YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOUR SITUATIONS

Book excerpt: Sometimes life hurts-a lot! When overwhelmed by its challenges and painful moments, some days just breathing itself requires almost more energy than we have to expend. It is in such times of despair and great exhaustion that we are pushed to the edge with thoughts of suicide. Beckoning us away from that edge with a message of hope, resiliency, and the understanding that God has not allowed us to be confronted with any situations that we cannot overcome, this book coaxes us to not give up on living. Turning our attention to our inner strength, it speaks to how intentional God was with gifting each of us life while reminding us that no one's life is perfect, but everyone's life has purpose. Having jumped off the edge several times in pursuit of death when overwhelmed by her life, the author writes earnestly of surviving those dark moments, finding peace, and becoming immensely grateful to still be alive. As with her first book, In My Family Shadows, Deloris E. Jordan grants readers an internal view of her personal struggle of survival with uncompromised transparency. Through the sharing of her own experience with attempting suicide, the author aims to provide readers a compelling reason to forego ending their life and living out their story. Using her pursuit of death and her heartfelt gratitude to God for thwarting her efforts as the premise of her sharing, she writes candidly of coming to learn that she was indeed stronger than all of the situations in her life that once made suicide such an attractive remedy for her pain. She strives to convey to those in the throes of despair, that gut-wrenching pain that is driving them to consider death will not always dominate them. Although memories of their present heartache will probably never fade, the pain of the present moment will dissipate with time, and that fact is what they must hold on to, to survive the dark moments in their life. Purposely, this book is a quick read for hurting individuals in need of immediate words of hope. Coupling her voice of encouragement with thought-provoking inserts from other faith-focused Christian writers, Deloris strives to offer comfort and resilience to counter thoughts of suicide and defeat.