Refresh: Embracing a Grace-Paced Life in a World of Endless Demands

“Reading Refresh in a bone-weary season of my life was like having a life-giving conversation with a couple of grace-filled friends who have been there themselves and were able to encourage me with practical, biblical wisdom.”

“Burnout and exhaustion are not solely a female issue, but as a woman I can attest to experiencing these very things in recent years. The demands on our time are many and coming from all directions. How will we use our time? How will we find balance? How will we maintain our walk with the Lord in the midst of so much? Shona and David Murray understand these pressures and speak directly to them in this book. Drawing on her own experience of depression and burnout (and experience as a medical doctor), Shona has a winsome and practical approach to the balance and rest we all crave (yet struggle to find). If you are desperate for relief, you will find encouragement in Refresh.”

“Shonas transparency and gentle coaching throughout this book provide the perfect context for the encouragement that Refresh will be to many women who have experienced burnout, or are on the verge of burnout. As a counselor and a woman who has experienced burnout, I appreciated the holistic approach to both the causes of burnout and its treatment. The Murrays fully address both body and soul in their book, which will leave you refreshed, renewed, and ready to lead others alongside streams of living water flowing from the Great Shepherd of our souls.”

“I have searched high and low for a book that helps me deal with stress-related illness in a God-honoring way. I have stacks of books that either overspiritualize depression and stress-induced illness, or overmedicalize it. I struggle with balance, and I need help. To the rescue comes Refresh, a book that meets you where you are, preaching neither overspiritualized idealism nor worldly fatalism. Read this book and give it to friends. It will change the way you see Gods providence in your emotional suffering and physical weakness, and it will encourage you on a path of self-care that honors the Lord and enables you to serve your family of God for the long haul.”

“We live in a culture that constantly demands more of women. Young women are not exempt from this pressure. In fact, this is the timein our teens and twentieswhen were just beginning to fall prey to the increasing stress of school, social media, smartphones, relationships, work, and busyness. Were barely out of childhood and already feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, depressed, drowned, and burned out. Thats why we need the joyful refreshment of the gospel of grace. And thats exactly what Shona and David Murray deliver in Refresh. They write warmly, empathetically, biblically, and practically. I will be applying the wisdom of this book to my own life and eagerly recommending it to the young women I know!”