From Amazon.com…

We’ve all got our issues! Maybe you feel like life just isn’t going your way, or you’re afraid that you don’t measure up to other people’s expectations. Perhaps you have a hard time managing your temper or have someone in your life you just can’t forgive. We deal with our “issues” every day in one form or another; the problem is, after a while, they start to feel . . . normal. Unchanging. Just part of who we are. And we forget that we have access to the power of Christ—a power that can transform our everyday weaknesses into our greatest strengths and gifts.

In She’s Got Issues, Christian counselor, ministry leader, and regular mom Nicole Unice explores the ordinary issues that are keeping you from the full and free life you were meant to have. Applying years of counseling with practical scriptural teaching and a fresh and authentic voice, Nicole shows you how to let God freely shape your character—and transform your life from ordinary to abundant.

In her DVD curriculum and companion study book, Nicole Unice explores the issues that many everyday women face — control, insecurity, comparison, fear, anger, and unforgiveness. The book takes readers through self-assessment tests on each issue, helping them to determine whether or not this might be an issue of concern, then diving deeper into they “whys” of this problem, a brief visit to Scripture, and tips on how to get past the issue. Each issue is given two chapters in the book, and on the DVD, each issue is dealt with via personal interview with someone struggling through the issue and a fifteen to thirty minute small group lesson with Nicole herself. Again and again, Nicole (who is a licensed counselor and believer) goes back to the ultimate truth that we can’t “fix” our issues on our own. If we could, we would have already done so. Instead, she states that only God can transform our lives and make us more Christ-like, overcoming the root of our issues and the behaviors that come from them.

I came into this thinking that I had no issues at all, and I pretty much tested “positive” for all of them! God used many of the chapters to speak to me right where I was. For example, in the control chapter, Nicole says that we just can’t control everything and uses our children’s experience in school as one of those things. I read this during the worst of Emma’s school meltdowns, when I was working overtime to think up a way that I could make her kindergarten experience (and, as a result, the rest of her life, obviously) as perfect as I think it should be. What a great reminder to me that my influence only stretches so far and that I will be a more pleasant person if I let God be in control of those things that aren’t mine to control! I was encouraged especially by the DVD and the personal interviews, which were very honest and challenged me to think through how I react to circumstances and how I can do so in a way that would better honor God.

I would highly recommend this study for a small group of women who are interested in trusting God more and working through the everyday stuff that often trips us up. It was great!

Many thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are mine entirely.