Savor by Shauna Niequist – Book Review

(Disclosure: I received a free copy of Savor through the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.)

Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are, As You Are by Shauna Niequist is a 365 day devotional. Each day provides a scripture reference and a short reading designed to help you pause in your day, consider your everyday life, slow down, and notice the beauty right where you are. Each reading usually ends with a question or statement to ponder throughout your day.

This book is not an in-depth Bible study style of devotional. You will not learn great and important details about the Bible by going through this devotional. It’s more like chatting over coffee with a friend, learning to slow down and embrace the goodness of life. It offers a daily reminder that the most important things in life are right in front of you. It’s not your to do list, it’s not your dreams and goals, it’s not ten years down the road when you finally find that perfect balance in life. Your life is today, in the everyday moments.

“I believe this way of living, this focus on the present, the daily, the tangible, this intense concentration not on the news headlines but on the flowers growing in your own garden, the children growing in your own home, this way of living has the potential to open up the heavens…” (quote from January 5th reading in Savor).

This is not a devotional that I would have typically picked up on my own. But I had a friend who kept quoting parts of it on Facebook and I decided that I needed to read it for myself. I really enjoyed reading through the book and using it as a regular reminder to stop living so frantically, to take on the motto of “more love, less hustle”.

To recognize that this life matters, the quiet everyday, the small, seemingly insignificant steps forward that we take, not sure if they will amount to anything, but trusting that they matter, because they do. Life is lived today, the abundance of life is not something to be achieved, but something to savor every moment of the journey.

This book is full of small little nuggets, tiny reminders that I want to write on little cards and hang around my house. Things like, “it doesn’t matter how much you love someone. What matters is that they know it.” or “I want my every day to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.”

As an added bonus the book has delicious recipes sprinkled throughout. Because what better way is there to enjoy our everyday than with delicious foods enjoyed around the table with the people we love.