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I am my sister's keeper

Reaching out to wounded women

Sister act

I AM MY SISTER’S KEEPER
Reaching out to wounded women
By Denise George
Christian Focus. 185 pages. £7.99
ISBN 978 1 845 507 176

Denise George wants women across the church to reach out to their sisters who are hurting. Each chapter includes a retelling of a biblical account of suffering, true life stories and statistics. Her style is easy to read.

She emphasises that our role is to be faithful friends who pray. Mixed in are a few gems of practical advice on what to say. She is strong on deciding to forgive over wanting to, on knowing you’re forgiven over feeling like it and on encouraging intimacy with the Lord.

There are different ways women can be wounded. However, this book is ‘not nearly long enough’ (p.147) to properly cover hurt from broken relationships, not forgiving oneself, loneliness, discouragement, spouse abuse, childhood sexual abuse, suicide of children, loss and grief.

Case studies confusingly don’t always refer to the suffering addressed in that chapter. The Bible studies at the end replicate the weakness of Bible usage in the whole book: dwelling on fictionalised additions and real-life examples over the text.

Finally, in chapter 8 and the epilogue, Denise begins to touch on the unshakable truths one needs to hear in suffering: that we can trust our faithful creator; that evil has been conquered and can no longer enslave us; and, most gloriously, that Jesus ‘is the hope that never dies, God’s eternal hope’ (p.147).

Perhaps to have started with these truths, basing the book around them, would have led to a more God-centred and helpful book. I am reminded to listen to and love my sisters more. However, I am left feeling dissatisfied with the lack of depth and longing for more on who God is and how we have been redeemed from sin and death.

Eleanor Every-Clayton,
wife of pastor and Bible College lecturer in French-speaking Brussels