Fortress Of The Heart

In the journey from innocence to awareness, the wounds we experience can drive us inward in a fearful effort to protect ourselves from further damage. But the walls that prevent the risk of pain in relationships also keep love from getting in, rendering us numb, isolated, and alone. Kathleen Ann Marchant offers an honest account of her struggle to trust God and others after a teen peer attacked her, ending a carefree childhood. She unfolds her furious response, silent suffering, and desperate prayers to overcome bitterness and live life at the highest level of divinely appointed happiness. In fifty readings, poems, and prayers, you will find yourself moving with Marchant from the shadows of the past towards an exhilarating release and learn to dismantle your own walls of defense, transforming your focus from self to others. Each brief devotional speaks of challenges to self-worth and of God's healing power flowing to us through the beauty of others and the majesty of His creation. Marchant teaches readers, through her own personal thoughts, how a joyful existence can transpire by healing with forgiveness, praying always, and loving others. Exquisite photography, inspiring Scripture, wisdom, and touching stories provide a vivid travelogue of a soul in motion, from an anxious stronghold in the heart to freedom beyond manmade barriers-in the secure, purpose-filled fortress of a faithful Creator. Kathleen Ann Marchant was born in Midwestern De Pere, Wisconsin, just a short jaunt from Green Bay-the middle child of eight. Her father, a school teacher, and mother, a homemaker, instilled in her strong ethical beliefs, reinforced by Saint Francis Catholic School, where learning about Jesus was adaily exercise. In the 1990s, after a disappointing marriage, she moved, with daughter, Heidi, to the State of Idaho, where wide open spaces allowed her to explore the effects of lifelong depression and a self-critical focus, to rekindle her faith, and to grow into a person of peace and purpose.