"Cradle My Heart" by Kim Ketola ~ Healing From Abortion

Summary:  Abortion continues to be a hot topic in politics, women's rights, and medical practice. But for the eight to ten million American Christian women who have had one, abortion is a spiritual issue as well, raising questions of life and death, heaven and hell, grief and loss.

Writing from her own experience, Kim Ketola sheds light on one of the darkest and most neglected personal issues of our time: the widespread need for healing and spiritual recovery after abortion. "After abortion brought the worst trouble into my life I had ever known," writes Ketola, "I just couldn't see my way free to believe in God's love." With a compassionate heart, Ketola offers ten true stories of healing promise from the Bible to help women answer the most common spiritual torments they face: Is abortion a sin? Does God hate me? Where can I turn in my shame and distress? How could I ever tell anyone the truth? And more.

Inspired by Romans 6:4—"just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life"—this is a definitive resource to help women see themselves and God anew and—finally—to find spiritual healing.

Particulars of the book:
Publisher:  Kregel Publications
Pages:  224
Genre:  Christian/Spirtual
Author:  Kim Ketola
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From the Back Cover :

God's love is not a casualty of abortion

For eight to ten million American Christian women, abortion is not just a political or medical issue--it is a spiritual issue as well. Abortion raises questions of life and death, heaven and hell, grief and loss. You may be asking: Does God hate me? Can I be forgiven? Is it really possible to just start over with God?

Kim Ketola asked these questions as well. In Cradle My Heart, she lays out a compassionate path toward spiritual healing. You will learn how to:
* Face yourself and face God
* Forgive and be forgiven
* Repent and accept God's love
* Grieve and find an end to sorrow

With an understanding and empathetic voice, Kim Ketola exposes the hurt in your heart, reveals the healing in God's heart, and brings the two together to create a whole heart where restoration--and celebration--are possible.

 

 

About Kim Ketola :

 

 

Kim Ketola is a writer and speaker with thirty years' broadcast experience while known as "Kim Jeffries" on CBS' WCCO Radio and Television, and KTIS/Faith Radio Network, and other outlets. Cradle My Heart, Finding God's Love After Abortion (Kregel, 2012) reflects Kim's ministry to help individuals recover from the emotional and spiritual wounds of abortion, and was awarded First Place in the Sonfire Media contest at the 2010 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference.
Kim has traveled internationally with Ruth Graham and Friends conferences, and she is a frequent media guest addressing pro-life issues on Salem, Moody, Sirius, and other network outlets. Tim Pawlenty appointed Kim as chairperson of the MN Governor's Council on Faith and Community Service Initiatives (2006-2008), and she serves organizations reaching the homeless, the addict, and those in prison. She and her husband, Bruce, make their home in suburban Atlanta.

Visit www.kimketola.com to learn more.


The Dame's Review :

When I was in college in the 1960's, during the age of Aquarius, free love and student uprisings, I had a room-mate who had had an abortion.  It was the first time I was exposed to anyone who had been through the experience.  She almost immediately related the incident and circumstances to me, and said it was the central and most painful thing of her life.  It colored everything she did from that moment on.  She was deeply grieved by it.  And she was profoundly regretful.  I was astounded by the extent to which it had scarred her. Up to that point I had been lead to believe it was an option young women chose to be free of an unwanted "situation" or "problem."

When I was a young mother some 8 years later, I met another young mother who was in turmoil and withdrawn in many ways. She was a friend of mine because of our children's ages and because we lived in the same neighborhood, and because we seemed drawn to each other.  But for several years she debated and tortured me over my faith with a harsh anger that was personal to her and strange to me.  Years later, and after I had moved away, she became a Christian and confessed to me her anger at me at my faith had been because of her guilt over an abortion she had had as a college student, and which she thought God couldn't forgive her for; and, that she couldn't forgive herself for.  Once she got hold of the fact that there was healing and forgiveness in Jesus Christ, she was relieved of her spiritual burdens and believed her unborn child was safe and secure.

There have been numerous other women I've come into contact with during my 60 some years who have suffered this similar grief and guilt.  Some have been able to resolve it through faith, and some have not because they have no faith.  But all have been scarred.

Though I personally have never had an abortion, I can feel the depth of my friends' and loved one's pain.  It is easy to see in their lives.  It is easy to see how it's shaped their lives for good and for worse depending upon how they have resolved it or not.

Kim Ketola's book is one of the few books I've read that simply outlines a way to look at this personal tragedy.  She honestly exposes herself and her own pain.  She kindly shares the gift of her personal grief and struggles, and her resolution through faith in Christ.

I found the particular passages of scripture not only apparent as healing pathways for those who have experienced an abortion, but for those of us who have walked the resulting path with them, or who have struggled with other losses in our lives.  They are up-lifting and speak of Christ's eternal forgiveness and healing powers through faith.

While everything we do and every choice we make results in a mark on our lives for good or for bad, we can rest in the fact that we have a heavenly Father who loves us and is willing to take us as we are.  Kim Ketola's "Cradle My Heart" gives testimony to that, and shows a pathway to healing.

This is a book I would recommend for everyone who is considering an abortion, who  has had one, who knows of those who have, and for those who wonder about the reasons and results of them for some women.  It's a powerful book.

I must add that this is not a politically centered book.  That is not its purpose in text.

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5 stars                Deborah/TheBookishDame