I started and stop on writing this book review because I just couldn’t figure out how to express what I felt while reading this book.

Bored wasn’t one of them.

Lost wasn’t one of them.

Convicted. Yes.

Floored. Yes

Read this paragraph from the book and tell me how it strikes you,

“What kind of a woman is thirty-eight years old and doesn’t know what she wants for dessert? Why don’t I care about little things?” Where did I go? Why don’t I feel anything anymore? Why don’t I enjoy anything? Why did I stop becoming? from, “When Wallflowers Dance”“

Luke 6:40,”…the student who is fully trained will be like the teacher”

199 pages and written by Angela Thomas, “When Wallflowers Dance” is for the weak hearted, the shy, the wall flower, the misunderstood or maybe forgotten or ignored, the low-spirit and just the Christian woman who has become so much like Martha, she has worked herself out of existing.

What “When Wallflowers Dance” is not is a self help book.

What “When Wallflowers Dance” IS, is a “Let GOD help you”.

The book is like that super happy, very hyper, so alive, you reach out wanting to strange but end up hugging her, girlfriend who tells you, life is not about just existing but about a praise and worship of our Heavenly Father.

It’s not about okay, if I do this and this and this for me, then everything in my life will fall back, but an honest, be ready for this, YOU NEED TO LET GOD IN YOUR LIFE and DO WHAT HE HAS TO DO, book, that lays it out in the line how we, as women, fool ourselves into believing we can find happiness in a prescription, a book (ha ha, actually ironic), t.v., movie, work, career, anything that takes our focus away from our Heavenly Father (actually there is a post I wrote about idolization that will be posted tomorrow), and on ourselves and everything else in a pursuit of thinking,

“If I make so and so happy, than I will be happy”.

News flash. Doesn’t happen or work that way.

“I always chose what I thought would make someone else happy. About fifteen years of doing that and there was no me left. pg 2 of “When Wallflowers Dance“

Reading this book was an eye opener of how easy it is to shortchange oneself’s relationship with our Heavenly Father, by caring more about what other people think or working harder to keep one’s friendships over keeping one’s friendship with our Heavenly Father that actually requires less work.

You can never really make anybody happy. They decide in their own little hearts if they will pursue a lifetime of peace and cultivate a joyful spirit.-From “When Wallflowers Dance” emphasis added by me.

Sound familiar?

Try, Matthew 6:24 (KJV),No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

If you are feeling like you are living in a life of idolatry, people pleasing, basically a sinking ship of faults, “When Wallflowers Dance” is an eye opener, to wake us up that we have to remove all the distractions in our lives that are making us sink, and go back to the true source, Our Heavenly Father.

It’s one of those few books that basically does tell you, what you really need isn’t a book, tv. movie, or latest diet craze, it’s to be honest with oneself and stop running from God.

Add up the years and the events. My ridiculous need to please. The people and the pain. The weariness of an overwhelming ife. Take away the community that comes from honesty. Take away the spiritual nourishment that come from being known and understood. Ad d the pride of a woman who refuses to own her flaws or admit to her wounds . Stir in fear. Worry. Doubt. Insecurity. The lies we come to believe. Subtract vulnerabilty. Heap on pretending. There you have the woman I was becoming. pg 6 of “When Wallflowers Dance” (*Note from me: how many of us are like that…we let our pride become our idol, blinding us from God and ourselves)

See any of you in this?

I bet plenty of us can and probrably have instantly said with pride, that’s not me, or I’m in control of myself.

There is a wallflower in all of us who rather be honest with ourselves, find ourselves living half to none of a relationship with Jesus Christ and in the process, unhappy with ourselves, our marriages or our lives.

(Isaiah 55:1 NCV)
Come, all you who are thirsty,come to the waters;and you who have no money,come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.

This is a very rare book that invites you to come to really know God with an honest and richer relationship.

Written from a wallflower whose been there and still goes through there, Angela Thomas really strips away the lies that we tell ourselves, be it due to pride, pain or whatever the reason, and takes us step by step to learn how to really dance with our Heavenly Father.

I found myself nodding in agreement that there are simple ways we can find freedom by taking very simple steps in our lives, like really living a life that is a joy to our Heavenly Father, making real choices that count for God and not for ourselves, watching who we have fellowship with and really finding a bible believing church and not just making excuses why we can’t go to church.

One example she brings up is being careful of who we call friends.

Deuteronomy 29:18
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

In Chapter Three, titled “Becoming Intentional”, Angela writes:

“The best reminders I have of my decision to choose an abundant-full life in Christ are my friends. I have some very cool friends who are aat least ten giant steps ahead of me with God. They live wrapped up in the banner of His love. They consistently, tenderly, and firmly stand for God in all circumstances and through all manner of trials. because they live intentionally, I am reminded. page 50 of “When Wallflowers Dance“

She then offers some “checklists” or “guide” of finding that “someone to talk to” that includes things such as:

• Make sure your friend’s life screams integrity, grace, mercy, forgiveness, and redemption. You do not need just a rule-keeper or a guilt-giver. We’ll talk more about this later, but a man or a woman of grace has come to that truth because it has been given in his or her brokenness. I would probrably be afraid of the perfect person with the perfect life who’s never been through anything messy.
• Has this person sustained your respect over time? Do they model a consistent, growing pursuit of God? You need someone who can provide consistant strength and vision. Do you remember the old adage,”Whoever you spend time with is who you become? There is so much truth packed into those words. The strong spiritual people in your life must be farther along than you and passionate in their pusuit of God. You are not the teacher here. You want to learn from their example.

I could go on, but this is a very life altering, hard truth that you need to hear, book to read.

This is a book for people who geninuely want to live a rich, passionaite life with God and fully learn how to dance with Him instead of hugging the wall and caring more about what other people have to say or think about them.

If you truly want to learn how to dance with God, even if it means being thrown in the center of the room with all eyes on you, I highly recommend “When Wallflowers Dance” by Angela Thomas.

The book will convince you to check your life for idols, unhealthy relationships or friendship, for fear that is holding you back and just really not living a full life that God wants you to live in and through Him so that YOU can bear good testimony to the salvation and grace of Jesus Christ.

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