The Most Beautiful Disaster by Hope Carpenter

I am impressed with this book. Carpenter writes with heartfelt honesty about her disastrous affairs and the long road to recovery and restoration. Her story is a testament to how God can take something devastating and make something beautiful out of it. Her book is not some objective teaching on the subject. She writes from her own painful experience, sharing the lessons she learned.    

This book is not an easy fix nor a substitute for necessary counseling by any means. Carpenter shares her long journey after coming clean about her marriage failure. She spent eight months away from her family in a residential counseling facility where she received counseling and insight into her actions. She spent years working with counselors and mentors to come to a place of healing and flourishing. She came to understand how experiences in childhood, like unresolved emotional issues and being raped at age fifteen, drove her recent immoral actions. She is quick to remind us that she still bore responsibility for her immorality. Knowledge of driving factors were informative and led to healing but did not excuse her behavior.

Carpenter gives good insights into the hard work of understanding behavior and steps to restoration. She helps us identify emotional issues from childhood that emerge in adulthood. She helps us understand what to watch for in straying away and getting off track. She shares her experiences of the hard work of seeking forgiveness and the long journey of rebuilding trust. It is not an easy path, she says. We must be willing to give up whatever it takes to find wholeness. It's a good book for sufferers and for those wanting to help, such as pastors and counselors.

This is a very good book for anyone who feels they have done something so wrong God has given up on them. Carpenter writes from the other side of healing and is a testimony that God can turn a mess into something better, something beautiful. Her husband agrees in a touching Afterword.

Food for thought: “God loves you, sin, brokenness, mess-ups, and all.” (101)

You can watch the book trailer here.

My rating: 5/5 stars.

Hope Carpenter is the cofounder of Redemption Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Through Hope Carpenter Ministries, she travels to minister to women all over the world. She and her husband live in San Jose, California, and Greenville, South Carolina. You can find out more at www.hopecarpenter.com.

FaithWords, 240 pages.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an honest and independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)