.You Must SEE it for Yourself.

Unless you live under a rock, or really, really don't get out much {grin} I am sure most of you have at least heard about the tragedy that Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife and family endured a few years back - losing their 5 year old daughter in an accident.

I was so broken for this family when I heard the news, and I remember wondering what it practically looked like to walk through something as painful as that. Jim and I purchased Steven Curtis Chapman's cd Beauty from Ashes this spring because I was so curious how God brought this family through such pain. (It's a beautiful, raw, authentic cd if you haven't heard it already.) We have researched about their orphan care ministry Show Hope as well, so we were pretty familiar with their story and their ministries. However, within the past several weeks I have had numerous women tell me that I had to read Mary Beth Chapman's new book Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope. I reserved it at the library, but it still hasn't come in. This week at small group a friend of mine thrust it into my hands. {grin}

Wow.

That book is life changing. Really. There is so much that I planned to say and share, but then I got to thinking that I just need to be silent and let you all SEE for yourself. Please, if you do not read another book for leisure for the rest of this year, read this one. I am not going to sugar coat it. It is an emotional read, some of it was sad and hard, but I think it is a must read. I do not think we should shy away from it just because it might (probably will) make us feel. Becaue if you read it, you will not walk away feeling hopeless, you will feel encouraged. It is not just a book about losing a child, or about being in ministry, or about adoption and orphan care, yes those things are in, but it is a book about what it is like to truly step back and let God write your story. It is beautiful, and like I told my friend Theresa, it changed my life. Really. I cannot look at my children the same way, my husband, my ministry, this passion we have for adoption and the orphans, but most of all I cannot look at God the same way. I could relate to Mary Beth on so many levels, and I am pretty sure a lot of you will too.

So get a box of tissues, but let me warn you that reading one sentence may have you doubled over in tears while the very next you will be laughing out loud. I promise.

And isn't that life?

Have you read it yet? What did you think?

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