The Complicated Heart: Loving When It Hurts by Sarah Mae is a powerful retelling of a complicated mother-daughter relationship and a story of unforeseen redemption that only God could accomplish.

Sarah masterfully and vulnerably weaves together a picture of her childhood struggles with her alcoholic mother while also showing how God was working the entire time and how He healed her soul, and ultimately their relationship.

More than that, she offers such wisdom about how to set yourself free from toxic relationships and how to love those who have hurt you.  Sarah gives a refreshing take on grief and how sometimes you have to grieve your unmet expectations of relationships with living people in order to heal.

“Pain is not shameful, and neither is the vulnerability that comes with it.” – Sarah Mae

There are two sides to every story, and Sarah Mae does a beautiful job of incorporating the words of her mother, words she didn’t discover until her mother had passed away. It was incredible to see her mother’s thoughts and feelings about the same situations Sarah addressed.

Though I do not have a complicated relationship with my own mother, I have had difficult relationship issues in my life (even recently with a friend), and this book spoke to me in many ways. I highlighted many quotes and will continue to ponder them.

It’s okay that we will always have a little bit of sadness in our life regarding loss. The goal isn’t to never be sad, it’s about getting to the point where the pain no longer consumes us or controls our perceptions of ourselves, others, God, and the world.”

Check out The Complicated Heart – it just may be what your soul needs.