your scars are beautiful to God (1)

I am now reading a book, "Your Scars Are Beautiful To God" authored by Sharon Jaynes. Jaynes says, "Each scar represents a moment in time or a passage of time when something happened to us or through us that we will never forget."

Every scar has a story to tell. If you've been hurt, if you carry scars from heartbreaks, mistakes, losses, failures, illnesses or mishaps, this book is for you. This inspiring book will help you see your scars in the light of scriptures.

I will post on this blog a Book Review by CBN.com in small, digestible portions over the coming days. May God give you a word of comfort in whatever situation you are in right now.

Book Review (by Belinda Elliott of CBN.com)
Your Scars are Beautiful
Author : Sharon Jaynes

“Bad things happen to good people.” We hear it all the time. We know that it is true. Yet, when the “bad thing” happens to us, we somehow often seem to be caught off guard. The deep hurts that we experience in life can plague us for years to come.

Author and speaker Sharon Jaynes knows this well. For years, she carried around wounds from her past without even realizing it. Jaynes grew up in a home filled with fighting and violence. Her father was an alcoholic, and his drunken rages left her crouching under her covers at night trying to shut out the sounds of her parents arguing.

At age 12, Jaynes met a Christian woman in her neighbourhood and began spending time with her. Although her family attended church every week, she had never seen a relationship with Jesus modeled in her home. Through her new friendship with her neighbour, she saw more than just the religious rituals her family performed on Sundays. She learned how to have a relationship with Jesus, and she accepted Christ two years later. Within five years both of her parents also came to know Christ. Her story seemed to have a fairy-tale ending.

However, the years of fighting and violence at home left her very insecure. Among her deep-rooted insecurities was the belief that she was ugly and unloved.

“Even though I became a Christian, I still had those wounds,” Jaynes explains. “And I carried them around with me well into my 30s.”

Jaynes began to feel like something was missing from her life. As she attempted to discover what it was, she sensed God telling her to let go of her past hurts. That’s when she began the process of healing – a process that she calls “turning the wounds into scars.”

“There is a big difference between a wound and a scar,” Jaynes says. “Because a scar says, ‘I’ve been healed, and this is my story.’”

In her book, "Your Scars Are Beautiful to God", Jaynes encourages readers to embrace their scars and allow God to use them in the lives of others. She says God prompted her to write the book after reading the familiar Scripture passage about the resurrection of Christ.

Jaynes says, “When Jesus appeared to His disciples, they did not recognize Him when He walked in the room until He showed them His scars. Once they saw His scars, then they knew who He was. And as I was reading that I felt like God was saying to me, ‘that is still how people know Jesus today.’ ”

Jesus could have healed His scars and come back without them. Instead, He chose to keep them. Jaynes believes that is because He had a message for us. Our scars are important, and He wants to use them.

........to be continued in Part 2.

nothing can separate us from the love of God,
sockkim