Heaven is Here- final thoughts

Well I finished the book Heaven is Here. My heart has been filled. I think my favorite part of the book was reading the epilogue. Stephanie is just a completely real person with real challenges dealing with them in real ways. She does it phenomenally!! The two lessons I learn from her book and that I want to take with me and become me are: 

#1 

At first Stephanie didn't want to be happy, she didn't believe that she could be happy ever again because of her situation. But she figured out that she could choose happiness everyday. No matter what our situation we can choose to be grateful, find joy, and be happy! I need that in my life. I need to remember that. There are times when I realize I'm a grumpy pants, i know i can choose to be happy and sometimes i choose not to. What good does that do for me? In those moments I need to pray for a desire to choose happiness. The last few days i have repeated in my mind, "choose happiness"...and it helps. After i think about choosing happiness i think of my blessings and all the things i am grateful for. My gratitude list will never end!

#2

It's ok to dress up and look beautiful but ultimately our hearts needs to be beautiful! Stephanie is in a very real situation where she does not look like the same beautiful vibrant person she was before her plane accident. She went through a very hard process of accepting her physical body. She was the same Stephanie but when she looked in the mirror she looked very different. She learned that she was NOT her body. She was the same beautiful vibrant person on the inside. As much as we work on our outward appearance we need to work even more on making our hearts beautiful by becoming more kind, compassionate, full of love, etc. I hope to worry and work more on my inner beauty than my outward.

I am a mother and reading Stephanie's book has helped me want to be an even better mother than I was before. What impressed me the most was even though her body had undergone so much physical pain she still wanted to have a baby. She knew the effect that pregnancy had on her, the nausea especially. But she still wanted it and chose to do it. She was willing to sacrifice her own comfort to bring another little child to their family. Wow! Go Stephanie, we need more women in this world like her. This book really changed my heart and added a little bit more beauty to it :)

Here is a picture of this incredible family who made it through some of the hardest of life experiences!

You can tell they conquered triumphantly, and especially with the help of Jesus Christ.