soul surfer

Three years ago today, a thirteen year-old girl paddled into the pristine waters off Kauai, Hawaii for an early morning surf session. Minutes later, the unthinkable happened - a shark attack. The past three years have been an incredible story of triumph through tragedy for young Bethany Hamilton. Few stories have touched my heart quite like hers.

Here are some excerpts from Bethany's autobiography, Soul Surfer:

“My plans to be a professional surfer got hit pretty hard on that Halloween morning. It was my own personal tornado. In the days, weeks, and months that followed I had a lot of cleaning up to do. Often, it was scary or trying. And I won’t lie to you: in some ways it still is.

“But for me, knowing that God loves me and that He has a plan for my life that no shark can take away is like having solid rock underneath me. Look, lots of bad stuff happens to people. That’s life. And here’s my advice: don’t put all your hope and faith into something that could suddenly and easily disappear. And honestly, that’s almost anything. The only thing that will never go away, that will never fail you, is your faith in God.

“I don’t pretend to have all the answers to why bad things happen to good people. But I do know that God knows all those answers, and sometimes He lets you know in this life, and sometimes He asks you to wait so that you can have a face-to-face talk about it. What I do know is that I want to use what happened to me as an opportunity to tell people that God is worthy of our trust, and to show them that you can go on and do wonderful things in spite of terrible events that happen. I don’t think it does any good to sit around feeling sorry for yourself.

“What does God have in store for me? I really don’t know, but I do know one thing for sure: the adventure has only started."

Live free! Live in Daddy's affection!