Brave Enough
by Nicole Unice

In Brave Enough, Nicole Unice tells us a little secret: “We’re all a little scared.” Being afraid, though, doesn’t mean you can’t live with courage.  It doesn’t mean you can’t be brave.  She writes, “Courage is the will to move past fear and get out of our own way, to become the women God has made us to be.”  Being Brave-Enough isn’t about climbing mountains or skydiving; it’s about living in obedience to God even when that makes you shake in your sneakers.

Nicole has such a fresh, get-real style to her writing, and I love it.  She’s never putting on a facade and she doesn’t hold back from confessing some of her own struggles (like setting limits and boundaries on her schedule).  As a Christian counselor, her emphasis is often on the counseling, psychological, emotional aspects of our life–why do we do what we do and how can we submit that to Christ?  I tend to prefer more Bible-study focus and less Christian-counseling-focus in the books I read, but that isn’t true for everyone, and Nicole Unice’s insights and expertise really shine and will be an encouragement and help to lots of women.

This book includes nine chapters, each focusing on an area where we can be brave in our Christian walk, such as “Brave-Enough Women Love Grace, Brave-Enough Women Give Grace, Brave-Enough Women Know Their Limits” and more.  She includes action points that she calls “Our Daily Brave” at the end of each chapter, as well as a prayer.

Both in her book, She’s Got Issues, and in this book, Brave Enough, Nicole Unice gets real about anger in a way that I haven’t really seen in most other books for Christian women.  I also liked her discussion of ‘fake grace’ in this book, when she talks about how women deal with failure sometimes by making excuses or concessions instead of just resting in the lavish grace of Christ. She challenges the reader by saying, “When we manufacture weak, fake grace, we end up being weak, fake people.”

Ultimately, Nicole is really writing about how we can bravely engage in sanctification and how God transforms us to be more like Christ every single day.  We sometimes get caught up and terrified of ‘big changes’ and huge spiritual moments, and “it might be easier to think of the ways we can save the world than ways we can change our daily life….Bravely facing the hard places in our heart and desiring to receive and give real grace takes grit” (87).  This book is about being Brave Enough to let God work in our heart and our lives every single day without holding back.

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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