Loving My Actual Life: A Book Review

**Book received for review. All thoughts are my own.


The grass is greener on the other side...

We've all heard that old cliche, am I right? And I must admit, sometimes, it really does seem like everyone in the world around you has it together a little better than you. Maybe they have more money to spend. Maybe they have the job you always dreamed of. Maybe they seem to have the perfect family. Whatever it is, it's not hard to get caught up in that feeling on not living up to your own expectations of perfection.

But let's be honest--- no one has the perfect life! Sure, it may look like that from the outside, but chances are, they also have those things that they are looking at in someone else's life that they wish they had. Think about that...the people whose life we are admiring and wishing was our own...wants to live the life of someone else too!

When we spend all that time thinking about the life we wished we had...we miss a lot of good stuff in the life that we WERE given! Maybe we don't have the greatest job- not glamourous or fancy as we'd always dreamed- but perhaps that job allows us more time with our family and friends. No matter what negative things are happening, there is always that little bit of good! What would happen if we focussed on those things, rather than the bad things? What if we strove to love the life we were actually given rather than the life we wish we had?

Does that idea sound like something you need to do? If yes, then I have just the book for you:

Loving My Actual Life

by Alexandra Kuykendall

What if you could actually love the life you are living right now?

In life, there is the ideal: fulfilling work, thriving relationships, financial security. Not to mention an orderly and beautiful home and children who never misbehave. And then there's reality: frustrations, illness, feeling overwhelmed and inadequate. We can wait around for our circumstances to change and in the process miss the goodness right in front of us. Or we can choose to love our actual lives, right here and now.

In this entertaining and insightful book, Alexandra Kuykendall chronicles her nine-month experiment to rekindle her love of her ordinary, actual life. After wiping her calendar as clean as a mother of four can, Kuykendall focuses on one aspect of her life each month, searching for ways to more fully enjoy her current season. By intentionally adding one thing each month that will make her jump for joy, she provides a practical challenge you can easily replicate in your life. With humor, poignancy, and plenty of personal stories, she shows how a few small changes can make this crazy-busy life one of holy contentment.

This truly is a fantastic book! This isn't just a book that tells you what to do and how to do it, it truly is a personal journey that we are given a ride along on. We see how see challenged herself and her experiences within those challenges. It's like a personal journal that we can follow along and learn from. By the end, you'll feel as though she's a friend...and you'll hopefully find yourself inspired to start loving your actual life too. This is a book we can all learn a lot from, but that won't feel like we're being lectured! It's certainly a must read!

Loving My Actual Life is available to purchase now at your favorite Christian book retailer.