I apologize. I really do. If this song is stuck in your head all day, I give you permission to to cyber smack me.
But there is truth to the lyrics, isn’t there?
So many of us are walking around wounded.
And what makes things tricky is that the wounds are rarely visible.
So here we all are, living this thing called life with invisible wounds that cause very real pain and what happens is…..
We get stuck in it.
For me, so much of my pain is tied up in our adoption. Our sweet girl has our hearts, but she is half a world away in a country where chaos is king. When we first saw her face, we thought she’d be home last summer. Now here we are. It’s almost April and nobody adopting from Congo has any clue when, or even if our children will come home. It’s financially stressful to the nth degree, but worse than that – it’s emotionally exhausting.
And in the midst of my stress and exhaustion, it is so easy for me to get stuck on myself.
Somebody is harsh or unkind and I think, “How can they be this way to me? They have no idea what I am going through.”
Oh, how Satan must rejoice.
How gleeful and victorious he must be when self-focus rules the day. When we let our hurts blind us from the hurts of others.
Maybe the person who was harsh or unkind isn’t a harsh or unkind person. Maybe they are swimming through an ocean of hurt, too. And instead of our judgment and our wrath, maybe they need some first aid in the form of love and encouragement.
What if we looked out?
What if we said, “Stand back, Satan. You want me to soak in my misery. But I’m not going to soak here. I’m going to soak in God’s truth and then I’m going to offer that truth to the hurting world around me.”
In my upcoming release, A Broken Kind of Beautiful, the main character is one who looks far from wounded. She’s a successful fashion model in New York City. The world would look at her and covet what she has. Oh, but Ivy is wounded. She is wounded to the core. And those wounds are influencing her behavior. Those wounds have her self-destructing.
But thankfully, God puts some people in her life–who are wounded too–but in the midst of their own hurt, they refuse to soak. They see the pain beneath Ivy’s facade.
And redemption unfolds….
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Giveaway Time!
Every Monday, from now until its release on April 15, I’m giving away an autographed copy of A Broken Kind of Beautiful. Congratulations to last week’s winner, Lynn R. from California! This week’s giveaway will end at midnight on Saturday and the winner will be emailed on Sunday, so please keep an eye on your inbox. Be sure to click Already Follow or Already Like to maximize your entries . To keep shipping costs down, I can only ship within the United States. Thanks for understanding!
Fashion is a fickle industry, a frightening fact for twenty-four year old model Ivy Clark. Ten years in and she’s learned a sacred truth—appearance is everything. Nobody cares about her broken past as long as she looks beautiful for the camera. This is the only life Ivy knows—so when it starts to unravel, she’ll do anything to hold on. Even if that means moving to the quaint island town of Greenbrier, South Carolina, to be the new face of her stepmother’s bridal wear line—an irony too rich for words, since Ivy is far from the pure bride in white.
If only her tenuous future didn’t rest in the hands of Davis Knight, her mysterious new photographer. Not only did he walk away from the kind of success Ivy longs for to work maintenance at a local church, he treats her differently than any man ever has. Somehow, Davis sees through the façade she works so hard to maintain. He, along with a cast of other characters, challenges everything Ivy has come to believe about beauty and worth. Is it possible that God sees her—a woman stained and broken by the world—yet wants her still?
To pre-order A Broken Kind of Beautiful, scroll down to the buy links at the bottom of this page.
I love the title of this book. As someone with mental health issues, A Broken Kind of Beautiful, is often how I feel. I look forward to reading this book. Fingers crossed that I might win it. I would love to share it with friends and family.
Excited to read this one! Can’t wait!
Already a winner to be a part of the launch team for this book, but would love to have an autographed copy to add to my library, then I can give my ARC to a friend. 🙂
The cover is gorgeous and I cannot wait to read the new book. Love your books.
Getting in deeper & deeper in my advanced reader’s copy and finding myself really relating to the characters. Oh, for a few hours to read uninterrupted! Would love to win a copy to pass on to my readers. Great word on grace here, Katie!
Can’t wait to read this book, Katie. And good, good word, sister. We all need to dish out grace daily, because we surely need it ourselves.