Soul Surfer

A year ago, my daughter, Sierra, decided to read this book, Soul Surfer. We were in Half Price Books and she was looking for a book with substance. I came across this book and began to remember the news stories I saw about a girl, surfing in Hawaii, who got her arm bitten off by a shark. Sierra was pretty skeptical about the book, but decided to give it a try.

She loved it instantly. She found in Bethany Hamilton, a girl she could look up to. Her strong faith and convictions were a strong theme throughout the whole book. She listened to the same music Sierra listened to. She was active in her church. She practiced her faith in her everday life. I heard little about Bethany's harrowing experience with a shark, but heard a lot about Bethany herself.

Often we wonder why "bad" things happen to good people, and I think this is an example of why. Would we know about a teenage surfing girl and her daily walk of faith? I doubt it. Fact is, there are a lot of teenagers who do walk in faith everyday but it is the bad ones we hear about. But, you take a girl like Bethany Hamilton and you add in a freak incident like a shark biting off your arm, and all the sudden this girl is thrust into the limelight. This girl is now able to share her faith more openly.

It would've been so easy for her to have rejected Christ for allowing this tragic event to happen to her, but, instead, she seemingly grew closer to Christ through this storm. She did not allow this to crush her spirit, but, instead, she stood on her rock and proclaimed her devotion to Him.

I had the immense pleasure, this past weekend, of going to see the movie that was made about her story with my daughter.

It was so incredible and so inspiring. One of the things I loved about the movie was the shark attack seemed secondary to the will of a teenager who would not back down. She lost her arm and she, seemingly, did not break. Sure, she had her moments of emotional loss...but for the most part, she decided this was not going to bring her down.

I believe that all teenage girls should watch this movie, read this book, and look to Bethany Hamilton as a role model instead of the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, or any of those women.

Sierra sold her copy of Soul Surfer long ago. She has resolved that she must buy it again. She wants to have it on hand as a reminder of a girl who inspires her to live out her faith through all her trials.