“It just shouldn’t be this hard!” Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a day where everything that could go wrong does go wrong–you lock your keys in the car while it’s running, lose control with your kids, make a mistake at the office that results in hours more work. And just when you think not one more thing could possibly happen . . . well, fill in the blank. The struggle is real, friends. … blank.
The struggle is real, friends. It may not be major stuff. Lives are not on the line here. But it makes us feel awful . . . and then we feel guilty for stressing when other people have “real” problems that are so much more serious.
Yet the fact remains: We live in a world that often feels harder than we think it should be. And so it can be easy to believe the stories we tell ourselves–that we’re doing it wrong, that we’ll be stuck in this place forever, that God doesn’t love us. We struggle to practice gratitude, to make godly choices, and to live our daily lives with confidence and contentment. So what can we do?
Join popular Bible teacher and counselor Nicole Unice to discover why the struggle is real . . . and what to do about it. Nicole offers practical tools to help you navigate the daily ups and downs, and ways to rewrite your struggle into a new, God-centered life story. The Struggle Is Real is an invitation to take the hard, hurtful, and confusing moments and turn them into opportunities to grow in wisdom, strength, and joy.
Includes access to free online video streaming for 90 days!
more
You’re going to love Nicole Unice. She’s bright, funny, observant, honest, and fearless about speaking the truth in love. Her advice in The Struggle Is Real is practical and doable, full of common sense and uncommon wisdom, and her true-to-life stories give each lesson a solid landing place in our hearts. This isn’t a book you simply read; it’s a book you do, with remarkable results.
The disconnect between what we believe and how we act ― this changes everything. The Struggle Is Real is a practical guidebook to help us take God at His word and live lives of freedom and power.
My Penny’s Worth
Can a book help you change the story of your life? Will it transform how you live today and move you forward to tomorrow? Are you willing to commit your sin-sick soul to God to be transformed? Do you tell people you are fine even when you’re not?
“The struggle is about the disconnect between what I believe and how I act, how I understand the promises of God and my actual experiences with God. The who I want to be or who I actually am. We don’t need to resolve the struggle alone.” Excerpt from the Struggle is Real.
What I like about the book
Nicole Unice says that we all have struggles and it is through them that we learn who God is and the story He wants to write in our lives. So this book is about being honest with ourselves and taking the steps and responsibility to rewrite our stories for a better outcome. It requires work on our behalf and a belief that “God is greatest, and He knows best.” Through this book, you get to address issues, if you want, from the past to change the storyline for today and tomorrow. Intrigued? What do I like about this? The fact that we can change our story and we don’t have to do it on our own. If you doubt this is possible then read this book.
Easy to read
The Struggle is Real is easy to read, but it is not a book to pick up and rush through. It needs time to digest, to act upon and accept the challenges it raises. It does provide answers. However, you need to be prepared to do some work to get to the answers.
Difficult issues
Life is a struggle with many complicated problems that range from our past and present attitude. Nicole Unice confirms this and draws attention to the areas that we need to work on and change. I have pages of notes and quotes from her book too long to post here! There is so much good stuff in it along with examples from the Bible. And I love the “perm story.” Those difficult issues we all have, need to be viewed through God ’s understanding rather than our own.
Have you heard of a “good desperation”? If not it is time to find out more.
Who would benefit from reading this book?
If you have a broken relationship with God, yourself, with others or the world, then this is the book for you. It will help rewrite your story and deepen your roots in God who, if you take Him at His Word will change your life.
Many thanks, Nicole Unice for writing this thought-provoking self-help book.
*I received this book for free. No compensation was received, and all opinions are my own.*
The Struggle is Real
The Struggle through life is real, most of the time we go through life pretending to others that are fine. The book has some good points in it. I like the sections after the chapters that have you think and reflect. The chapter about listening was really good. That is what we need to do more of, most of all listening to God. One thing in the stood out to me about things in life being temporary. That is one thing I always tell myself.
Being a nonfiction book I would recommend reading a little at a time to learn from it better. Also read more than once to really more benefit of it.
I received an complementary copy of the book from the publisher and Celebrate Lit. I was not required to write an positive review.
What a day I have had. The washer goes out, my son needs money, and the house is a mess. I go to the store and am focused on getting what I need and getting home. I had to laugh as I started the book because I am that person where everything goes wrong at once. It is like an avalanche that won’t stop. Do you really think I want to chat with the cashier at the store? The lady was polite and asked the dreaded question, “How are you?” Now I wanted to say , “Since you asked, my day is going down hill fast. I am at the end of my rope and if one more thing happens I will scream.” Of course I smiled and said what everyone says, “I’m fine.” We do this because we don’t want to share and we want everyone to think we have it all together.
I’m pretty sure the author had me in mind when she wrote this book. I do feel alone and empty inside. I appreciate how open the author is with her own struggles. I can understand her frustration at the carpool lane. I found it ironic that she was on the phone explaining to someone about grace while berating the poor lady directing the traffic. The not so funny part of this story is that we can all relate to her. I believe God places us in situations to show us where we lack grace, forgiveness and compassion.
We all get to make choices in how we handle things. I choose to keep everything inside, shut out the world and suffer silently. That certainly isn’t what God wants for me. He wants me to come to Him, trust Him and have a relationship with Him. Of course we will have struggles, but if we continue to shut Him out we are going to dig the hole deeper. ” The greatest challenge in life will be the challenge of choice.”
I liked how the author speaks from her heart and talks about subjects that can help heal you from emotional pain. It is true that I don’t have any really close friends. I have been like that my entire life. There is a boundary that I won’t allow people to wander into to get close to me. I know it’s about trust and I struggle with that a lot. When the author talked about having a relationship with God but still struggle with bitterness , anger and other emotions that keep me bound up I knew what was coming next. How can I be growing in my relationship with God, if I still struggle with the very things He wants to heal me from? As adults we seem to think we have it all together and fool ourselves and those around us into believing we are happy. The author makes good points about having a real relationship with God. I sure want that and I tell myself I am a work in progress.
We struggle with things everyday, but if we allow ourselves to stay there and let them pile up on us, we are missing out on the joy that God has for us. The concept that God loves us unconditionally blows my mind sometimes. How can He love someone like me who lives on the edge and feels like jumping off ? The good news is that “He will never leave us, nor forsake us.” I love that scripture and know with all my heart that there is someone near who watches over me and loves me so deep that I may never comprehend how much. The one thing I took away from this book the most was how important our relationship with God is. He desires to talk to us and for us to spend time in His word.
The author includes a section at the end of every chapter called. “Keeping It Real.” I encourage readers to participate in the questions which help you better understand the chapter and also dig deep into yourself. We all struggle with everyday life, but some of us have struggled for years from trauma, hurt, loss and other things. The book has helped me to look at my relationship with God and realize that I still have a barrier up. We will always have some kind of struggle, but how we deal with it can make the difference between staying in a place of bitterness, or coming through it with joy and a deeper relationship with God and others. It’s time for us to reach out to each other and be the hands and feet God called us to be.
I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.