Life is hard. All you need to do is live a week and one is bound to experience difficulty of one sort or another.

In her book, Breathe Again, author Niki Hardy offers hope and encouragement as she explains how we are able to live well, yes, even when life falls apart.

Breathe Again is the story of loss, illness, pain, and struggle. The author shares not only of the loss of her mother and sister to cancer, but also her own journey with rectal cancer. She writes with transparency and an authenticity which brings hope that life can be full even when it is not pain-free.

The book is broken into three parts:

1. Finding Solid Ground
2. Learning to Breathe Again
3. Keep Calm and Breathe On

The book is beautifully, and tenderly, written as she shares her own pains and doubts. Each page points us to Christ and His Word as the source of hope and strength. The stories shared made me cry and laugh while bringing the reminder that with Christ we can do more than survive – we can thrive.

Each chapter includes a section with motivating ways to breathe again, a prayer, and a line from her “Thriver Manifesto”.

A few quotes which spoke to my own heart include:

• “Living the full abundant life God has for us – is possible right in the middle of our heartache, tragedy, and yearning.”
• “Let’s not take our difficult circumstances as evidence of God’s anger; instead, let’s look at Jesus’s life and death as evidence of his love.”
• “Trusting God is simultaneously a letting go of what we think will make everything better and a holding to to the promise that with him everything is better.”
• “Sharing someone’s burden, even for a moment, isn’t the drain we imagine, but a tank-filling privilege and joy … What if, in a miraculous upside-down exchange, we find more life as we give it out?”

The book was an encouraging and motivating read,
challenging us
“to find more whenever life hands us less.”

**** I was provided a copy of this book by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. This post contains affiliate links.  If you click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small percent at no additional cost to you.

Today I am joining … Tell His Story and  Grace Full Tuesday and InstaEncouragements and Purposeful Faith and Booknificent Thursday .