I found this book to be interesting and challenging. Merissa offers a good argument for and helpful tips on how to implement a slower, more minimalist lifestyle, reminding people to evaluate each activity of life and deliberately select those activities you choose to include in your life based on the value that activity adds to your life. She applies the same approach to possessions, keeping only those things that have value and usefulness to life so as to not have to take care of a large volume of stuff that is of little use to us and keeps us from meeting our goals in life.
While I'm fairly certain I'll never come close to her level of minimalizing, I appreciated the challenge as well as the reminder to "set your affections on things above" and be deliberate in my choices, rather than fall into default mode as is so often the case.

As someone who isn’t religious any longer, I still think it’s important for people to read this book. I have a similar personality to the author and although I wasn’t blessed with adopting like I had originally hoped. I was given one natural child. We love to garden and enjoy nature. I preserve food and we have allergies and dietary needs that prevent us from eating some ‘regular’ foods. I understand how the author felt to write out some things that happened that had to grow their family in a better direction and she gives so many great points on how to live in slower more sustainable lifestyle and ultimately improves the health and happiness in the home. My takeaway as I already follow so many of these things is to not worry about the subjects I wanted to teach my child as we can never seem to get to it. I should just focus on the ones that truly matter for her.

In an easy-to-read format, Merissa shares so many good ideas on how to simplify various areas of your life so that you have time to devote to what you truly value. Some of these areas include decluttering, meal planning, scheduling, and holidays. She encourages you to live slower and more simply so that you are able to seek the kingdom of God first by loving God and loving others. I have already started incorporating some of her ideas and I am planning to read the book again in order to incorporate more!