Jeannie Keneley - Beyond My Yesterdays: A Womans Journey from Darkness to Light

Beyond My Yesterdays

By Jeannie Keneley

2008 All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from author or publisher (except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages and/or show brief video clips in a review).

ISBN: 978-1-60037-407-4 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-60037-408-1 (Hardcover)

Published by:

Morgan James Publishing, LLC

1225 Franklin Ave. Suite 325

Garden City, NY 11530-1693

800.485.4943

www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

Cover & Interior Designs by:

Megan Johnson

Johnson2Design

www.Johnson2Design.com

Scripture taken from THE MESSAGE. Copyright 1993, 1994,1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quote from Love the Life You Live by Dr. Neil Clark Warren and Dr. Les Parrott. Used by permission.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A bove all, I want to thank the God for loving me -- for taking all the mistakes of my past and making something beautiful out of them. He has truly turned my mourning into dancing, and I owe Him all that I am and will ever be.

When searching for an editor for this book, I only had one person that I wanted for that task. It was the man I had watched for years writing and editing copy for his clients in the advertising business. He had taught me a love for the language and passed on to me a passion for expressing myself through the written word. So to you Daddy, I am grateful not only for your attention to detail on editing this project, but more importantly for your enthusiasm and suggestions in helping me express my heart.

I am so grateful to David Hancock and the wonderful staff at Morgan James Publishing for their guidance and creative expression in designing and making this book a reality. I deeply appreciate your support and belief in bringing my story to print.

To every one of you that played a role in bringing my story to life, I say Thank You!

T his book is lovingly dedicated to my wonderful family that walked every step of this journey with me.

To My Parents

Whose loving support and belief in me never wavered

To My Brother and his Wife

Who kept encouraging me regardless of how many times

I fell and had to get back up again

To My Sister

Who held me together when I was in a million pieces

To My Children

Who gave me reason to go on, whose love never faltered,

and whose lives make me so incredibly proud

To My Grandchildren

Whose innocent faces remind me that with each new generation

is born a new beginning

And finally

to

Chuck from Laguna Niguel

The man whose love, commitment and strength have

forever transformed my life

I love you all very, very much!

INTRODUCTION

T o put ones story onto the pages of a manuscript can be a frightening task, especially if it is not a very pretty story. One cannot change the events of their past, and even if they wanted to, it is those very events and life changing opportunities that cause us to grow and become more than we were yesterday. As we grow in our journey, we can make the decision to hide who we were in our past from all who would potentially judge us for our misguided decisions, staying safe within the cocoon of our comfortable worlds, or we can choose to follow the calling within us, to become transparent and vulnerable by stepping out in faith trusting that the path we have walked might have been for more than ourselves.

I am pierced to the core by the amount of abuse that we humans inflict on each other in this world, and empathize even more with every heart that endures living daily at the hands of an abuser. Words and actions can be swords that pierce the heart more deeply than any physical weapon or a fist ever could. Spouses and children are left reeling daily from being left to fend for themselves by the ones who swore to protect and provide for them. Divorce is rampant in our country where some statistics say that well over 50% of marriages end in divorce. If you are holding this book, it may be because you need to know that someone has walked this path before you, and that there is help and hope if you know where to look. Perhaps you have a loved one who is enduring the pain of watching their dreams come to an end, and you will pass this on to them.

Jesus told us that the most important of all the commandments is that we love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our minds, and that we love others as we love ourselves. As you join me on this journey, it is my prayer that you will know that I dont share the details of my life for any other reason than to encourage the heart that needs to feel loved at this very moment. The players in this story are not important. The redemption of a soul looking and longing for peace is the reason I write, trusting in a God of new beginnings, that He will take this story wherever it needs to be heard, and encourage whomever He knows it will touch. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will settle down over your soul like a warm blanket and wrap you in His understanding, love, and grace. May the words of my story, be an expression of His heart to you.

THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

This is a tale of two women separated by two
thousand years of history, but intrinsically
woven together by one shared experience.

S he was a fairly attractive woman, although the years had not been particularly kind to her. Years of emotional turmoil and exposure to the desert sun had etched their marks in her once supple skin. It was a hard life, but like so many other women, she managed to make the best of it. After all, she really didnt have a choice, did she? She was a woman, but worse yet, a Samaritan woman. She really didnt hold any value to anyone, and she did what she had to do to survive.

It had been a long, tiring day as Jesus and His band of twelve made their way across the region of Samaria. With the enormous success of Jesus ministry in the southern countryside of Judea, the religious leaders of the Jewish faith were becoming more and more uncomfortable with this self-proclaimed Messiah that healed the sick, brought sight to the blind, and claimed to forgive peoples sins. These men, the holy and political elite known as the Pharisees new better than anyone the Law of Moses, handed down from their ancestors. They knew only the mighty God of Israel could forgive sins, and the protocol for such atonement demanded the strict rituals of the temple, not the casual words of a street corner-preacher! This new young rabbis take it to the streets simple message of love and healing was revolutionary and seemed to them to shake its fist in the face of all they knew to be holy. Like it or not, Jesus was becoming more and more popular with the locals and the religious leaders were keeping a close watch on this man and his followers.