Ocean Star: You're Designed to Shine a memoir

     Ocean Star grabbed my attention when I was in a book shop on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, where Kevin and I went for vacation.  I was intrigued by the memoir of a woman who found light in the midst of tremendous suffering, and who has opened her heart and her life to others who are in need of healing and hope, which only the Lord can provide.

     As has so often been the case, the Holy Spirit prompted me to pick up this book to read at exactly the right time.  When we were packing for our trip to Rochester, and I was considering what books to bring, I got the sense it was time to read this one. 
     Author, photographer, motivational speaker, mentor, Christian, wife, mother, sister, and friend, Christina DiMari illustrates through her book Ocean Star and the very popular ministry work that has blossomed around it that God can bring the broken, ugly, mangled pieces of our lives, and transform them into something beautiful, whole, and holy. 
     From a childhood overshadowed with darkness, abuse, violence, hate, and secrecy, Christina emerged strong, but with some heavy baggage from the past.  As she grew up and discovered the Lord’s love for her, she gained the courage to go back and seek out answers to questions she’d been afraid to ask earlier on in her life, for fear that the pain and the truth would overwhelm her or depress her beyond repair. 
     Ocean Star is about holding onto the Lord with everything you are and with all you’ve got, because He can and does bring about healing in our lives.  He alone can keep us from being sucked into an abyss of despair when looking at the past, dealing with the pain it’s caused in the present, and opening ourselves up to be healed and made whole in the future. 
     Christina DiMari shines brightly as a beautiful example of what the Lord has done for others and wants to do for each one of us.  God wants us to turn all of our pain and suffering, every single one of our victories and triumphs as well as our failures and losses over to Him.  He can use each of them in ways we can’t even imagine. 
     I highly recommend that you check out the inspirational gifts available through Christina DiMari’s company Ocean Star Gifts©. You can order a copy of Ocean Star and also view the many cards, gifts, and jewelry that she’s created to encourage others and support her mission to help girls around the world to look at their own lives, where they have been, and where they would like to go. 
     Also available is a leader’s guide and journal workshop she’s developed called You’re Designed to Shine that you can use to mentor and encourage the girls in your life.