"Hold your head up high and keep going forward. Where you are going far outweighs the importance of where you are coming from."

Someone said that life is not a bed of roses. For some, it is a bed of thorns. Dr. Orville Bedford has written this book, Don't Judge Me By My Scars, or Hold Me Hostage To My Past, for those who are still in the bed of thorns, still in recovery from the thorns or have been healed but have the scars to show. Beckford takes us on a journey through the Scriptures, demonstrating to us that even our greatest heroes in the Bible had scars. He reminds us to "[s]how me a man without scars, and I will show you someone who has never faced the real world."

God saw your scars, knew where you are coming from, where you are, and what you will experience as you move forward, yet he has chosen to extend his grace to you and to make something beautiful out of you.

Whereas the author assures us that the blood of Jesus ensures against scars derailing our destinies, the greatest challenge we face is the people closest to us-including the church. The very hospital to which we run for healing often becomes the greatest inflictor of pain, pouring salt on many open wounds.

Don't Judge Me By My Scars or Hold Me Hostage To My Past provides the antidote to the wounds inflicted on those who are deeply scarred. Through self-analysis, journeying through the Scriptures, and powerful exhortations, Beckford leads the reader into the revelation that the "journey is not the destination" and those scars in the "ugly past are history." In doing so, he makes the world lovable again.

Judith A. Duncker, Ph.D.