When I first saw Emily Freeman’s A Million Little Ways on a table at Barnes and Noble, I had a little moment. And not a good one. OK, I was consumed with jealousy. I started reading how to “uncover the art you were made to live,” absolutely convinced that she’d already written my book—or at least one close enough to mine that we were stepping on each other’s toes—and hers came out first. But then I sat down at a table with some coffee and kept reading, discovering that we wrote very different books. Hers is about discovering the artist inside you, whatever it is that you do. About seeing the imprint of God in our lives. About approaching life’s canvas with wonder and hope. About discovering the art in our lives.

Yet there was some kind of intangible underlying thread between our books. Or at least I’d like to think so, because Emily writes beautifully and thoughtfully about faith and life, creativity, grace, and silence. The more I read of her writing, the more enamored I become.

So you can imagine how delighted I was when she agreed to write an endorsement. And even more delighted once I read it:

In her book, Praying Upside Down, Kelly O’Dell Stanley brings something entirely new for the soul to consider: What can the elements of art teach us about faith, prayer, and God? Through personal stories on family, grief, and vocation, Kelly doesn’t introduce a new kind of praying as much as a new kind of seeing, which is what my faith really needs. This is unlike any book on prayer I’ve ever read.

EMILY FREEMAN
Author of A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

Do yourself a favor and subscribe to her blog, Chatting at the Sky. She’ll send you emails about letting your soul breathe. About the beauty in the ordinary. And while you wait for her next book, Simply Tuesday: Small-Moment Living in a Fast-Moving World, which releases in August, check out A Million Little Ways and Grace for the Good Girl: Letting Go of the Try-Hard Life.