Momservation: If you had the opportunity to gain perspective without suffering, would you let fear stand in your way?
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I’ve written a book the experts say is too long.
I’ve written a book the critics say people won’t have the courage to read.
I’ve written a book that took me thirty years to have the courage to write.
Would you read it?
The literary agents say no. Nobody wants read about a child who dies. They’ll read about a child who almost died. They’ll read about a child who has died but then comes back to life with accounts of Heaven. They want to read about survival.
But my book is a story of survival.
Nobody wants to read about the death of a child. I get that. But here’s the deal—here’s what I offer you if you have the courage to read my book, AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM: From Unthinkable Tragedy to Unexpected Faith:
A chance to gain perspective on what really matters in life. A true perspective with eyes that normally only evolve after suffering.
You see, God gives us two choices:
1) You can learn from others.
2) You can experience it yourself
So you can read about someone losing a child and get the Cliffs Notes on surviving the unimaginable—gain perspective without the pain. Or, you can pray to God that you never lose a child.
But I’ll tell you what. It’s not really your choice. Too many have lost a child and I guarantee you they were all praying to God to spare theirs.
If I had a choice, I would have chosen to become enlightened by hitching my wagon to someone else’s faith defining experience. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to see for myself the people God puts in front of us as teachers. Teachers who have sacrificed themselves so that others may learn exempt from their own suffering. But I didn’t have a choice.
Instead, I was chosen. To be teacher. Not a student.
So, please, choose to read my book while you still have the opportunity to be a student. Let me teach you about surviving the unimaginable. About persevering under the crushing weight of grief. About finding the strength to live in a world without someone you didn’t think you could live without. About having courage to accept life still goes on—and can go on beautifully. About hope surmounting despair. Even about guardian angels and the resilience of faith.
Let me teach you how to have eyes that see with unwavering perspective for what really matters on this journey.
In this lifetime we will all lose somebody we love. We are not getting out of this life alive. But from the ashes of tragedy comes perspective. I earned mine the hard way. Have the courage to gain yours the easy way. Read my book.
If you would like to challenge the naysayers and read an excerpt from AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM: From Unthinkable Tragedy to Unexpected Faith in next week’s Momservations® blog, please comment which excerpt below you would want to read:
A) Ripping off the BandAid:
Chapter 1
The End
Kelli foreshadows six year-old sister’s premonition of death and the small mercy that she was not there to witness it. The tragedy of Sommar’s (pronounced summer) accidental electrocution and drowning unfolds through the perspective of each family member who could not stop the inevitable: Her cousin, Joey, who finds her floating unresponsive in the bathtub and nearly becomes electrocuted himself; her brother, Ronnie, who bravely directs a vain rescue attempt; her mother, Jan, across the street at a neighbor’s house for just a moment, summoned home to a parent’s worst nightmare; her father, Ron, racing home from work frantic, desperate, and heartbroken that he failed in his self-appointed job to protect his family; Kelli devastated to learn through a phone call that the happy life as she knew it had horrifically changed forever.
B) Bringing Sommar “back to life”:
Chapter 8
Seven Years of Sommar – Fearless and Independent
In a flashback of Sommar’s pre-school years, her exuberance for life is illustrated with her wild rocking horse rides, setting off alone for school in feetsie pajamas with a can of soup, and an important foreshadowing of Sommar always getting into Kelli’s things.
C) A guardian angel story:
Chapter 19
An Angel in My Shoes
Seven weeks after Kelli’s brush with death, Sommar makes her presence known. Kelli witnesses her shoes move by themselves, initially frightened before realizing it was Sommar sending a clear message that she still walks beside Kelli—and that her little sister still likes trying on her clothes.
#EnjoyTheJourney