Statistically speaking, as many as one in five women experience childhood sexual trauma. With a topic like this, one person with this experience is too many! Emma Leigh Levine is one of those one in five women spoken about in that statistic. In Beauty for Ashes: A Journey of Healing, Emma shares her experience with her trauma. Throughout her journey of healing, she learns to hold hurt in one hand and hope in the other.
While it is a collection of poetry, it also can be read as a story. In the first section of the book, Emma writes about the darkness surrounding her home life. These poems describe what it is like to be in her shoes growing up with a "Christian" father who was abusing her. Naturally, this led to a lot of confusion about her earthly father and heavenly Father. In the second section of the book, you can see Emma wrestling through these things. To her, it felt unrealistic that her father was abusive, and that created unnecessary shame. At this point in the story, God started to show her who she is as well as who He is. While it sounds great, seeing the stark contrast between her earthly father and heavenly Father was challenging. Amid her trauma, Emma met and experienced Jesus. Hope started to be interwoven with the darkness. In the final section of her book, Emma writes about healing. Don't be misinformed; not everything is rainbows and butterflies. Challenges still arise, but Emma can now put her trauma into perspective. God created her to be more than her traumatic experiences!
It breaks Emma's heart to know that even one other person can relate to her story. She spent a lot of time being confused and terrified. If you are in that position, Emma wants you to have this book. Despite it feeling impossible right now, you can heal!