cover image Lemons on Friday: Trusting God Through My Greatest Heartbreak

Lemons on Friday: Trusting God Through My Greatest Heartbreak

Mattie Jackson Selecman. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-0-7852-4127-0

In this moving debut, Selecman, the daughter of country music star Alan Jackson, chronicles her journey from heartache to hope after her husband, Ben, died three weeks shy of their first wedding anniversary. She explains how Ben’s accidental fall on a boat dock resulted in a traumatic brain injury, and describes how grief and widowhood affected her faith. “I am going to tell you the truth,” she writes, “about how I wrestled with a God who is absolutely good but who absolutely did not give me the miracle I prayed for.” Selecman recalls fond memories—meeting Ben, their wedding day, their hopes for the future—and describes the pain of her loss, her struggles moving forward, and how she has learned to see God’s goodness despite a suffering she compares to “lemons on Friday,” a “bitter, stomach-turning” situation that need to be turned into lemonade. Cooking and writing aided her healing, as did the support she received from friends and family, who invited her to watch the new season of a show Ben enjoyed, and took her to pick pumpkins ahead of Halloween. Her friends’ efforts to continually show up, Selecman explains, kept her from shutting down. Selecman’s honesty about her pain will encourage others who have questioned their faith while grieving. (Nov.)