Stress Point

Stress Point by Susan Francis Martin
4/5 stars
Thomas Nelson, 2012
267 pages
Adult Christian Non-Fiction

Source: Received a copy for review through Booksneeze in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in this book because of its subtitle: "Thriving Through Your 20s in a Decade of Drama." I am in my twenties and have found some areas of life difficult, in particular negotiating the job area, which is the very first chapter. So I figured this book would be pretty applicable.

Chapters aim to cover every aspect from work as mentioned above to relationships, money issues, and spiritual maturity over the course of ten chapters. Martin broke down each chapter into five sections, using these three guiding images: "Worshiping at the Throne of the King", "Waiting at the Throne of the King" and "Finding Focus on the King." These are images we can as we aim to conquer the stress points in our lives. Each chapter has multiple journal questions to work through but my personal favorite part was how Martin shared a different name of God with us and how that name has give her inspiration through stressful parts of her life.

Many of the points were familiar to me, which is good as I obviously need to hear some of these things again.  One immediate application for me was when earlier this week I was looking at my closet and hating all my clothes. I caught myself and shook my head to literally shake those thoughts out of my head. Instead I reflected on how lucky I am to have so many choices, closed my eyes, and then picked the first short-sleeves shirt I saw. Another application for me was waking up every morning this week and thinking how lucky I am to get to go to work instead of groaning about getting up. This was something my pastor had preached about earlier this year and I'm happy to have had it repeated because I need to hear these things multiple times to make sure they really sink in and change me.

I did struggle a bit with the beginning of each chapter as Martin shared three case studies; in many of the chapters, I didn't relate to any of the case studies and since they were a jumping-off point, I felt my entry into that section was a bit stymied. But I loved the career section and found that one to be very helpful.

Besides the book chapters, there are also summary pages, additional discussion questions, and online videos at Martin's blog if you're looking for more information about this book. I think this would be a helpful read for many Christian women in their twenties.