The trouble with drowning in the mess of your own life
is that you’re not in any shape to save anyone else.
You can’t be a lighthouse
when you’re underwater yourself.
– Lisa Wingate, The Prayer Box

I didn’t love The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate, but the author had a few pearls of inspirational wisdom which I know to be true.  The book is about Tandi Jo Reese who flees a powerful, abusive doctor in Texas and relocates to Hatteras Island in North Carolina with her children.

Sisters are created not by blood but by love.
– Lisa Wingate, The Prayer Box

Because the book was on the list of the 101 best romance novels of the past 10 years, I was expecting a story akin to Nights of Rodanthe.  Sadly, the author didn’t return home from her visit to the Outer Banks with a sense of living at the beach or the restorative power of the sea.  The Prayer Book was a brilliant concept which would have been more credibly set in the author’s native Texas.

Ravenel Bridge, Charleston, SC

Fear builds walls instead of bridges.
I want a life of bridges, not walls.
– Lisa Wingate, The Prayer Box

Tandi rents a beach cottage from elderly Iola Anne Poole who becomes her guardian angel and guiding light.  Iola died a recluse after living an amazing life.  Spoiler alert:  Iola was the enlightened witness for Tandi when she was a young, confused girl.