compared to the aftermath of a violent storm that has just passed. The rain finally stops, the clouds begin to dissipate, and the sun, little by little, begins to break through the clouds. Such was Deanna's slow ascent into presence of One she had once despised and feared: God. But not God in some abstract theological construct, but God as a caring and forgiving Father. Here begins a story filled with fascination, wonder and surprise as the grace of God, manifested through a wide variety of personal circumstances, and even dreams, looms larger and larger in her life until that day when she comes to the realization that God, her heavenly Father, had been with her all along, even in her darkest hours. To paraphrase Augustine, "...you were with [Deanna], but [she] was not with you."
For me one of the most endearing parts of the book is Deanna's self-effacing confession that she is anything but a [Jill]-of-all-trades when it comes to children and what mothers and elementary school teachers have come to know and (not always) love as "arts and crafts." Perhaps arts and crafts are not Deanna's forte, but what she certainly has succeeded in doing is penning a moving personal memoir that once again reaffirms the new life even the most despairing of us can discover in the inexhaustible ocean of God's mercy, and the wonders of His love.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
To Be a Mother is a MUST read!, August 18, 2009
In To Be a Mother, Deanna Jones brings us into her life from childhood to adulthood. I wanted to rescue her from difficult situations as I read through her pain. Many of us can relate to her testimony whether we have experienced her trials or not. As women, we can relate to her struggles. As mothers we can feel her heart. I read this book in one afternoon. I couldn't put it down!
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