Good Morning Creatives!
Today is going to be a little different here at the Creative Life Studios.
Sometimes, living the Creative Life is about putting paint to canvas or pen to paper. Other times, it’s about creating parts of you on the inside, that can then flow through you and onto your art.
It isn’t always easy, though, is it?
If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you know that I am pretty open about my struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts, about my adoption and other seasons of brokenness I’ve had.
It has been a long journey and a twisty, windy road to get to this place of happiness, peace and contentment that I am in.
FREEDOM! Book
So…what does my journey have to do with this book “Freedom!”
It’s the book I wish I had 10 years ago. It’s the book that I wish I had to hold my hand and tell me that I am not alone, that I am not crazy and, most importantly, that I am not perpetually and permanently broken.
For YEARS, I thought being depressed was just who I was. It was my normal.
I thought that being broken we just who I was and even though God had brought me out of it, it was still a part of me, like that ratty old blanket that kids drag behind them long after it’s fulfilled it’s comforting purpose. But they continue to keep it because it is a part of their identity.
Brokenness was part of my identity.
Finding Life Beyond the Brokenness
I wish I had had this book to tell me there was life beyond the brokenness.
Yes…I eventually figured out my champions vs victim story, but it took years and tears to do it. And, for the most part, I did it alone, thinking I was the only “good Christian girl” struggling.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from the book:
While we have outed our brokenness and can talk about it freely, somehow brokenness has become the biggest star in our story-not the backstory or the catalyst it was meant to be. –Jennifer Renee Watson “Freedom!: A Gutsy pursuit of breakthrough and the life beyond it”
That was me. I had reached the point of BEING beyond my brokenness, but I couldn’t reach the point of SEEING beyond my brokenness.
Up close and Personal
I thought about just typing up my thoughts, but instead, I decided to do a little video review for you.
Those statistics are hard to hear, aren’t they?
Knowing that so many women are suffering through brokenness. Suffering through loneliness. Suffering through heartache. Suffering through physical and mental pain.
They are just plain suffering.
They are tied to SOMETHING that is dragging them down and down and down and farther away from the fulfilling, bright and vital life that God truly has for them.
But:
That is what I hope you take away from this moment. Even if you never read the book (BUT I hope you do!) I hope today is the first day in your journey toward freedom. Your first day to lay down your “victim” label and raise the banner of “champion” above your own life. Your first day to be the last time you have to pick yourself up off the ground because tomorrow is now and it is beautiful.
XOXO,
Keri
PS To Learn more about Jennifer and her writing, check her out on Facebook and Instagram and find “FREEDOM!” on Amazon.
