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FOREWORD BY BILLY GRAHAM

Ruth, Billy Graham?s third daughter, has discovered through bitter personal experience that God does his great work in the ruins of our lives. When life's rosy dreams dissolve into difficult realities that break our hearts, God shows that he specializes in restoration. As Ruth?s life descended through divorce, depression, and shame, as she bore heartrending parental struggles and as she faltered trying to make wise choices in the wake of bad ones, she discovered the unending embrace of a faithful, forgiving, and grace-filled God.

As fascinating as Ruth?s story is, her book surpasses testimony as she brings sharp new insight from the word of God for all who fear their actions may be beyond forgiveness or their broken circumstances may keep them from ever again being used by God.

Through the words of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, Ruth reveals the God who makes wasted places come to life. Through Ruth?s eyes the reader grasps the Prodigal Son parable as never before. She discloses her own journey through that parable, first as the indignant older brother struggling to understand God?s grace toward her husband?s infidelity, then as the prodigal when her own actions brought deep shame and painful circumstances, and even in her role as the father in that parable, running to embrace her own children in the midst of bulimia, drug abuse, and unwed pregnancy.

Finally, Ruth includes practical steps in every chapter that anyone can take to offer care, support, and hope to the broken people they encounter in their lives and in the pews beside them each Sunday.

With Ruth, the broken and those who love them will run to the arms of the God they can trust, the Father God who embraces, sustains, and redeems.

We learn that no matter where we are in our journey, God has a use for us and will never turn us away.

"If in these pages you see your own life's experience mirrored in our daughter's, may you too, find a personal relationship with the same heavenly Father who continues to be her strength, comfort and joy." - from the foreword by Billy Graham

Format: Softcover
Page Count: 224
Size: 5-5/16 x 8
ISBN: 0-310-25707-7

About the Author(s):

Ruth Graham, third child of Ruth and Billy Graham, is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher known for her honesty and authenticity as she shares her sometimes painful journey of faith. Author of First Steps in the Bible (Word 1980) and numerous magazine articles, Ruth has also appeared on television and radio programs. She has three children, and three grandchildren, and lives in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia.

Stacy Mattingly is a freelance writer and co-author of Prisoners of Hope: The Story of Our Captivity and Freedom in Afghanistan with American aid workers Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer. A graduate of Northwestern University, Stacy lives in Virginia.