Author Bo Stern has been quietly trying to resurrect her once-jubilant excitement for the holidays. It hasn’t been easy. For the past two years, Bo has been struggling with regaining her joy throughout the Christmas season ever since her husband, Steve, started his terminal battle with ALS. As she has suffered, Bo has been observing that she is not alone in her private battle to overcome life’s tragedies, which grow even more glaring during the holidays when it seems as though everyone else is celebrating.

"WHEN HOLIDAYS HURT has been a long time in the making…and Bo Stern’s wise words will be like a healing balm on the rawest of grief’s wounds."

Her book, WHEN HOLIDAYS HURT, is divided into three sections: “The Christmas Season,” “A New Year” and “Summer and Fall.” Each of her 35 lovely devotionals detail a personally telling story that will hone in on a specific area of struggle so common to the holidays. Bo shares her family’s heartache over Steve’s diagnosis with ALS, along with her private fears and concerns as a wife to him and a mom to their children. In this powerful and beautifully designed gift book, Bo encourages others who may be feeling just like her: sad, undone, lonely, disappointed, discouraged, depressed, or even utterly defeated during the so-called happiest time of the year.

Some of the specific topics that Bo focuses on in “The Christmas Season” section include: Jesus came to bring joy, to calm confusion, to rescue, to be our peace, to be close to us, to satisfy us. Every devotional begins with a Bible verse, then goes right into one of Bo’s heart-pulling stories and her discussions that will have readers asking themselves good questions and looking for biblical solutions. Closing out each devotional is the “Finding Hidden Hope” page that Bo uses to redirect readers to the hope that does lie hidden amidst every heartache. She instructs readers to take an action step or two, and then close with a prayer that reaches right into the heart of the issue and to God’s listening ears.

Bo also turns readers to the post-holiday seasons of facing the new year with solid resolve and strength by discussing such topics as dreaming hard on the longest nights, daring to imagine a brand new year, dreaming on the battlefield, dreaming in the Hallmark aisle, springing forward, Easter healing, and earnestly remembering.

Readers will find comfort, consolation and a fellow sufferer who truly is journeying along the same path as countless others who endure rather than revel in the holidays. Unlike many other lightweight devotionals that skim the surface of grievous pain such as Bo and her family are facing, this gift book reaches both deep and wide --- deep into the depths of human despair and deeper still into God’s depthless pool of love and faithfulness. WHEN HOLIDAYS HURT has been a long time in the making…and Bo Stern’s wise words will be like a healing balm on the rawest of grief’s wounds.