Book Review: Love and the Silver Lining by Tammy L. Gray
There’s a saying “When God shuts a door, He opens a window” meaning that often our plans, even though good and meant to be something that would honor God, are not always His plans for us, thus He shuts the door to our pursuit of them. However, He does not leave us without opportunity to fulfill His plans for us, as He opens a window for us. In this I see that going through that window will most likely require a bit more effort on our part than walking through that door would have.
So what do you do when the dream you’ve thought about, planned for and worked towards achieving for so long suddenly falls through at the last minute? That open door that you were ready to step through suddenly slams shut on you with no way to open again?
Do you calmly access it and accept that God shut the door because He was opening a window of new opportunity in your life?
Or do you react with shock and self pity, cry and wail in anger at God and sit alone trying to drown your grief with ice cream and tears, refusing to let go of your dream and focusing on negativity in all facets of your life?
Darcy, our main character in this story, chose to do the latter. When her hope and dream of becoming a missionary fell through at the last minute, she reacted with anger and self pity, because she had worked so hard to achieve this goal, she didn’t stop to think that perhaps God wanted her to walk a different life path.
Darcy’s story is very relatable to many of us, because most of us want to please God and work towards what we think would honor Him, using the knowledge and talents we have, however God tells us in Isaiah 55:8 that our thoughts and ways are not His thoughts and ways, so sometimes He has to step in and change our plans by shutting a door, but it’s always for our good and if we pursue His ways by going through the window He opens then we will find we will receive a lot more happiness and satisfaction in our life.
I really enjoyed reading about Darcy’s journey down this path of closed doors and opened windows and how she handled each disappointment and opportunity. It was her time to learn and grow, and I think you will enjoy reading her story also.
It’s a story woven with the threads of God’s love throughout, as Darcy has to face loss in many forms and heartbreak that many of us could relate to, yet God is always there beside her to bring her through everything.
This book was given to me free by Bethany House a division of Baker Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and comments are my own.
Leona J. Atkinson