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Introduction to

Pause and Reflect and

Discussion and Study Guide

Dear Reader,

While reading Belma’s story, you may identify with her experiences. It may open old wounds and trigger painful memories. When such memories surface, we can choose to stuff them back into the dark recesses or dusty attics of our minds or to face them and begin a lengthy cleanup.

Cleaning old wounds can be extremely painful; it takes a brave soul to choose this route. However, in facing the pain we come to understand that a broken heart, like a broken bone, needs to be “reset” to function properly. If we care about our emotional and mental health like we do our physical health, we won’t stuff the painful memories back even deeper into the dark places of our minds. We will seek healing for their causes rather than apply a Band-Aid of addictions to mask the festering outward symptoms of our brokenness.

Belma neither hid her pain nor became her own doctor, spending years in self-help groups. Instead, she faced her troubles as she waited on the Great Physician and Wonderful Counsellor to examine her and choose the method of treatment. A good patient, she obeyed His instructions—a habit she continues in other areas of her life. This book is a narrative of how God redeemed and restored her and shaped her life into a masterpiece of great victory and miracles as she focused her worship and devotion on Him.

As you read Belma’s story, we invite you to slow down enough to hear and capture God’s heart for yourself. Lift your eyes heavenward. Invite your heavenly Father to reset your heart. Find out where He is and what He is doing in your own story. Allow yourself to get “unstuck” from past and present circumstances. Know that you’re not alone.

To this end, we provide two resources for you, intended to give you, dear reader, an opportunity to come closer to God, our Healer. “Pause and Reflect” sections at the end of several chapters provide reflections from Lorne Shepherd, a Christian counsellor and Belma’s friend, and following the epilogue is a “Discussion and Study Guide.” Both resources can be used for personal use or in a small-group setting.

Healing came to Belma as she focused on loving and obeying God and allowed some of her needs to be met through faith-filled, faithful friends, like Lorne Shepherd. We encourage you to get the support of friends and to use the study guide in a discussion group to gain insights from others.

Whether you choose to use one or both of these studies, be blessed with health, hope and understanding. The promise of Jeremiah 29:11–13 is for you: “I know the plans I have for you…to prosper you and not to harm you…to give you hope and a future…You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (NIV).

On behalf of Belma and Lorne,

Becky Thomas

P.S. If you haven’t yet yielded your life to the Great Physician and Counsellor, why not do it now? Use this prayer as a guide:

Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me today. I know I have erred many times. Please forgive me for these wrongs, and heal me and those I have wronged from sin’s effects, even as You heal me from effects of wrongs committed against me. Thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, who paid for all sin by taking the punishment on His own body through death on a cross. My Healer and Counsellor, I invite You into my heart and choose to live life on Your terms. Amen.