Title: A Life Established by Faith and Patience
Author: Shelly Kauffman
Publisher: Outskirts Press
ISBN: 978-1-4787-2982-2
Pages: 137
Genre: Spiritual, Memoir
Reviewed By: Susan Brown
Hollywood Book Review
Being a person of faith is a test – a test of trusting in something intangible and unseen. It is a choice to believe in the power outside of the self to guide and direct our lives. Author Shelly Kauffman, at an early age, made this choice and committed to a life of faith in a Christian God. This acceptance of God’s hand in her life, allowed her to persevere through a series of personal challenges that strained, but never broke, her resolve to follow the Word.
Using the Bible as her guidebook, she applied the tenets found in the scriptures to comfort her as she worked to fulfill her hopes and dreams. As a child, Author Kauffman knew she wanted to be a wife and stay-at-home mother. She professed this desire to God and devoted her time and energies to finding her soulmate.
She put herself on a fast-track through school, getting her high school diploma two years earlier than the norm. She met her heart’s desire who became her husband and they began a life together. It was a life fraught with obstacles for the two of them from building a house to trying to conceive to work-related struggles to health issues. Through it all, Ms. Kauffman affirmed her faith with the mantra, “I began to seek God even harder” and the knowledge that, “God’s peace was in control.” These two maxims have served her well as she faced with her most life-changing trial when her husband is diagnosed with a brain tumor. As insurmountable as this predicament seemed, Ms. Kauffman trusted in God, reaffirming her devotion to her faith.
As I was reading A Life Established by Faith and Patience, I was reminded of a soliloquy, a one-person dialogue you might hear in a play. Ms. Kauffman’s voice is strong, and singular. In fact, there isn’t another voice. Her entire story is told by her. The narrative is consistent and progresses chronologically as she gets older. The writing is clear, succinct and straightforward, imbued with emotion, from both the joys and the heartaches of her situation.
For anyone struggling to find their way, A Life Established by Faith and Patience is an absorbing, quick read that makes few demands on the reader, but provides inspirational insight into how to live a life guided by faith. It is a demonstrative Christian memoir on how God works in our lives, every day, that merits a place on the bookshelf of any faith-based reader.