Getting Back Up When Life Knocks You Down - Book Review

Sometimes I think denial can be a gift for a short amount of time. It may be a means of coping until you are ready to process something traumatic.  But denial can be destructive too.  Whether it is denial of the facts, denial of the impact, or denial of denial itself, it will eventually hurt you until you turn it around by swallowing a heavy dose of acceptance blended with a little humility and courage.  In the book Getting Back Up When Life Knocks You Down, Jeremy Kingsley guides you through practical steps to not only stand back up and cope, but actually thrive when life knocks you in the gut and kicks the breath out of you.

Through the use of life illustrations and examples, Jeremy Kingsley shows that you are not alone when you have been slammed with the unexpected. He addresses the root cause anger (which is often fear), the different ways people handle it, and how to relinquish it.  If you are caught playing the blame game when life knocks you down, he offers steps to taking responsibility and seeking solutions.  He provides steps to forgiveness, ways to let go of guilt, and six worry busters.  

But six steps to bust worry from your life? Deal with anger and bitterness in a few easy steps? He conveys the remedies to life’s problems in such an oversimplified manner that he comes across as one of those friends who rattle off advice without the experience to back it up.  It seemed like common sense stuff to me.

Not feeling sure if I had read too many books to give this book a fair assessment, I asked my sister to read it and share her thoughts. While she is not an avid reader, she is fighting the ultimate life-knock-down, a whole series of punches in the gut, and she agreed to read it during this season of her life when she is trying to get back up on her feet with her family in an entirely new environment.  She loved it! She discovered a deeper understanding of her emotions and valuable ideas to put into practice.  She did note that sometimes she wished the author had dug a little deeper or expanded on some issues.

This short, quick read is more about what you can do rather than what God can do, a sort of Christianized self-help book, but it may be just the book to read when you are in the midst of difficulties.  Even if you don’t feel like life knocked you down, there are still some insights and fresh ideas to put into practice in your daily life.  Though scripture references are lacking in this book, it is clearly grounded in biblical principles. 

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review.