“Being hopeful doesn’t mean being ‘Little Mary Sunshine’ all the time”

Last updated on: July 14, 2014 at 9:21 pm by Dawn Eden

“Being hopeful doesn’t mean being ‘Little Mary Sunshine’ all the time” 2014-07-14T21:21:57-04:00 Dawn Eden

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Rachel Balducci, the co-host of Catholic TV’s “The Gist” and best-selling author of How Do You Tuck In a Superhero? And Other Delightful Mysteries of Raising Boys, just published an interview with me on her Testosterhome blog about my book My Peace I Give You: Healing Sexual Wounds with the Help of the Saints. Her first question gave me a chance to talk about what Christian hope is–and what it isn’t:

Image via Barley Sheaf Players, BarleySheaf.org.

First off, I really enjoyed your book. I cried several times — not out of sadness, but of the beautiful hope you convey. You must feel light as a feather discovering these riches God has to offer you!

I am so happy that you were touched by hope when reading My Peace I Give You. There is a word of counsel that I give in the book which I myself sought to put into action when writing it: we find greater healing when we choose to act from our wellness and not from our woundedness. I had the choice, when writing My Peace I Give You, to focus on the ways in which I am still a “work in progress” or to focus on the lights I have received–the joy and hope given by Jesus through sacred scripture, prayer, and the sacraments. I chose to focus on hope because I know that, however I may feel at a given moment, the truth of my life lies in the love of God that has sustained me and enabled me to reach this present time.

Being hopeful doesn’t mean being “Little Mary Sunshine” all the time. It means refusing to define yourself by the darkness. It means being able to say with the Psalmist, “This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High” (Ps 77:10 KJV).

Read the whole interview for more on redemptive suffering and healing. Many thanks to Rachel for her deep and thoughtful questions!

For updates on my personal appearances, visit my “personal stuff” blog, The Dawn Patrol.

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