Rest Assured: A Book Review

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I recently sat down to read a new book written by Vicki Courtney, author of 5 Conversations You Must Have With Your Daughter and numerous other books.  This book, called Rest Assured, claimed to help readers develop a recovery plan for their sanity and their lives when they are overwhelmed, exhausted, worn out from busyness overload.  I find our family is often busy and thought this book would be a helpful resource to helping me continue to find margin in the midst of the mess that is called life with children.

I definitely identified with Vicki’s theory of how busy is too busy and with her ideas of the underlying causes of our busyness.  I often find myself overwhelmed with “busyness” just for the sake of making myself look good or to cover up some underlying emotion that I want to cover up.  Neither of these things are healthy, and God doesn’t want any of these things for us.  I also agree with Vicki when she says that, ” unless you decide your chronic busyness is a sin problem rather than a scheduling problem, you will continue to feel burned out, used up, half alive.”  Nobody should or needs to feel like that, and that is you, please reevaluate your busyness and revamp your schedule before it’s too late.

I loved the ideas in chapter 6 when Vicki talks about different ways your children can deal with “boredom” and solitude.  I feel that these are reasonable things my own children can and should do, as it is good for them.  I also loved the “pay it forward” ideas used in chapter 8, which encourages us to consider how we can help others and care for others in the margin that we have created for ourselves.

On the other hand, throughout chapter 3, I really struggled with Vicki’s judgments toward how other moms use their time.  I felt her judgmental attitude was distracting from her writing, and it really tainted my view of the rest of the book.

I also had some difficulty answering some of the “Rest Stop” and “Intervention” questions throughout the book.  While many women might come to this book seriously swamped and overloaded, I did not.  I recently did a lot of reevaluating my schedule myself and have cut a lot of things out of my life.  There are very few things left to cut out.  So with these I couldn’t often relate.

When you are overwhelmed with busyness, stuck in a rut with no margin and no rest, I strongly encourage you to find a resource that will help you overcome this stressor in your life.  Rest Assured may be helpful for you; however, if this is the case for you I would also recommend to you The Fringe Hours, written by Jessica N. Turner, which is an outstanding book that will lead you step by step through the areas in order to create the space in your life that you really need.