Beautiful Calm: {Overcoming Overwhelmed}

By Kristi Laskie

Beautiful Calm is a journey of healing from those freight-train-meets-brick-wall instances that forever change us in a split second. The moments when our lives spin out of control, survival instinct kicks in, and we can barely summon the strength to breathe in and out.

With the same unconventional and humorous writing style found in Beautiful You, Beautiful Calm takes you on a walk-through of Philippians and uses some unlikely friends from the Bible as case studies on overcoming feeling overwhelmed. You will understand on a deeper level what it means to pursue peace, have plentiful patience and gain the perfect perspective as you watch God take your life from “down in flames” to “beauty for ashes.”

Beautiful Calm is a breath of fresh air to those who are drowning in deep despair, for those who feel completely defeated and for those who want to be prepared for possible train-meets-wall moments ahead. When life hits hard - it’s all about survival. Here is your compass and trail mix - the fun kind loaded with candy, not the yucky kind filled with raisins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664280755

Kristi Laskie

Kristi Laskie is a Christian counselor, author and public speaker. She is the founder of Back.2.Beautiful – which was born out of her own trauma recovery from the mental and emotional abuse of her twenty-three year “Christian” marriage, subsequent divorce and current single motherhood. For over twenty years, Kristi’s passion has been to help women reclaim their worth and live the life of victory that God desires for them. Whether it’s through her on-line courses, her “Beautiful” books, or speaking at women’s events – Kristi is on a mission to help women walk out of darkness and regain their confidence using faith-based recovery tools. Women must know how to win at the life God has given them and find their way…Back.2.Beautiful.

Book preview

BEAUTIFUL

Calm

Overcoming

Overwhelmed

KRISTI LASKIE

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Copyright © 2022 Kristi Laskie.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,

recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the author except in the case of

brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author

and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of

the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of

people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

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of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are

models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless marked otherwise, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy

Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible,

New Living Translation, Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale

House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers,

Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8076-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8077-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-8075-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022918966

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/28/2022

Contents

Down In Flames

Train Meets Wall

Passionate Praise

Practical Prudence

Plentiful Prayer

Pursuing Peace

Persistent Practice

Peaceful Perspective

Beauty for Ashes

Dedication

This book is for YOU!

God says that throughout your

lifetime – until your old age –

He will be your God.

He made you, He cares for you,

He carries you and sustains you.

Even now… when it feels impossible

to take the next breath.

And… to the men in my life –

My dad, Jacob, Levi and my Huckleberry

You keep my feet firmly

planted during storms

Down In Flames

Think about the last time you were overwhelmed. Get it very fresh in your mind. Really remember…what was happening? What did you feel in your body? What was going through your mind? What was your first reaction? You might have felt like this:

"buried or drowned,

completely defeated, or

overpowered"

Overwhelmed is one of those words like wow or bam or squash. The word sounds as bad as it is.

There are at least three people in the Bible who have felt all the feelings of being overwhelmed: Joshua, King Jehoshaphat (J-phat) and Paul & Silas (Since they are like a dynamic duo, I’m counting them as one).

Joshua truly began his calling when he was roughly between sixty-eight and seventy years old. This came about because his friend and mentor, for lack of a better word, had just died. He had been under Moses’ ministry for about forty years and now God was putting him in charge of the children of Israel. Truly a huge task!

J-phat was the fourth King of Judah, the son of King Asa. He was thirty-five