Review: Loved as I Am

Item: Loved as I Am
Rating: 5
Author: Amanda Marie

Posted January 15, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments

Loved as I Am by Miriam James Heidland
Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2014)
eARC (128 pages)
Via: NetGalley
Rating:
Reading Challenges: Read 2015

Synopsis

When Sr. Miriam James Heidland’s life as a successful college athlete proved unfulfilling, she went searching for something deeper and ended up falling in love with Jesus. By charting her own journey toward wholeness, Heidland invites young Catholics to pursue their own relationship with Jesus.
Although originally full of athletic ambition and goals for a career in sports news, Heidland was transformed in a very slow but deep way during her undergraduate years, moving from party girl to bride of Christ. In Loved as I Am: An Invitation to Conversion, Healing, and Freedom through Jesus, Heidland helps readers learn from her experience of seeking love in the wrong places and instead finding it in Christ. She shares her struggles—learning she was adopted, battling alcoholism, and healing from childhood sexual abuse—as signs of hope that anyone who desires to know Christ can find him and be loved intimately by him in return. By bringing readers into Heidland’s healing process, Loved as I Am provides a gentle and subtle template for finding peace and freedom in Jesus.

Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository

I really, really, really loved this book. Each chapter has a different theme as well as ending with a short prayer and some questions for deeper thinking. I used some of these questions as journal prompts.

I have had some problems with self-esteem, with seeing myself as unable to be loved by God. At times it is really hard to believe that God loves me even though I am completely unworthy of that love.

This book was the book I needed to read. Parts of it felt as though it were written just for me. It was wonderful.

I totally, wholeheartedly and unreservedly, recommend this book to everyone.