“Everything, including our pain, is His. I am thankful He will meet me in it.” 

Steven Curtis Chapman is a well-known Christian musician. I have been listening to his music for more than 20 years. He and his wife, Mary Beth, had three children and then adopted three more children from China. Then, the whole world heard that their family suffered a tragic accident – one of their sons hit and killed one of their daughters when she ran in front of his truck. They had to find ways to grieve and lean on each other, all while taking care of the son who was living through a very traumatic event.

Both Chapmans have now written autobiographies that share not only about that event and the aftermath, but their stories leading up to that point. Mary Beth wrote Choosing to SEE first and describes how she faced having depression. She also had to figure out the balance of wanting stability but having a husband who would be on the road a lot. She openly shares her struggles in the book and has more updates on her blog (https://www.marybethchapman.com/blog). Steven’s book, Between Heaven and the Real World, focuses a lot on his career and how his choices had to be balanced with what he felt God calling him to do with his family. His songs are often written from his heart and what is going on in his life. He shares his struggles with his faith and he tried supporting Mary Beth and being a musician.

I am glad I read the books back to back to see both sides of their struggles. It’s a very inspirational story of love, faith and family. Neither claim to have done everything right, but they wanted to share their struggles in case it helped anyone else.

I always appreciate honesty in books. I feel it encourages more of us to be honest with each other. No one is without struggles.

What “honest” book did you connect with the most? Share in the comments!