In Trouble and in Joy: Four Women Who Lived for God

by Sharon James

This book looks at the lives and writings of four women who lived between the 17th and the 19th centuries in England and America. Most notably, throughout the wide range of situations these four women experienced they shared a common perspective. Their contentment and happiness did not depend on good health or a happy family. It came from living for God.

Genres: Biography, Christian

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Sharon James studied history at Cambridge University, theology at Toronto Baptist Seminary, and has a doctorate from the University of Wales. She is married to Bill, who is Principal of London Seminary. They have two grown up children and six grandchildren. Sharon works as Social Policy Analyst for The Christian Institute, UK, and has travelled to many countries as a Conference speaker.

Her webpage includes articles, interviews and talks and information about her latest books.

https://www.sharonjames.org/

Reviews

[LMG · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really appreciated a window into these four women's lives. I was familiar with some of the stories but others were new. I didn't love how the book was organized, it felt disjointed. But I was glad to have new insight into these women.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of four women who were different in many ways. Two of them were single, one was married with many children and one was married with no children. Two were pastors wives and two were hymn writers. Two were from the 18th century, one was from the 17th century and one was from the 19th century. Two are pretty well known and two are lesser-known. But they all loved the Lord Jesus and were zealous in His service and in their personal walks.

Sharon James devotes a chapter to each of these women and the chapters are broken up into sections. She starts each chapter by giving the setting, then giving the story or the biography, then she talks of the woman's character and significance and then the last part gives selections from their writings. I especially appreciated the substantial amount of source material that the author includes in her book. Another thing I really appreciated was the map at the beginning of each chapter labeling some of the cities associated with these women. This is a seriously researched book and that shows.

What I didn't like was the author's repetitiveness. There were several times where she said the same thing at least four times. I think part of it was the way the chapters were broken up and the same thing would fall under different headings, but sometimes she repeated herself several times even in one heading. It probably wasn't a big deal but I found it annoying.

Overall I enjoyed learning about these women and was encouraged by their examples. I learned personal lessons from their lives and was motivated by their zeal for the things of God to live more wholeheartedly. I also found a new favorite hymn included in Frances Havergal's selections, I Could Not Do without Thee.

Here is one favorite quote from the book: "Frances set herself to 'live for the moment': to serve others cheerfully in little ways and regard the trivial duties of each day as sent from God. This gave significance to what would otherwise have been a disjointed existence."

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Things I liked: Detailed bios of four women I was unfamiliar with, only 1 of whom I had known anything about at all... That the bios covered different time periods and social classes and contexts, to highlight the things they had in common.

Things I didn't like as much: the style was a mix of biography and commentary and was therefore a little less compelling. Also felt like I was constantly flipping back and forth between the extracts, which I didn't like. And lastly, a lot of poetry, which I'm less inclined to... though to be fair, it was all good and well-written and some did affect me more!

[Sandra]

I enjoyed this book. It is always helpful to me to learn how other women have dealt with the circumstances in their lives. God was glorified in their lives; I pray He is mine.