The Blessing Of A Broken Heart

Memoir of the mother of a boy stoned to death in the Judean desert.

Koby Mandell was just thirteen-years-old on May 8th 2001, when he and his friend cut school to go hiking. Their bodies were found the next day. The boys had been brutally stoned to death in a cave in the heart of the Judean desert. The extreme cruelty of this act of terror shocked the world. How does a family cope with the loss of a child through such horror? Koby's mother Sherri has penned this absorbing, deeply painful and yet strangely beautiful account of her loss, sharing her thoughts and emotions as she moves through the first stages of mourning. Struggling to find a way to carry on, she embarks on a journey of discovery and growing faith as she endeavors to understand her pain in the context of 3,000 years of Jewish history and tradition. The Blessing of a Broken Heart is at once heartbreaking and life-affirming, shot through with immense pain and yet also with immense beauty and courage. Book jacket.

When Jan Richardson unexpectedly lost her husband and creative partner, the singer/songwriter Garrison Doles, she did what she had long known how to do: she wrote blessings. These were no sugar-coated blessings. They minimized none of the pain and bewilderment that came in the wake of a wrenching death. With these blessings, Jan entered, instead, into the depths of the shock, anger, and sorrow. From those depths, she has brought forth words that, with heartbreaking honesty, offer surprising comfort and stunning grace. Those who know loss will find kinship among these pages. In these blessings that move through the anguish of rending into the unexpected shelters of solace and hope, there shimmers a light that helps us see we do not walk alone. From her own path of grief, Jan offers a luminous, unforgettable gift that invites us to know the tenacity of hope and to recognize the presence of love that, as she writes, is "sorrow's most lasting cure."

From the author of the bestselling Anam Cara comes a beautiful collection of blessings to help readers through both the everyday and the extraordinary events of their lives. John O’Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, has been widely praised for his gift of drawing on Celtic spiritual traditions to create words of inspiration and wisdom for today. In To Bless the Space Between Us, his compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight offers readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. O’Donohue looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory. Most profoundly, however, O’Donohue explains “blessing” as a way of life, as a lens through which the whole world is transformed. O’Donohue awakens readers to timeless truths and shows the power they have to answer contemporary dilemmas and ease us through periods of change.

Ruth Graham - daughter of beloved evangelist Billy Graham - offers a guide for those who are hurting or those who love them. She illustrates through personal stories and Scripture how nothing can keep you from experiencing the fullness of God's grace. Run with Ruth to the arms of the God you can trust, the Father God who embraces, sustains, and redeems your brokenness. Ruth Graham has discovered through bitter personal experience that God does his great work in the ruins of our lives. As Ruth's life descended through divorce, depression, and shame; as she bore heartrending parental struggles; and as she faltered trying to make wise choices in the wake of bad ones, she discovered the unending embrace of a faithful, forgiving, and grace-filled God. This book surpasses the testimony of her fascinating story as she brings sharp new insight from the Word of God for all who fear their actions may be beyond forgiveness or their broken circumstances may keep them from being used by God ever again. Through the words of Jeremiah - the weeping prophet - Ruth reveals the God who makes wasted places come to life. You'll explore the parable of the Prodigal Son as never before as Ruth discloses her own likeness to each character: The indignant older brother, struggling to understand God’s grace toward her husband's infidelity The prodigal, wading through the deep shame and painful circumstances of her own actions The father, running to embrace her children in the midst of bulimia, drug abuse, and unplanned pregnancy Ruth includes practical steps in every chapter anyone can take to offer care, support, and hope to the broken people they encounter in their lives and in the pews beside them every Sunday.

Letter to the Reader: A story is just the formation of words used to paint the picture of an event. My story is not any different. Each word used, is full of emotions, with hopes of painting a portrait of LOVE. I always heard people say, "It's better to have LOVED and lost than not to have LOVED at all." And at times, I was completely in agreement with this. Well that was until I LOVED and lost and was never able to LOVE again. I can't blame LOVE for this, but I can blame me. In order to remove the stain that guilt has left on the remaining pieces of my heart, I painted this picture, with my words, in hopes that you will end up appreciating the gift of LOVE.

I have yet to meet someone who has not been heartbroken at least once in their life. It happens to us all, more often than not, it'll happen more than once. We get heartbroken, we get disappointed, we get rejected. It's part of life. We live in a world with flawed humans who fail us and make mistakes. Many of our dreams are wrapped up in these humans, and because of that, brokenness is just a part of living on this earth. It's a price of admission to this life and something which we all must pay. We can't always control the situation or the outcome for that matter. But we can control how we respond to the devastating blow when heartbreak strikes. In this book, I will go over all the ways one can truly heal from heartbreak. Dealing with the pain that comes with it, the struggle, the insecurities, disappointment, and the rejection. I will show you how to combat grief and how to endure the difficult road to becoming whole again. Heartbreak and disappointment, they change you; change how you eat, how you sleep, and how you interact with others. It shakes you to your very core. The essence of who you are. Recovering from such trauma can be an extremely lengthy and challenging process. If done incorrectly, you're not only prolonging your heartbreak but also risking long-term emotional damage. Add to the fact that most people don't even know what genuine healing really is, and then you understand why most people never truly accomplish it. In a world that leaves us broken many times over, we must excel in the process of healing. Healing is an art. An art that we must master if we want to live a truly fulfilling life. If we're going to create healthy, long-lasting relationships, then we have to learn how to heal fully, and in the right way from the ones that leave us broken. Because heartbreak isn't physical trauma where our bodies automatically know how to respond. No, I'm afraid with mental trauma, the healing process is far more complicated than that. And it's entirely up to us whether we heal or not. If your heart is heavy, if your soul is crushed, if you're suffocating in immeasurable grief and disappointment, I want you to take this book and let it be your lifeline for these troublesome times. Let me be the compass that will lead you out of this storm.

She Had Told Him She Was Headed for Blessing. Why Would He Not Take Her There? The Bjorklund family has received word that Augusta Bjorklund is on her way from Norway to join them in North Dakota. When the train arrives in the town of Blessing with no Augusta aboard, the worried family hopes she will be on the train in the morning. But only her trunk arrives, so Bridget Bjorklund insists that Hjelmer, Augusta's brother, go find her. Augusta, after discovering her intended bridegroom had married someone else, decided to leave her broken heart in Norway and start a new life in America helping her mother run her boardinghouse. But knowing no English, Augusta misunderstands a ticket agent's directions in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in the harried confusion, she boards the wrong train. When she arrives at the end of the line, she is met by a handsome young rancher, Kane Moyer, waiting for his Norwegian mail-order bride....