Wholehearted Living: Five-Minute Reflections for Modern Moms

I gave this book as a gift to many of my mom friends last Christmas. Not only did I personally benefit from Jennifer Grant's wisdom, insight, grace, and humor, but it also offered a way to deepen friendships with other women. Each month invites reflection on a different theme, and the book moves through the calendar year with patience and wisdom. As holiday season rolls around again, I'm ordering another batch to give away.

So often books for mothers tend to tilt towards Pollyanna Land. In Wholehearted, Grant manages to lead the reader through the genuine wonder as well as the awfulness that goes with raising children. This is such a lovely, little book, full of true wisdom and real encouragement. I highly recommend.

Awesome book for modern moms. I higthly recomend this book.

Didn't realize when ordering that it was a religious book. Many reflections discuss god. May be a good book for a religious person, but not me.Gave it three.....but will be donating it and not reading it.

I am thoroughly enjoying Wholehearted Living by Jennifer Grant. Everyday I look forward to the next "Five-Minute Reflection." What a treasure this book is! It would make a great gift for a busy mom.

Great for quick every-day journaling. Nice prompts!

Beautiful book for moms at any phase of motherhood!

Jennifer Grant, in her new release Wholehearted Living: Five-Minute Reflections for Modern Moms, begins by outlining a few things that get my momsense stirring and my momtuition raving...in a good way.She calls the book "a 'pause' button for mothers who want to take a break from talk of juice boxes and snow pants in favor of confronting their fears or reconnecting with their dreams."The book delivers what it promises. I'll admit I didn't have the time to read all 365 of the daily reflections, but I did sample through them enough to know this is the kind of book that:1. Most moms need to read and dip into and out of.2. Will be a great gift for quite a few of the moms I know.3. Won't go out of style anytime soon.The book divides the year into three parts: Reflect, Risk, and Rest. You begin in January with reflection, and then, as May begins, you start to look at risk, and you end the year, just as school starts up in September, with rest.It's a pattern that spoke to my life, to the way the ebbs and flows of my own experience of momness.While Grant references talk that makes me think of moms with younger children, I don't necessarily think this book is limited to the scope of young moms or moms with young families. That's the place she's writing from, and it's a place many moms have been and/or are. It's a hard place, a crucible unlike any other.The reflections aren't long; their brevity is almost unparalleled in a book of this sort. And yet, as Grant herself notes, "a good five minutes actually makes a difference, affecting how we relate with others and how we perceive our lives for the rest of the day."Opening and using this book — whether you dip into it or swim around for a while — won't leave you with something else to do. Grant has explicitly avoided doing more than giving you a reason to sit and reflect with her for five minutes. She's planting a seed in those five (or less) minutes, one that may just sprout into more throughout your day.Though this book has many Catholic undertones, it's not explicitly Catholic in the way that many books I endorse and read are. You could as easily give this to any Christian friend (practicing or not), and she would appreciate the quote or scripture that opens each day, the short reflection, and the one or two reflection questions that close each day.This truly is a book, as Grant says in the introduction, "for moments when you feel drawn toward the divine, as well as for those times when you feel like your frailties are holding you captive and you really just want to stand in the corner, face the wall, and scream."