“Let your past rejection experiences work for you instead of against you by allowing them to help you sense the possible pain behind other people’s reactions.”

In an effort to let others know they are not alone in feeling rejected, Lysa TerKeurst opens her past and heart and lays them down for the world to see. Her journey can help others see how to overcome feelings of rejection, loneliness, insecurity and being unloved. We can all relate to having these feelings at one point or another. How can we reach out to God to help us feel like we belong? How can our bad experiences be turned to good?

I read TerKeurst’s book The Best Yes last year and really enjoyed it and got a lot out of it. (Read the review of The Best Yes here.) I hear her a lot on the radio with her work for Proverbs 31 Ministries. When I heard she had a new book coming out, I quickly put Uninvited on my to-read list. I also bought the study guide so I could do a personal study with the book.

I truly appreciate how honest TerKeurst is in the book. She talks about her father leaving her family when she was a child, about heartbreaks and about jealousy. Until she felt secure in her relationship with God, she sought love from boyfriends. As she unfolds her journey, she shares tips with how to deal with the situations she faced, not as a voice of someone who knows it all, but as someone who has gone on the journey and wants it to be easier for you. I really like that at the end, she includes a checklist that could help a person on a daily basis and an assessment you can do with a friend to evaluate how you interact with other people and feel about life right now.

This book is not a one-time read, but a resource to turn to during many different stages of life. I know there are situations that will come up that will have me opening this book back up to get tips on how to deal with anything from rejection to social media criticism. I would recommend this to any woman college-age or older. It might be good for a high schooler who is dealing with rejection, but I would recommend that a parent read it along with her.

“The more fully we invite God in, the less we will feel uninvited by others.”

Buy the book here (affiliate link).