Give Yourself a Chance to Breathe

You wake up at 5 or 6 am. Maybe you work out, grab your coffee, or drop the kids off at school. If you’re lucky, you manage a quick breakfast and get them to the bus stop on time. Then, you rush out of the house, trying to make it to work on time. You deal with your moody boss, trying your best to get the work done, all while hoping your kid doesn’t catch the latest virus going around at school. You’ve been told repeatedly that you’re not supposed to send a sick child to school, but when you have to go to work, what exactly can you do about a sick child?

You leave the office, unsure if your significant other will be home. Things have been hectic, with little time for romance or anything that doesn’t involve talking about the kids or the growing pile of bills. You need to breathe, but there doesn’t seem to be enough time even for that. Church? No thanks. Who’s got time for that? God… the man upstairs… does He even care?

I get it. God gets it. It’s your life, and it’s not easy. Sometimes, you feel like crying, but you hold it in. When you do cry and break down, you hide it. You’re afraid of looking weak, of disappointing others. “What’s wrong with me?” you ask yourself. Nothing. And everything. But you’re not alone.

First off, I want you to know that I struggle too. If you come closer—this book will allow you to come really close—you’ll see that I’m no different. I’m a single mom, a widow, raising two kids, with fluctuating finances, and dealing with sometimes incapacitating grief. I get it. God gets it.

Grab this book. Maybe the only time you’ll have to read it peacefully is when everyone else is asleep, late at night, or early in the morning. Perhaps you’ll read it in the privacy of your bathroom. I’m working on the audiobook, but for now, please don’t try to read while driving; I want you to be safe. This book will distract you from your troubles. It will take you into the lives of seven people who feel like you do, who struggle like you do, who fight like you do. They’ve felt like giving up, just like you. But as you read their stories, you’ll find encouragement and inspiration in how they have, and still are, making it through their sorrows and heartaches.

This book is not about staying positive. It’s about having hope while you face pain. It’s about hope grounded in the reality of our human nature and the imperfect world we share.

This book is also about God. I have experienced His love and guidance, and I can’t share my life or the lives of the others in this book without mentioning the greatest love of my life. You still have the freedom to accept or reject Him, to embrace Him or keep Him at a distance. But in the privacy of your mind and soul, you might come to realize that maybe He’s not as far away as you think. Or that you haven’t strayed as far as you believed. You might find Him in the pages of this book. Or, even better, you may allow yourself to be found by Him. The Lord is seeking you, too.

This book is an invitation to stop and breathe. You deserve that. It’s also an invitation to cry if you need to. I certainly will.