Beauty for Ashes: A Journey of Healing

By Emma Leigh Levine

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!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 10, 2024
• ISBN: 9798892431163

Book preview

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Beauty for Ashes

A Journey of Healing

Emma Leigh Levine

ISBN 979-8-89243-115-6 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-89243-116-3 (digital)

Copyright © 2024 by Emma Leigh Levine

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

A Note to the Reader

The Darkness

Searching for Hope

Satan's Playbook

Gaslighting

A Survivor's Prayer

Friends (Probably) with Good Intentions

A Distressed Daughter: A Psalm of Lament

The Dissonance

Fathers and Daughters

A Letter to My Daughter

The Healing Heart: An Inner Dialogue

My Darkest Hour: Jesus's Perspective

A Father's Love

The EMDR Specialist

Hands

The Dawn

The Mirror Moments

Praise to a Christian Counselor

The Story of My Hands

Freedom

Learning to Live with a Father

Life in Healing

About the Author

To Chelsey G., who faithfully stood by me and pointed me to Jesus throughout this long journey of healing

To Kelsey H., who refused to allow me to believe I was just crazy no matter how much I begged her to; instead, she listened and encouraged me

To Lori T., who enthusiastically said, Let's EMDR it after I would tell her a false belief

A Note to the Reader

Dear reader,

A lot of these poems, especially at the beginning, come with a trigger warning. Please take that seriously!

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. Until I became a Christian myself, I claimed to grow up