Destined to Live, Despite Me: Biblical Truths for Suicide Survivors

By: Yolanda Shanks
Publisher: Anchor Distributors 
Publication Date: June 2010
ISBN: 978-0-578-05468-1
Reviewed by: Amy Lignor 
Review Date: June 2011 

This author has certainly put together a beautiful collection of words and feelings that focus on the world of desolation and depression that a great many people feel in this world today. She also addresses the “turning points“ in life and how, with hope, perhaps humans will think twice about striving to continue on through their darkest days.

A figure that will amaze most readers is the fact that approximately ninety-one people TODAY, in the U.S., will commit suicide. As all readers will already understand, the backdrop of our world is dark. Turning on the news every day, alone, makes people feel as if there is nowhere to turn. The news reports of this generation are simply stories of death, war, crime…the ultimate ‘bad’ that humans can do to themselves and others.

With Yolanda Shanks, she offers warmth and kindness. Two adjectives that are not heard very often in this day and age. She uses her background as a Bible study teacher to offer choices to people who believe there is nowhere else to turn. In fact, she helps suicide survivors come back to “life.”

Each and every chapter focuses on one very specific suicide thought. Such as, in chapter one, Yolanda gives stories, prayers, and “paths” to many who have the thought: I wish I was dead and that I had never been born. Yes, this is a thought heard quite a bit in the human world - whether or not suicide became the next step. Here Yolanda delves into the fact that God can and will have mercy, by using her own stories of life, as well as turning to Scripture in order to teach others the “truth.”

When readers wonder who truly cares about them out in the world, Yolanda answers that question with the words of the Lord. She takes the person in pain down a path of forgiveness, and shows them that no matter what goes wrong, there is most certainly a certain someone - The One, who will always stand by their side. All they have to do is shut out the bad and listen to the One person who still believes in everything He created.

This book provides a little bit of everything where restoring faith is concerned. Definitions of the body, soul, and spirit to the wisdom of a woman who wants to see, hear, feel, and restore the hearts of humans who now feel dead inside and can no longer see the good things in life, is the absolute point of every page. In fact, in the end, Yolanda Shanks does a perfect job of letting people know that there IS a way to achieve a new outlook on life. There IS a way to discard all of the horrible emotions that we all carry with us on a daily basis, and there IS a way to stop worrying and fretting and start living!

Quill Says: A truly remarkable and therapeutic book that will enhance lives and calm the suffering.

For more information on Destined to Live, Despite Me: Biblical Truths for Suicide Survivors, please visit the author's website at: www.YolandaShanks.com