Emily Bernath - Broken Lenses: Identifying Your Truth in a World of Lies

Emily Bernath has a unique way of seeing the world, seeing ourselves, seeing the trials we all face, and seeing our relationship with God. Broken Lenses is a powerful, practical guide for bringing clarity and a new, empowering perspective into view. Broken Lenses is more than a must-read, its a must-do for anyone who doubts their worth in the eyes of God.

Angie Fenimore , International Bestselling Author and Speaker, and The Calliope Writing Coach

Identifying YOUR
Truth in a World of Lies

Emily Bernath

NASHVILLE

NEW YORKLONDONMELBOURNEVANCOUVER

Broken Lenses

Identifying Your Truth in a World of Lies

2020 Emily Bernath

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com

ISBN 9781642793062 paperback

ISBN 9781642793079 eBook

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018912159

Cover Design by:

Rachel Lopez

www.r2cdesign.com

Interior Design by:

Christopher Kirk

www.GFSstudio.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from the Good News Bible in Todays English VersionSecond Edition Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Morgan James is a proud partner of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg. Partners in building since 2006.

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I cant say I ever dreamed of being an author as a child, reading was never something that I was well-known for. To be honest, I think that has been one of the best parts about the whole process of writing this book. I knew as soon as I felt God calling me to write a book that I would never be able to successfully do it on my own, and I am thankful for all of the help he placed in my path along the way to make this book a reality.

First of all, this book went from just an idea to reality because I had an amazing support group of friends backing me from the very beginning. Thank you Ali, Becky, Chaliece, Danielle, Jordan and Valerie for believing in me and my message, I will forever cherish all of those nights meeting together at my home dearly.

To Angie Fenimore for all of the coaching and wisdom you provided for me along the way. You helped me to see my potential as a writer and to see the potential that this book has for speaking Gods light to others. You helped me take this book from something I was writing with the intention of reaching just a small group of people and showed me how it could be so much more than that. Thank you for always believing in me and for speaking truth back into my life when I needed it most. And to Michael Sheen, thank you for all your work put into bringing vision into moving into a career as an author, both with branding and website design.

To my K2 the Church family, thank you for your continued excitement throughout the entire time Ive been on this journey of writing this book. It may not seem like a lot in the moment, but even something as simple as just asking how my book writing is going on a Sunday morning provided the motivation to keep going even when the writing got tough. The church is called the body of Christ for a reason, it involves many parts, and all of your prayers as parts of that body have moved mountains to help get me to where I am today.

To all my friends and family back in Ohio, thank you for all of your support from afar. Moving away from you all to pursue life out in Utah was far from an easy decision, but I knew it was where God was calling me to go, and from it things like this book have come to life.

To everyone at Morgan James Publishing, thank you for all your help in making my dreams come true. It has been such a joy to work with all of you and watch this book come to life. I am eternally grateful that you all were willing to invest in me and make this book become something greater than I ever could have imagined on the day when I first sat down to write.

Last but certainly not least, thanks be to God. He is always faithful and will never call us to things without being there with us every step of the way. He saw things in me way before I ever saw them in myself, and this book would have never been possible without his grace, strength, and guidance along the way.

I prayed to receive God into my life at an early ageI know, thats likely what you expect a Christian author to say, and knowing that may even give you the impression that I had my life together sooner than most. In reality, I made that prayer because I was both desperate and tired of suffering. I lived for years with the constant fear that I was alone. One day, I was told by someone that we are never alone because God is always present. I decided to find out if this presence was true, and asked God that if he was there with me, to take away my fear. Without fail, God took away my fear that same night. I knew he was real, but I would remain blind to just how much God cares about me for years.

I had this desire to be intimately known , and I needed answers. I knew what I wanted, but I didnt know how to find another person who shared that desire. Determined that I could find what I was looking for, I went on a search. Once I graduated high school and left home, my search and need to be known grew deeper. I distanced myself from the impersonal God I grew up with, and instead, I began to seek out a life of partying. Because I didnt know what my true identity was at the time, getting drunk made it easier to talk to people. The problem was that unless I was in a drunken state, most of those people lost their interest in me. Out of my own desperation to stay relevant, I continued further down the path of drinking.

My search ended one night when I was raped. In an instant, I went from searching for a way to be known, to feeling like no one would ever desire to get to know me again. On the outside, everything looked normal. I looked normal. On the inside, I felt disgusting and screamed to get out of my own body. I called out Gods name for the first time in years. I couldnt believe he would let something like this happen to me. What did I do to deserve this?

I never knew the importance of an involvement in a community of women until the rape happened and it was seemingly too late to find one. I numbed my pain by drinking more excessively because it was the only way I knew how to distract myself from my own disgust. Until, a girl I had recently met asked me to go to church with her. Living in a state of rock bottom and seeing the fact that someone was willing to invest time in me, I figured I had nothing to lose and so I went. From this friendship, I was reintroduced to the Bible and began to see myself in a new, true lighta light that gave freedom and led me to the relationship I wanted all alonga relationship with God.