The sister of Bishop T.D. Jakes and author of Sister Wit
turns her own life experiences into the backbone of this book designed to offer Christian women more than jelly-sweet platitudes about the trials of life. She encourages women to use their struggles to become "trophy" women—"women of extraordinary substance who possess huge value and distinction." The very troubles that threaten to crush women are instead God's way of making them shine, Jakes argues. She offers several examples of trophy women—from quadriplegic artist and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada and evangelist Juanita Sapp to her own grandmother, who repeatedly made a way out of no way. Their stories are woven briefly into chapters that focus on topics such as aging, walking through adversity and living without bitterness about the past. The bottom line, according to Jakes, is to take the worst suffering and turn it into something precious, a trophy that turns out to be us. Each chapter is accompanied by a poem (surprisingly beautiful and original), reflection questions and a prayer. Despite some repetition and convoluted arguments, this is a down-to-earth look at suffering and its possibly beneficial results. (May 2)
