Becoming Gertrude by Janice Peterson








In reading Becoming Gertrude by Janice Peterson, I felt like I was having lemonade with a dear lady who was sharing her life wisdom with me. Peterson, in this small book, offers gentle guidance to readers about building quality relationships with the people around you.

Becoming Gertrude: How Our Friendships Shape Our Faith has a beautiful introduction about the way of spiritual friendship. Peterson starts out the book by explaining what she means by being spiritual friends with someone. She shares personal stories from the heart throughout the book about friendships she has made throughout her life, as well as lonely times without friends and how she went about building friendships. Peterson shares five elements that lead to quality relationships: caring, acceptance, service, hospitality, and encouragement. At the end of each chapter, there are questions and space to write the answers. At the conclusion of Becoming Gertrude, her husband and author Eugene Peterson write an afterword.

Becoming Gertrude is a small book and rather short at just 124 pages. However, it is full of wisdom and offers the reader a lot to think about in the way of friendships and other relationships. I especially like that Peterson writes as one sharing with you and not looking down on you. Someone once asked Peterson if she would be a spiritual mentor to her. Her response was that she didn't think she could do that but she could be a spiritual friend. Peterson didn't want to be "above" the other person as a mentor but rather wanted to mutually share and encourage each other. I just felt like this dear author was sharing in that way with me, the reader, throughout the book. With the questions at the end of each chapter, Becoming Gertrude would not only make a good read for an individual but would make a great study for any woman's group or small group. I enjoyed my time with Peterson and I would encourage you to read the book and spend time with her too.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.

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