Soul Mend examines the connection between mental and physical health. When one or the other of these suffers, the other one will suffer as well. This book is broken into sections. The first looks at when nothing is working. The second examines the cause and repair of damaged emotions. The third, and final part, looks at continuing to overcome.

The book includes personal stories, such as Luann Dunnuck experienced throughout her life. We need to recognize that only God knows the future, and we need to trust Him for everything. With Scriptural references to support her thoughts, Luann Dunnuck does a masterful job of weaving the words of this book together.

I found myself wanting to keep reading. I found myself agreeing with the fact that Satan wants us to believe in his lies rather than in God's truths. She illustrates many of her points with facts about Jesus and the words He spoke. Truly this is a book worth reading.

I received a copy of this book for my fair and honest review.

Soul Mend

Soul Mend talks about your emotional health. It discusses Worry, Anxiety, Fear, Depression, Etc. The book also discusses on how to overcome those things. At the end of each chapter there is a prayer that is related to that subject.

The book was written to be easily understood. I like how the last chapter has a summary of the prayers. Then there is the notes section that seem very helpful.

Overall I found the book very interesting and recommend reading it.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from the publisher through Celebrate Lit. This book review is my own opinion.

I don't know how many times I have said "Where is God? "Why is He allowing me to suffer?' Those questions haunted me all my life as I suffered from abuse . If God loves me so much, why is He letting me endure pain daily? I picked up this book and my answers started to come. "God is waiting to perform an even greater miracle in our lives." Through all the things I have been through, God had a plan that I couldn't see.

What we don't realize is that God is trying to get to the root and make us stronger. As we deal with anger, depression, anxiety, bitterness , unforgiveness and rejection., He is there to help us. We may be physically ill, but God wants to heal us emotionally as well. I have wondered over the last several years why I seem to be ill a lot. I can pinpoint when it started but at the time didn't recognize it. My brother came to live with me about three years ago. It was a blessing because we were able to talk about our childhood and help each other with the pain we went through. He became a shoulder to lean on. I did start to see my anxiety pick up a little as the days went on. What God was doing was allowing me to finally open up all the hurt I had carried . He gave me a person who understood it and comforted me.

The book talks about how your emotional state can affect your physical state. Finally, I understood that all this emotional turmoil was making me sick. I wasn't imagining headaches, colds, aches or pains. The enemy tries to be clever and trap us emotionally and before we know it we believe we have a dreaded illness that could be devastating. How many times have you gone from doctor to doctor trying to get answers? We keep seeking doctors waiting for bad news. God wants us to take a deep breath and allow Him to heal our thoughts.

I found it very interesting to learn about the three stages of stress. The author explains what they are and offers advice to overcome them. Eating better, taking vitamins and exercising are a few tools we can use to overcome stress. Stress seems to be part of our everyday lives. We need to take steps to not let it take over and find ways to become more relaxed and less anxious. In a spiritual sense we can pray and read our bible. What better way to feed our soul then to fill it with His word.

One of the chapters I really liked was about anxiety and panic attacks. The author shares what they are and how to get to the root of what is causing it. For me it is the pain of my childhood. "When hurts are buried so deep in our soul it is almost a shock when that pain is exposed." One of the steps is to forgive. I can say that just in the last few months I have been able to say that I forgive the people who abused me. I can't tell you what freedom I felt as I honestly was able to speak those words. After all these years, I finally feel peace.

The author includes questions and a prayer at the end of each chapter. I liked the questions because it helped me get a better grasp of what I read. The book is easy to read and I think is very helpful. Our job is to take the first step to healing. Seek God and ask for his guidance. Allow Him to direct your steps and heal you from the inside out.

"When we surrender our heart and soul to God, He comes to our rescue."

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

The three sections of this encouraging book are divided into foundational truths, cause and repair of damaged emotions, and continuing to overcome. The purpose is to equip readers to be healthy spiritually and emotionally, identifying issues that rob us of this and overcoming these binding cycles. The author addresses such topics as stress, a broken heart, and numerous negative emotions. She points readers to God and His Wordthe only solution for healing. She draws lessons from Bible characters as examples to follow. Each chapter ends with a powerful and positive prayer. These are also gathered together in the final chapter for easy access. The material is reader friendly and easy to understand. I recommend this to small groups or to a duo who want to work through it together and encourage one another. I received a copy from Celebrate Lit. All opinions are my own.

In Mark 2:17, Jesus says, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." The Bible is full of examples demonstrating physical and emotional healing, and much of Jesus' earthly ministry included healing. We all need healing in one way or another, even if we don't necessarily realize it, and Luann Dunnuck's "Soul Mend" concentrates on emotional health as the foundation for physical health.

Dunnuck begins by setting forth three steps toward healing from negative emotions: ascertaining why you are struggling with that particular emotion, working through the emotion until it no longer plagues you and then releasing it to God, and refusing to fall under the influence of that emotion again. She addresses many of the common negative emotions that we all tend to fall prey to at one time or another and offers an academic breakdown of terms and examples before entering into their spiritual impact. I appreciated how she interweaves science and Scripture, explaining how our body's responses to our emotions influence our spiritual health and vice versa, and how the enemy of our souls plays on our fears and past experiences to keep us in bondage. One of the best points Dunnuck makes, in my opinion, is that we need to come out of agreement with the enemy and come into agreement with God by turning to God's Word and His promises. After all, as she points out, "Our true identity is found in God and what He says about us."

Each chapter concludes with questions to reflect on and a prayer, and there is a section at the very end that contains all of the prayers given throughout the book. One issue that I had was the number of grammatical errors. This is one of my pet peeves, and while I know that books will have errors, I admit that I struggled with a lack of necessary commas and periods, as well as some significant misspellings ("relieve" instead of "relive" and "alter" instead of "altar", for instance), which disrupted and slowed my reading experience. I also didn't agree 100% with the Pentecostal viewpoint. However, I thought that she truly did a skillful job of keeping "Soul Mend" centered around Scripture, at times explaining the original meaning of certain Hebrew words to emphasize their meaning. In so doing, she highlights an essential practice for overcoming negative emotional health: "A principle that I advocate throughout this book is to acquire scriptures that replace the lies with the truth." Regardless of our individual hurts and sicknesses, our God, Jehovah Rapha, is the God Who Heals. Praise God for that!

I received a complimentary copy of this book through CelebrateLit and was not required to post a favorable review. All opinions are my own.