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My take on
“God I Forgive You” by Shanda Miller
To start I met Shanda and her husband Tommy at a fundraising for their church’s youth camp event in December of 2019. Little did I know that this was not just a happen chance meeting, it was a God appointed meeting. Then in May of 2020 the Lord put on my husband and my heart that He was calling us to a new church family. This was hard; we loved our church family, but God’s calling must come first. We decided to visit Legacy Church in New Philadelphia, Ohio. Shanda and Tommy are co-founders and Pastor’s of Legacy Church. Now I had heard part of Shanda’s story through, “The Recovery Reality Podcast, by Erik Fredrickson,” https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-death-to-life-with-shanda-miller/id1448492452?i=1000434143044 While listening to the podcast I was taken back to some things in my life. During this podcast is when I heard about her book, “God I Forgive You,” it was released on Amazon June 10th, 2020. I decided then that I was going to get it and read it. Now I am not a strong reader and tend to be easily distracted while reading. It takes me a long time to finish a book, if I even do! Shanda’s book was different. I managed to finish it in under 3 days!
This book captivated me. I know I am not able to relate to everything that Shanda went through but there are many I can. I have experienced abuse(mental, physical, and sexual) from childhood and teenage years, difficulty with self worth throughout my life, doubt in God, self identity (who I am I, what is my purpose?), just to name a few. Shanda went through her story and told it from every age of her life, her childhood, teenage years, and adult. As I read this book I was able to see the stage from those views. Her words and expressions felt like mine at times. She was able to tell her story and write my feelings it seemed like.
Shanda’s writing shows how she believed in God but also the stages of belief, struggle(why would an all loving God allow this to happen), religious confusion of God, and finally a wonderful Relationship with Her Heaven Father. I gotta see her start to have faith as a young child only for something to happen and doubt to set in, and this happened throughout her story. Also throughout her story there was the constant drawing of God in her life saying, “Come My child, give it to Me, I will carry you.” Shanda would pray as a child for God to help her out of troubling times and this continued throughout her story. She had a faithful grandmother who prayed (as do I). Her own son helped start her journey into a true relationship with God after so much hurt, (as did our one daughter for us).
If you have every experienced trauma of any kind, at any age, I truly believe this book will give you a hope that you are loved more than you know, by our Heavenly Father, Who loves you more than anything. We all have a past but our past does not define who we are! As I said in the beginning I met Shanda before I heard or read her story and you would never know or guess the trauma she had been through. She is so cheerful, happy, and most of all confidently filled with God’s love. This goes to show when we let God work and see ourselves and each other like He sees us the past falls away and is not seen in our daily living, we become a NEW CREATION in HIM! As God chipped away the lies of this world from Shanda, she became one of His Beautiful Children as He sees her and all of us, when we allow Him to cleanse our spirit, heart, mind, and body.
You can get Shanda’s book at:
Or if you are local to New Philadelphia, Ohio at the DaySpring Christain Book Store
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