Jan Silvious

I received this book a while back, and thanks to a hectic life, took me a while to sit down with it. Which just goes to prove how much I needed this book! This is a 10-week bible study of sorts for women, all about rewriting the story of your life, starting with today. This book lays out a blueprint for starting to change your life and write the story that you would like to have told after you leave this earth, and creating that story to reflect who you really are and who you really want to show more become.

I could really relate with the stories laid out in this book. I have lived a life full of conflict in my past, and after reading this book, I got the feeling like I could start over at any moment, and that all of life was laid out before me, all I had to do was start to make the changes that needed to be changed.



Jan Silvious, the author, writes about how we should be handling the various events that come up in our lives and how to try to make our story better each day. The author points out that we have ultimately created the circumstances in our lives that create a story we do not want to tell, for example, continuing to allow someone to emotionally or verbally abuse us, instead of making the effort to get ourselves out of the situation, as was my case many years ago. Those situations we get stuck in and they are our own doing, we need to get ourselves out of them if we want anything to change.



The author combines stories of modern day women and stories of women in scripture to give examples of how women have changed their lives and to provide examples of the changes we can make in our own.

But she also talks about situations we have no control over, like being struck with a terminal illness, paralysis, or other personal tradgedy. I really like what she writes about grieving. The whole book is about not getting stuck and getting up and getting back into life and figuring where to go from here.

But in the part about grieving a lost loved one, she writes that sometimes you need to be in that grief for a while. You can't just pick up and move on, you need to go through the grieving process. How long you stay in that grieving process is very personal, and no one else can decide that for you. You just have to go through the process, but trying not to let it consume you is the trick. I remember after the loss of a loved one, everyone kept asking me, "Oh, aren't you over that yet?" But I had to feel what I was feeling in order to get through it.


She also talks about how we need to remember when we are thrust into stories we wish we didn't have to write, God sees the whole picture, even if we don't, and he is working all things together for good. I love that she writes that because that is what has gotten me through a lot of my hard times, and periods of being stuck. I may not like what is happening, and I have learned instead of being mad at God or asking why he is allowing this, I always ask him to let me look back on this soon and see something good that came of it. He has always done that for me.

Not every situation that causes you to get stuck is negative, as pointed out in the book either. Sometimes it is a comfort zone you are in, and God is calling you to step out of that and take a leap of faith. This is something that really spoke to me, as I am the type of person who really really likes her comfort zones. Those are the places I get stuck more than the negative places. I know that the negative places are going to teach me something, but I need to keep moving to see what I am learning. The comfy places are nice and cozy, and sometimes I need a real kick in the pants to get moving.

Overall, I feel that this is a must read for every woman who wants to live a more faith based life,

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” show less

This book is probably between a 3.5 and a 4 for me.

This book was mentioned many years ago by a lady in a Bible Study I attended. (I think we, as a group, were trying to decide what to study next, and she mentioned she was reading this book and enjoying it. The group didn't decide to do this book, but I remembered the title and later, when I saw it at a discount place, I decided to purchase it. It sat in my TBR pile until recently.)

I appreciated the Bible verses quoted and that they were show more included in the text (rather than being told to go find a Bible and look them up--of course, that is still an option if context isn't clear from what's quoted or if you have any question in how the author is interpreting a passage.)

For some reason, I was expecting it to be a series of chapters about different types of fools. That's not the case. Instead it's more of a generalized look at "fools"--their motivation(s), our reaction(s), how we change as a result of being involved with a fool, how we can change our behavior and reactions, etc. show less

I would recommend this book to ANY woman (but it would be more helpful to have faith and read this) who has ever felt like she is trapped inside and confused about our actions and the reactions from others. The style in which Jan Silvious writes is very unique and almost as if she's a mentor talking directly to you. This book has helped me so much over the past few years, my copy is very worn looking because I've read and reread so many parts of it.

I received this book a while back, and thanks to a hectic life, took me a while to sit down with it. Which just goes to prove how much I needed this book! This is a 10-week bible study of sorts for women, all about rewriting the story of your life, starting with today. This book lays out a blueprint for starting to change your life and write the story that you would like to have told after you leave this earth, and creating that story to reflect who you really are and who you really want to show more become.

I could really relate with the stories laid out in this book. I have lived a life full of conflict in my past, and after reading this book, I got the feeling like I could start over at any moment, and that all of life was laid out before me, all I had to do was start to make the changes that needed to be changed.



Jan Silvious, the author, writes about how we should be handling the various events that come up in our lives and how to try to make our story better each day. The author points out that we have ultimately created the circumstances in our lives that create a story we do not want to tell, for example, continuing to allow someone to emotionally or verbally abuse us, instead of making the effort to get ourselves out of the situation, as was my case many years ago. Those situations we get stuck in and they are our own doing, we need to get ourselves out of them if we want anything to change.



The author combines stories of modern day women and stories of women in scripture to give examples of how women have changed their lives and to provide examples of the changes we can make in our own.

But she also talks about situations we have no control over, like being struck with a terminal illness, paralysis, or other personal tradgedy. I really like what she writes about grieving. The whole book is about not getting stuck and getting up and getting back into life and figuring where to go from here.

But in the part about grieving a lost loved one, she writes that sometimes you need to be in that grief for a while. You can't just pick up and move on, you need to go through the grieving process. How long you stay in that grieving process is very personal, and no one else can decide that for you. You just have to go through the process, but trying not to let it consume you is the trick. I remember after the loss of a loved one, everyone kept asking me, "Oh, aren't you over that yet?" But I had to feel what I was feeling in order to get through it.


She also talks about how we need to remember when we are thrust into stories we wish we didn't have to write, God sees the whole picture, even if we don't, and he is working all things together for good. I love that she writes that because that is what has gotten me through a lot of my hard times, and periods of being stuck. I may not like what is happening, and I have learned instead of being mad at God or asking why he is allowing this, I always ask him to let me look back on this soon and see something good that came of it. He has always done that for me.

Not every situation that causes you to get stuck is negative, as pointed out in the book either. Sometimes it is a comfort zone you are in, and God is calling you to step out of that and take a leap of faith. This is something that really spoke to me, as I am the type of person who really really likes her comfort zones. Those are the places I get stuck more than the negative places. I know that the negative places are going to teach me something, but I need to keep moving to see what I am learning. The comfy places are nice and cozy, and sometimes I need a real kick in the pants to get moving.

Overall, I feel that this is a must read for every woman who wants to live a more faith based life,

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” show less