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The Distracted Widow: Living for God after losing your husband

Author:	Carol Cornish
Published By:	IVP (Nottingham)
Pages:	208
Price:	£8.99
ISBN:	978 1 84474 491 6

Reviewed by Ursula Franklin.

The title says it all. It is presumed that the marriage is between two highly committed Christians, who loved each other deeply. However, this limits the range of widows to whom it could be given, for many do not regard their marriage, loving as it may be, in this way and have not the same dependence on scripture and on God's word.

This book is flooded with Scripture and of course, as God's Word, it is precious and the lessons to be learnt and relied on, but the mind needs time to recover from the deep trauma of the death of a husband. Reality must be faced and anger and confusion should be dealt with and not left to fester under a blanket of “correct Christian behaviour”.  To me, the book is a severe task master and, from experience, I know it would have laden me with guilt when I was already devastated. A widow from a God-blessed marriage may well need to rest in God's love and in the love of her understanding friends before embarking again on dedicated discipleship, her mind fixed on serving God, her Saviour. Time is one of God's precious gifts to us for wounds to heal and our experience to be absorbed into our witness to a loving heavenly Father. Discernment needs to be exercised before sharing the book with the bereaved.