Rebecca Hendricks, the main character, is a girl who quickly endears herself to you. Like many of us, she has an idea of how her life is supposed to go. Rebecca did what her parents asked of her, became the lady she thought she was supposed to be, met the man of her dreams (so she thought). Everything was planned out… until life (God… you know that He has a plan for us and often His plan is VERY different from what we think we have planned) threw Rebecca a curve. Suddenly her fiancé heads to Texas for training for WWI and her mother receives a telegram saying that her sister needs help due to an illness.
Mrs. Hendricks decides that Rebecca is just the one to head to small-town Texas to care for her Aunt Adabelle. Once there, Rebecca finds that the town is in the midst of a Spanish flu epidemic. She also finds out that her aunt was the caretaker of four small children whose father is fighting in Europe. When her aunt passes, Rebecca assumes care for the children.
While Rebecca is getting to know the children she is always looking forward to the day that their father returns and she can run, not walk, to the city to meet up with her fiancé. However, the longer she stays, the more she comes to love the children.
Asking God again and again what she needs to do to get on with her plans, Rebecca feels more and more frustrated by the fact that she feels that her life has been put on hold. Put on hold for children she didn’t even know a short time ago even…
Eventually, Rebecca (having spent time in prayer about her current situation) comes to a realization… she is reminded that God is in control. She lets God know that she is ready for Him to take over again, and that she will be content and happy with whatever He tells her is right for her life. Things start changing almost immediately…
Watching Rebecca struggle with what she thinks are the right plans for her life is a great example of what really happens when we forget that God truly does have a plan for our lives. Once WE remember that, things often end with us saying, “You know, I didn’t know I wanted this, but I can’t imagine my life any other way!!”
I highly recommend this as a fun read. Once I picked it up I had a hard time putting it down. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next with Rebecca. Ms. Mateer did a great job showing how we struggle with letting God be in charge of our lives. I would easily pick up another of her books.
I received this book free from Bethany House publishers in return for an honest review.
