The author’s strong life-long faith and professional training as a director of Christian education and licensed counsellor come through in this well-crafted book.

She directly deals with some of the blocks that may keep people from getting well. For a quick review, these blocks are spelled out in the titles of the chapters. Getting well often involves an identity change and getting rid of a “woe is me” persona in some cases. The author addresses these matters with great wisdom and from personal and professional experiences. Succinct, the insights and advice she sets forth are manageable in a 31-day guide to daily devotions. Buy this book and give some away.

Mary Kathryn Clark’s juxtaposition of counselor and client in clinical therapy is certainly a novel approach to writing one’s autobiography. Given her training and vocation of psychotherapy, perhaps no better avenue for telling her own life story could have been chosen. Growing up in the 1930s when America was merging into the Great Depression and on the eve of World War II, herself an only child, and her father somewhat of an autocrat, it was only natural that her early life would be marked with low self esteem and a consequent drive to make for herself a better life as she matured into adulthood. So unfolds the story of one whose early years seem to have been marked by the American idiom, “God helps those who help themselves.” The truth is that the idiom is non-biblical and contrary to all that marks the life of those who eventually find their peace in the grace and love of Jesus Christ; God helps those who realize that only when they come to the end of themselves can they be helped into wholeness. This is the dramatic honest true life story of how the author found wholeness and joy after being reduced to poverty of possessions and near spiritual bankruptcy. Her investment in time and resources to tell and publish her passage to wholeness will be a legacy of her will to find new life and a benediction to all who chance to read the book. It is only fitting that the book has been published in hard cover because its message should remain on library shelves for future generations, the testament of a determined woman to share her faith. Inspiration for her title came from Psalm 30 and those who read her book will find a benediction by turning to this chapter in the Bible and reading it for a bonus!

“In the Morning…Joy” is a compelling testimony of faith, determination, and will power of a dominated woman on her journey to discovering the powerful woman she is. The reader is caught up in this journey. It takes courage to reveal one’s struggles and triumphs to the world. Congratulations!

Margaret C.
Pine, Colorado