Sharon Hodde MillerThe Cost of Control: Why We Crave It, the Anxiety It Gives Us, and the Real Power God Promises

This book is a must read for anyone who loves to control all things, like myself! It shares a very convicting message about what control costs us in the long run, and how it affects our faith. Easy to read and follow. I appreciated how the author shares her real life experiences as a co-founder of the church and in her own personal life of dealing with control.

This book read me to a tee! Up to the last two chapters I was screaming I get it I have control issues in every area of my life PLEASE fix me. Oh did the the last chapter do that! Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. There is so much peace on the flip side of control. LOVED THIS BOOK!!!! I am changed forever!

If you find yourself trying to manage everything in your life to find peace, this book is for you!! Sharon Hodde Miller spells out all the ways we try to take control and make an idol out of micro-managing our everyday instead of placing the circumstances we cannot control back into God’s hands where they belong. This is a must read for everyone! I cannot recommend it enough.

Until the opening pages of this book, I had forgotten all about Harold Camping and his failed prediction of the end of the world. I remember it vividly because I was on an annual summer beach trip with my high school girlfriends, and happened to be eight and half months pregnant with my daughter. The Florida heat is brutal, so I went up to the condo while the four of them stayed in the sun. I don't remember the texts verbatim, but we repeatedly and jokingly checked in on one another - anything? you still there? It was quite a build up for what we of course now know never came to fruition.In those days, control didn't seem like a big deal. We were ready to see Jesus. We longed for all things to be made new. Even in the throws of late stage pregnancy, never having laid eyes or hands on my beautiful little girl, I was ready.Now, eleven years later, it is a big deal. Control is consuming. It is exhausting. It is a vapor. Most days, I spend my waking hours trying to control every event, every chore or task, all my meetings and projects, what my children will eat for dinner. It is so overwhelming. Occasionally, a lack of control even plagues me while I sleep (or try to).Then comes this book. Sharon really has given us a gem here. The title pulls you in, but the writing, and nuggets of wisdom keep you reading.We all struggle for control, and in this book Sharon does an amazing job with outlining the different areas of our lives where we might seek it most - and offers helpful and biblically based solutions to minimize what it costs us. It has been a while since I felt so empowered to tackle the incessant need to manage my circumstances and surroundings.Whether you struggle with anxiety or not, this book is encouraging and resourceful. In the days post pandemic, if like Sharon and me you're a geriatric millennial fighting to survive in these most difficult of times, this book will help you. It is a light and I'm so grateful to have read it. Can't wait to share it with my friends - who along with me are still waiting for all things to be made new.

The book should be read by everyone as personal reflection and to do self-examination on the danger of trying to control. The book is a great resource to do just that and reading to the end gives an alternative, a way to exchange, a life of control for something better. I gave it a 4 but easily a 4.5.The Cost of Control by Sharon Hodde Miller provides a lot of great research regarding control, or lack of control from a psychological perspective and a theological one. The author makes it clear we humans want to believe we are in control, but ultimately, it is a facade and ultimately “self-deception.The book is filled with personal life stories of herself and her husband. These stories are weaved throughout the book to shine a light on the various methods of control used by people in order to feel in control and the personal and societal ways to control. This book provides great examples to use for self reflection. And, which clearly demonstrated that humans do not really have control over our lives, even when we want to or think we do.Using Genesis 3, similar to Jack Frost regarding the Father Heart of God and the Orphan Spirit (as well as others) and information by Chester and Betsy Kylstra’s Restoring the Foundations as the “Shame, Fear and Control cycle,” the author’s unique focus and perspective touches the mind and heart.

Sharon’s book The Cost of Control is amazing. Miller writes in a way that is easy to understand, relate to. The illustrations and stories make it easy to connect and apply to my own life. The book is also soaked in Scripture. As I read I felt like the author and I could have been having this conversation over coffee in a coffee shop.Sharon’s pastoral shepherding heart is so evident in this book. She doesn’t preach or embarrass she guides, shares, and humbly counsels throughout the book. This is seen in the end of each chapter as she adds questions and a prayer. Prayers and questions help you press into the content for spiritual and emotional formation.This book has shaped me and opened my eyes to my own control. I have shared this book with many other people as a must read. There are very few pages in the book that don’t have notes, marks, or underlines on them.This book is timely and needed in our Christian culture today. It is a must read for everyone. Even if you think you don’t struggle with control you should read it. I think you would be surprised to find where control shows up in our life and what it is costing us.It’s one of those books I am going to gift and buy for my friends. 😊

There should have been more references to scripture to justify your words (this is the consensus of or Women's Group at church). Book was hard to read. Kept having to reread some parts to make sense of what you were saying. It did open my eyes to some of what I do but prefer to confirm, in the Bible, more of your comments.

This is a timely book in this season of great uncertainty, when anxiety rates are continuing to rise. Sharon Hodde Miller explores the link between our craving for power and control, )beginning in the garden of Eden), and the dissatisfaction and anxiety it brings. This book offers Godly wisdom and insight focussing on God's sovereignty and the power He has given us to influence ourselves and our lives