Stay: Discovering Grace, Freedom, and Wholeness Where You Never Imagined Looking by Anjuli Paschall Book Review

In Stay, Anjuli Paschall explored the topic of staying and facing our pain and past. She encouraged readers that the areas that we resist are the ones where God can greatly use to transform our lives. She pointed out how God wants us to have a deep relationship with Him and to have true intimacy. She begins the book by sharing how she attended a Christian college and how she found a group of friends. She revealed how she struggled with being unknown and how she still felt out of place. She connected with a psychology professor, Helyn Fay and she listened to her insecurities and prayed for her. This greatly changed her life and influenced her positively. She shared how she felt known for the first time and how she had a sense of belonging. She discovered the power of believing that she is loved on the inside. Throughout the book, she looked at vulnerability and how we try and hide behind things that we think will protect us. We have to be vulnerable and be honest about our secrets and trust Jesus to help us. In the book, she opened up about how she met her husband, Sam and how he proposed twice. She also shared the beautiful parts of their marriage and also the weeds and the thorns season they experienced. 

I would recommend this amazing book to anyone who is ready to face their past and they are ready to stay in the arms of Jesus. I liked how open she was in discussing her life story and she shared the lessons she has learned in her marriage. I liked how each chapter covered invitations, such as “to be an outsider, loneliness, listen, sit in the weeds, fear”, and more. One of my favorite things she shared was how she started, “The Moms We Love Club”. She shared how she was able to start Go Fund Me’s for moms who are going through a lot and how they have all changed her own life in some way. I liked how she included discussion questions at the end of the book where readers can go deeper into the book and they can ponder their own lives. If you’re looking for a book on freedom and wholeness, then read this book! 

"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.” 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Stay, check it out on Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/Stay-Discovering-Freedom-Wholeness-Imagined/dp/0764235842