Looking for Hope Road: When You Feel Like You’Re Failing at Life!

By D. R. Wright

You dont quite know where to look for answers at times when things are hard pressed on every side, especially when there seems to be an abundance of self-help books or Internet tutorials on everything these days. Im truly surprised that I havent seen a book entitled Fix Your Life for Dummies in bookstores. I havent checked online, but its probably there somewhere, marked down for quick sale. So I chose to delve into this topic because we all desire the truth. Our present-day societal dilemmas are rendering many people hopeless and truly in search of finding a better way to traverse their course in life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512717556

D. R. Wright

Domminique Wright is a proud wife and mother of five, who's deep love for God and many years of reading, studying and combing through scriptures, led her to combine her thirst for spiritual clarity with many of her journal entries, inevitably creating her debut book, "Looking for Hope Road".

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Copyright © 2015 D. R. Wright.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: EASY-TO-READ VERSION © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center, Inc. and used by permission.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1754-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1755-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015917725

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/12/2015

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 You are not being punished! God does care!

Chapter 2 Why Me? (Guilt, Pain & Bitterness)

Chapter 3 Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 4 Dehydration Necessitates Rehydration

Chapter 5 Relationship Trumps Religion

Chapter 6 Trial by Fire (Tried and Tested)

Chapter 7 The Stand Off

Chapter 8 Trust the Process

Chapter 9 Pay it Forward

Chapter 10 More than Conquerors

Conclusion

Notes

Dedication

To those who sometimes feel like they’re failing at life, Keep Pressing!

Grandma, MiMi, Ween and Aunt Sarah; I am you, and you are me. Gone but never forgotten. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

Nicholas, I can’t say thank you enough for sharing your inspiring story, your amazing talent and your indelible light. Keep Shining!

Nikayla Janay, my ace, I am eternally grateful to God for blessing me with you. You’re an incredible young woman. Your beautiful smile, your logical intelligence, and your uncanny wit are invaluable. I love you to infinity and beyond.

Leon, humanity’s past clearly reveals that sacrifice is required from a few, for the many to have an opportunity to realize a better life, but our gratitude is often times misplaced or nonexistent. With that said, none of this would have been possible without you. Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

Preface

I know that this is going to seem really random, but I have to get this off my chest. I used to hate gospel artist Donnie Mc Clurkin’s song, We Fall Down, because it sounds so hopeless to me. Droning on and on about how we fall down, but we get up, we fall down, but we get up, we fall down, but we get up. For a saint is just a sinner who fell down, and got up. Yep, that’s pretty much the whole thing, sung repeatedly over and over and over again. I mean really, is that it; is life just a continual repetitious struggle of picking ourselves up after incessantly falling down. I wanted to believe that he had to be wrong, but after getting beyond the fact that it sounds hopeless, whiny and annoying, (no offense Donnie), I love you; I really do. But in fact, that’s exactly what we have to do when we stumble and fall flat on our faces or bottoms, whichever is closest to the ground.

We have to take a moment to rally our senses, brush ourselves off and keep moving. That sounds simple enough, right. Of course we may have some scars left behind, from the scrapes and bruises we’ve acquired over the years. Some have physically experienced broken bones and near death situations, and survived to tell the tale. In essence our lives are comprised of daily sequences of choices and decisions, and as sentient self-aware beings, our choices and decisions define our individuality. Whether you like to wear your hair long or short, or you prefer coffee or tea, they signal our right to free will, giving us control of our small portion of life. But what happens when our decisions and choices in life are the reason we’ve fallen and getting up and brushing ourselves off is the least of our worries. Maybe it’s just me; or is it easier said, than done at times?

Nick Riley is my youngest son’s lifelong and dearest friend. In fact, they are so close that they consider themselves to be brothers from another mother. Even after we moved a few counties away, they managed to maintain a tight knit relationship, with the help of modern technology and a little ingenuity of course. But it wasn’t until Nick moved a little over 150 miles away that the relationship seemed to falter a little, as they were forced to embrace new environments and develop new friendships. But no matter the distance or passage of time, they would always find a way to re-connect. They were always there for one another during life’s most challenging dilemmas, and even made certain that they were in attendance for one another’s high school graduations. But with a change of environment and friends, one can find themselves facing all sorts of challenging facets, and your once shared hopes and dreams take a back seat to the harsh realities of life.

On a chilly night in March 2012, Nick accidentally shot and killed one of his close friends.