Oftentimes, many people try to seek fulfillment from money, relationships, accomplishments, or material things. Others choose to cope with difficult problems by using drugs or alcohol, but they often come up short and soon have to realize that such things do not bring true happiness and fulfillment in life. How then can we successfully solve the problems that we face and find true happiness and peace in our lives? Well, author, Paulette Harper, in her latest book, Completely Whole, shows readers how to overcome suffering caused by alcoholism, substance abuse, poverty, and other obstacles blocking the path to a life of wholeness in spirit, soul, and body.
In her well-written, resource-filled guide, Harper provides readers with practical and biblically-based solutions to overcome everyday problems.
A native of Northern California, Paulette is a sought after speaker, certified life coach, minister, and author. As an inspirational and motivational speaker, Paulette’s desire is to motive women to reach their God given potential through conferences, workshops and seminars.
Paulette has authored such books as That Was Then, This Is Now: This Broken Vessel Restored. That Was Then, This Is Now achieved national recognition, becoming a finalist in the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Award.
She is the co-author of Victorious Living for Women. Her next book, For Such a Time as This will be released in 2011 in addition to Victorious Living for Moms. You can learn more about Paulette and her work at her website.
Chapter 1
Lord, I Am Made Whole by My Experiences
Wouldn’t life be so much better if we could tell God how to do His job? Or maybe we could assist Him or give Him some advice on how to deal with our issues? Wouldn’t we simply make sure we avoided much of the pain, sorrow and disappointment life brought? The answer is a resounding yes! Avoiding hardship, pain and heartache would be our primary solution in dealing with everything that life brought our way. If we could just sit back and live in complete harmony and joy, wouldn’t that be wonderful? Who wouldn’t want this kind of life?
Unfortunately, the world in which we live doesn’t allow this type of ease. We call this kind of world imaginary—make believe—a fairy tale. Fairy tales are fables created for children with the illusion that the world is an ideal and wonderful place—a place where there are no cares?a place which is free and exempt from outside influences. The truth of the matter is the world in which we live can be disappointing and cruel, with plenty of let downs. Yet, depending on our attitude, the world can also be a place of limitless successes, great achievements, abundant blessings and untold happiness. Each day that God blesses us to experience is a day in which some type of lesson is going to be taught. The question is: are we willing to learn?
Many times we ask God, “Why ?why must we endure the things we do?” By nature, we do not embrace new experiences because most experiences require us to give something of ourselves. The truth is, we don’t want to give anything without a guarantee of a return. We are not willing to surrender, submit and give God what He asks for in the midst of our circumstances.
What is FIRSTS? First is that digital peek we all take in a real-life bookstore when we’re thinking about buying a book. We glance at the cover and if that interests us, we flip it over and read the book description on the back cover, maybe even read a short author bio, and if that compels us, we’ll flip open the book and read that ever important first page. If all these things make us burn to continue reading, we waltz right up to the counter and make our purchase!
If you’re interested in having your book featured as a FIRSTS, [e-mail me] and let’s talk about it!