“The root centered around unaddressed pain and resentment towards her father”
My name Canaa Lee. I am a retired high school teacher, a Christian counselor, and a radio personality.
Out of the Abundance of the Heart is my intimate account as a child who did not grow up in church nor a Christian home. I grew up in a two-parent home. To an outsider, we looked like a good family but the broken relationship I had with my dad caused my life to spin out of control. Every little girl wants to be Daddy’s little princess. I was often criticized and scrutinized by my family-especially my dad- which caused me to become hyper-sensitive. As I became a teenager, I learned to keep my feelings to myself because my family did not seem to be interested in how I felt. When I graduated high school and went off to college, those emotions and feelings that were bottled up eventually turned into anger, bitterness and resentment. I found that personal relationships were more difficult than I expected. What I wanted more than anything in the world was a meaningful, committed relationship. However, I kept making one poor dating choice after another. In my mind, I thought that getting married would make my life complete. These events were written on the canvas of my heart during my teenage and early adult years.
During my mid to late 20s, I discovered the gift of writing poetry to express my deep-seated emotions and feelings that were locked away in the secret places of my heart. Writing was therapeutic for me and allowed me to express my feelings and emotions in a productive way. My dad died when I was in my early 30s. In order for me to cope with my emotions and feelings about my dad, I began to write again. The death of my dad rocked my world and put me on a path of seeking for God. I always believed there was a God, but I did not know much beyond that. Death brought my mortality to the forefront of my mind. Now, death was no longer just a concept in my life but a reality that I had been confronted with. Within two years of my dad’s death, I met Jesus Christ and He completely changed my life. I had a new and fresh perspective on life and was now dating with the purpose of getting married.
During one of my first dates as a born-again Christian, I soon found out we did not have the same thoughts about relationships. He became infuriated when I was unwilling to compromise my faith. I thought to myself, what if I take the time to explain to him how I used to be, then maybe he would have a better understanding as to who I am today. I decided to look for the poetry I wrote several years ago along with some letters that I wrote within the last couple of years. During my search through my collection of poetry and letters, I realized I had enough writings to publish a book. If I were going to take the time to share my heart with this man, I should take the time to share my thoughts and feelings with others as a testimony of how Jesus Christ changed me and mended my broken and confused heart.
Out of the Abundance of the Heart is filled with poetry that has been locked away in the secret place of my heart. The letters that I share in my book are thoughts and concepts that the Lord Jesus birthed in my heart to share with specific people in my life. These family members, friends, and acquaintances are ones who I encountered during the first weeks and first year of my supernatural conversion. These letters flowed out of my newly converted heart and are thoughts are not my thoughts because I did not read the Bible for myself yet. I just received Jesus Christ and He started speaking to me, and I began to write what the Lord put on my heart. Out of the Abundance of the Heart is a candid and authentic account of my thought life before I encountered Christ and my thought life immediately following my encounter with Him. Out of the Abundance of the Heart illustrates the radical transformation and confirms that Jesus Christ is real.
I would really appreciate it if you would support Divine Inspirations by Canaa by purchasing a copy from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0898K66ZG.
If you enjoy “Out of the Abundance of the Heart” and find some benefit in reading this, I’d like to hear from you and hope that you could take some time to post a review on Amazon by clicking on this link: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?asin=B0885CSMBB. Your feedback would really mean a lot to me. God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Canaa Lee, retired high school teacher, Christian counselor, and radio personality.