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The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck

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The Secret Life of Becky Miller cover art Reviewer: Lori Graham
Title: The Secret Life of Becky Miller
Author: Sharon Hinck
Publisher: Bethany House
ISBN: 0-7642-0129-8
Release Date: June 2006
Genre/Sub-genre: Inspirational - Mainstream
Year/Setting: Current
Overall Rating: 5.0
Sexual Content Rating: None
Language (Profanity) Rating: None
Voilent Content Rating: None
Sharon's Website: www.sharonhinck.com


Supermom to the rescue…at least that was how things appeared even to Becky Miller, herself. Her kids were healthy (three great kids), her husband was the love of her life, her home was in order, and her church life was incredible. In fact, she had just heard that the church board had decided to hire a full time staff person for women’s ministry. Now, who would be better than her for this position? After all, she created what existed today which includes classes, small groups, workshops, conferences and more.

Imagine Becky’s surprise when she discovers her husband no longer has a job, her youngest son has developed problems with his ears and needs surgery and to top it all off, they have given her position to someone else just because she doesn’t have her degree yet (she is working on it for heaven’s sake). Even her small group from church seems to be having trouble both individually and as a group. How can this be happening?

All of a sudden, Becky has to re-evaluate her entire life. She has been following God’s will through all of this, hasn’t she? She has done all that God has asked and more, hasn’t she? Becky is struggling very hard to keep the cracks from showing to her church group home but certain things just start to unravel and the breaks in the seam start to show.

Sharon Hinck has written a wonderfully poignant story following the life of Becky Miller. I found myself relating to Becky quite strongly. All of these things have happened to me (maybe not in the short period of time they happened to Becky). It is really easy in today’s world to try to be every thing to everyone as a mom and in the midst of doing all the busy work, your will becomes confused with God’s will.

Becky has to struggle very hard to find the truth of reality within her. Truths she had held for a very long time had to be dealt with. Her emotions had to be felt and accepted. We aren’t always going to have every answer and usually just have to go on faith. For those of us who are organized A type personalities this can be a real struggle. Sharon doesn’t gloss over that fact but embraces it and shows that through living Becky’s weakness, Becky became a stronger person – stronger mom, stronger friend, stronger wife, stronger church goer but most importantly a stronger Becky in Christ.

I also really enjoyed the venue in which Sharon laid out the days in The Secret Life of Becky Miller. Each chapter begins with a day dream of sorts. This serves multiple purposes. Not only does it help the reader transition from chapter to chapter but it gives you a hint on something she is going to face. Obviously not the event itself (she probably won’t ever walk in space) but some emotion she is going to have to deal with. I also really enjoyed the glimpse into her mind’s inner workings. Sometimes if we just take a break to let our imaginations run wild we can step back and look at life around us a bit clearer.

Gotta say, great book, Sharon, and I loved walking along with Becky (even if it got a bit to close to my own personal reality from time to time). What a joy!

Lori

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