Let's Read: Every Bitter Thing is Sweet by Sara Hagerty
April Book Pick
For April we will be reading Every Bitter Thing is Sweet by Sara Hagerty. A book about hope and healing and while her story is different than mine I am grateful for Sara’s perspective and I can’t wait to read this with you this month.
Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet: Tasting the Goodness of God in All Things
by Sara Hagerty
Quick Summary
Sara Hagerty masterfully draws from her own story of spiritual and physical barrenness to birth in readers a new longing for God. With exquisite storytelling and reflection, Hagerty guides readers to a tender place that God is holding just for them—a place where he shapes the bitterness of lost expectations into deep, new places of knowing Him.
In the age of fingertip access to answers and a limitless supply of ambitions, where do we find the God who was birthed in dirt and straw? Sara Hagerty found him when life stopped working for her. She found him when she was a young adult mired in spiritual busyness and when she was a new bride with doubts about whether her fledgling marriage would survive. She found him alone in the night as she cradled her longing for babies who did not come. She found him as she kissed the faces of children on another continent who had lived years without a mommy’s touch.
In Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet, Hagerty masterfully draws from the narrative of her life to craft a mosaic of a God who leans into broken stories. Here readers see a God who is present in every changing circumstance. Most significantly, they see a God who is present in every unchanging circumstance as well
Whatever lost expectations readers are facing—in family, career, singleness, or marriage—Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet will bring them closer to a God who longs for them to know him more. What does it look like to know God’s nearness when life breaks? What does it mean to receive his life when earthly life remains barren? How can God turn the bitterness of unmet desire into new flavors of joy?
With exquisite storytelling and reflection, Hagerty brings readers back to hope, back to healing, back to a place that God is holding for them alone—a place where the unseen is more real than what the eye can perceive. A place where every bitter thing is sweet.
Description via Amazon
About The Author
Sara Hagerty is a lover of God, a wife to Nate, and a mother of seven–four adopted from Africa and then more through miracle pregnancies. She’s also a bestselling author and speaker. As a lifelong admirer of words, Sara has experienced their power to revive. Raw words written in tearful honesty and shared with her readers. Words whispered in hidden places as conversation with God and worship to Him. Today Sara’s words offer God’s hope to readers facing unexpected life circumstances. You can follow her on Instagram @sarahagertywrites. Author bio via Amazon
From The morning team
Why we chose this book
meg walker
I wept through this book just 3 months after my son Jacob died and at the same time felt hope begin to grow again in my weary soul. Though Sara’s story is very different than mine, the way she tells her story and weaves truth and hope throughout had me relating to her on so many levels. I love the way she speaks about God, about knowing him, and about how he sees us in our pain. And I love how she points us to his nearness and his working in our lives as beautiful and full of hope. She’s helped me to embrace the bitter and the sweet in my grief journey.
the morning
book club
LEARNING, GROWING & HEALING TOGETHER
The Morning Book Club is here to provide support and thoughtful conversation about what we are reading and learning. We’re here for the books that will offer insight on navigating grief, life after loss and finding hope.
We will do so in a super simple way — because as fellow grieving moms, we know how hard it can be to read more than a few words at a time. We’re here for you and can’t wait to learn, grow and heal together.
xo,
ashlee