I will confess that I was not in love with the first half of Jamie Ivey’s If You Only Knew. She seemed to wallow in guilt and judgment. Rather than promoting positivity and moving forward, she seemed obsessed with reliving her past mistakes.
Then came the chapter on sin shock and acceptance and I said “wow.” Ivey writes about how we say we accept others and believe we can be forgiven for all sin, but when someone really confesses, we are shocked. We have an “I would never do that” mentality when it comes to accepting and forgiving others.
Despite being happy in her present life, Ivey is ashamed of many parts of her past. She also writes about perceived perfection and our need to free ourselves from it. I particularly liked the chapter in which Ivey writes about confessing about shameful parts of her past to a new friend. The woman loved her and accepted her no matter what, and became one of closest friends. She writes “something beautiful happens when we allow ourselves to be vulnerable.” I love that statement and it is something I need to work on in my own life.
If You Only Knew is a quick read and, at least for me, it was completely worth powering through the wallowing part of the book to get to the messages in the second half. Ivey surrendering to self-pity makes her story of hope more relatable, because we have all done that at one point or another. Now I’m onto some historical fiction so I’ll post that review soon. Stay tuned.
(Image from amazon.com)
A HOUSE WITH CHARACTER 