Is the story good enough to tell?

It can be incredibly frustrating to reach a point in your life when you look back on your life and wonder about the point of it all. In my 31 years of life, I've experienced emotional, physical and sexual abuse. I've seen my parents torn apart by domestic violence, alcoholism and adultery. I've been ripped away from my family and spent six years in foster care. I have been married for a decade and have given birth to four children. I've experienced the devastating loss of a baby in my womb. I've questioned the leadership of my husband and we've experienced financial struggles beyond what we ever imagined. We've contemplated divorce and tried to imagine what that would do for our children, in the end, reaffirming our committment to each other. Coming out of these struggles hasn't always been easy, but I know there has to be a point to it. What is the purpose?


How can all of this be used for God's glory? What I have learned from it and how can I possibly put it all into words worth reading? A story like mine must have some value, or else, what was the point. I truly believe that God knows all the events of our life and he knows how we will respond. Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) says "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Doesn't this mean that all of my struggles and valleys in life were planned and never intended to harm me? I choose to believe that this is the case, so how can these experiences be used to prosper me and to glorify God.