Book Review: The Best Devotions of Patsy Clairmont

A Fair Trade Book

Title: The Best Devotions of Patsy Clairmont

Author: Patsy Clairmont

Author's web site: https://patsyclairmont.com/

Date: 2001

Publisher: Zondervan

ISBN: 0-319-24174-X

Length: 195 pages

Quote: “The sweet psalmist David...points out that he had to be led by the Lord to the still waters. I wonder if...he was naturally drawn to the excitement of the rushing waters?”

“Devotions” may be misleading if readers are expecting one-page-a-day “devotional” reflections sandwiched between a Bible verse and a prayer. Patsy Clairmont, Christian comedian, had written longer pieces—short talks/articles—and not all of them began with a Bible verse. It would have been possible, and fun, to have selected 365 of her speeches, articles, and book chapters and printed them as one page each of extremely small type on large paper, but that's not what the editors did in this book. This book has sixty short chapters; most print on four smallish pages of good-sized type. They're not too long to read aloud as a “morning devotion.” Some may find them too whimsical. They're probably best appreciated just as short funny stories by an evangelical Christian, at the pre-or-early-grandmothering stage of life, whose stories always lead her mind back to her faith.

Clairmont describes taking one of those art classes community colleges offer free or cheap to retirement-aged people: “All the participants had prior art training—except me. (I decided the time I tripped over and spilled a can of paint on the porch probably wouldn't count.)...My pictures were a sight; some were a blur and a couple resembled images of birds, but we weren't sure if they were living...I decided in the privacy of my home to attempt to put into practice some of the insights the teacher had shared. Before my eyes some flowers began to emerge, and it almost frightened me. I wasn't used to identifiable results.”

Have you noticed, in yourself or others, the stage of middle age at which middle-aged people suddenly become fascinated by people whom we consider old? (Even as a teenager I remember noticing people who were aging especially well; in my fifties I find my eyes sliding past the pretty girls, handsome men, and adorable children in a crowd to focus on some white-haired woman who stands, moves, and dresses well-- “I want to look like her when I grow up!”) Clairmont notices an older woman's fear of walking across ice. “She suggested I take her left arm while she used her cane in her right hand...Then she stated sadly, 'But I must tell you that you don't have a lot to look forward to. Aging is painful.' She turned to enter the apartment and pleasantly called out, 'Happy Thanksgiving!'”

A dominant “story” in Clairmont's life is her husband's ankle injury, compounded apparently by osteoporosis (the main reason why we don't hear much about men having this disease is that nobody understands how it works or claims to offer a cure), so that it changes the lives of both halves of the couple. “It was the first new car I had picked out all by myself...the vehicle...had just enough space in the back for my husband's electric cart...I couldn't find the right button. I did locate the sunroof button. About a quarter inch of fresh snow accumulated on my hairdo before I refound the sunroof button and shut the thing...I fished out the owner's manual.”

Sometimes ditzy but never really silly, Best Devotions of Patsy Clairmont would make a good gift for just about any Christian baby-boomer, but the book seems to have been physically designed with sick patients in mind. It's bigger than pocket size, smaller than standard size, reasonably well bound but lightweight, with nice clear print and those three-or-four-page chapters. It may cause enough chuckling to cause other patients to growl “What's so funny?” but if the patient, or a visitor, can read it aloud the chuckling is likely to spread and may help everyone feel less pain. And it's part of a series; Zondervan collected the "best devotions of" their other Christian women writers for release in similar format.

These books have not yet reached the collector price range so you'll find better prices on Amazon, but if you buy it here, for our standard price of $5 per gently used book, $5 per package (six of these books might fit into one package), plus $1 per online payment, we'll send $1 to Patsy Clairmont or a charity of her choice. If you order Clairmont's other vintage books, e.g. God Uses Cracked Pots and Normal Is Just a Setting on Your Dryer, for $5 each, the author or her charity will get $1 per book. 

If you like this author's brand of clean, family-friendly humor with an uplifting spin, you'll want to check out her new books at her web site. Buying them as new books is a great way to encourage a writer!