Friday, April 22, 2022

{ What If It's Wonderful by Nicole Zasowski - TLC Book Tour }

 

About WHAT IF IT’S WONDERFUL?: AN INVITATION TO RELEASE YOUR FEARS, CHOOSE JOY, AND FIND THE COURAGE TO CELEBRATE

Publisher: Thomas Nelson (March 8, 2022)
Paperback: 240 Pages
 

Don’t spend your life practicing disappointment and rehearsing tragedy when you can experience God’s gift of joy and celebration today.

Author and marriage and family therapist Nicole Zasowski knows that it’s difficult to trust joy and find the courage to celebrate when you have endured seasons of disappointment and despair. When God has been your faithful anchor in the storm, does joy then leave you unmoored? Nicole reminds us that we can stay tethered to the hope of Christ in seasons of celebration, because even joyful days hold the learning, growth, and intimate encounters with Jesus that our hearts crave.

What If It’s Wonderful? offers a new perspective. With a compelling psychological and spiritual case for the importance of embracing joy and celebration, even when it feels scary, it will help you

  • identify common barriers and hesitancies to experiencing joy, debunk their lies, and overcome your fears,
  • confront toxic messages you have received about joy as you learn to see celebration as an avenue of growth and intimacy with God,
  • approach life with an expectant heart, a receptive posture, and courage to trust God’s good gifts, and
  • stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in seasons of joy and celebration.
Things don’t always have to be hard to find God and to stay close to him. Release your fears and accept his beautiful gift of joy and celebration.
 

About Nicole Zasowski

Nicole Zasowski is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the author of From Lost to Found. As an old soul who wears her heart proudly on her sleeve, she enjoys writing and speaking on topics that merge her professional knowledge, faith, and personal experience. Nicole lives in Connecticut with her husband and their three young children.
 
 
REVIEW:
This book came at such a pivotal time in my Christian growth.  The past few months, I have been in pretty deep grief over the loss of our sweet dog Marley.  It was a grief that I had suppressed, ignored, and to a certain degree denied.
 
As I started to take ownership of it, and deal with it head on, I began to go through an ocean of emotions and feelings.  I felt stuck, sad, and completely lost and devoid of happiness.

All I saw was pain and hurt.  I wasn't living life in a joyful manner, looking forward to tomorrow or the next month, and I certainly wasn't trusting in God's gifts and plans for my life.  And then I would tell myself, that it's ok because it's in these darkest moments of life that we learn our most important lessons.

That may be true, but Nicole Zasowski encourages us to look at the celebrations and good moments in life, as growing lessons as well.  As humans we have a habit of staying stuck in the problem.  Something comes up to scare us and we get so caught up in it, that we stop living, we stop looking at everything else around us that is filled with happiness, blessings and joy.

This book has been so helpful in my journey, in facing my fears, my sadness and my grief and allowing that to bring me through the lesson, while still allowing me to look toward the future and smile at the good things going on around me.

Nicole uses her own experiences in life, to teach us some very valuable tools, that help to change the way we think during happy or sad moments in life.

We have a choice to make, we have a choice in how we feel or how things affect us.  There are obstacles and things that happen to us that are out of our control, but the way we allow that situation to affect us spiritually, is our own choice.  And I'm speaking from my own personal experience, where sometimes something happens that leaves me so scared, worried or sad that I allow it to consume me.  Suddenly I'm short tempered, annoyed, quick to snap.  

I've been working on that, and this book was such a helpful tool in doing that.  I never felt judged by the author, which I have found happens sometimes when I read a book along the same lines.  I start reading and then start feeling like there's something wrong with me.

Nicole Zasowski gently guides you through, never being judgemental, but a kind and loving way.

Highly recommend it.

 

 

 

1 comment:

Sara Strand said...

I am so glad you loved this one! I feel like that title is something we should all be asking ourselves daily. Thank you for being on this tour! Sara @ TLC Book Tours