Developing Horizons Magazine (2).pdf April 2014 | Page 18

Social wealth is not as straightforward. It is a synthesis
of all the other facets of our lives developed over time.
Social wealth is how we determine to take the abundance of our spiritual, financial and social wealth to
improve the quality of life of those around us and those
who will come after us.

Hope, the Thing with Feathers:
Misty’s Story
By Irma Flanagan

Through this magazine and its programs, books, and
DVD's, Developing Horizons Ministries strives to provide training to assist you to embrace the abundance of
life that has been offered to each of us. Through future
articles in this series, I will endeavor to begin with simple financial principles and progress to more advanced
concepts to assist you in creating an abundant financial
base which will enrich your enjoyment of all of life.

Perching on a limb nearby, the chickadee sings its
uplifting song, a sound that inspires a pause, a respite,
a sense of peace. Resting in such a moment, Emily
Dickinson wrote, “Hope is the thing with feathers that
perches in the soul.” It is the feeling of warmth and
courage when the “gale is heard,” the “storm” is raging,
the “land” is chill and the “sea” is strange.

" 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."
Jeremiah 29:11

With such thought, Misty Booth continued her story. “Hope,” she said, sitting comfortably in the prayer
room at DHM. “I have hope now. Life just has more
meaning.”

*Concept from A BETTER WAY, Monroe M. Diefendorf, Jr.,The Foundation for the Encouragement &
Preservation of Family Values, LLC

Had it been easy? Clearly, it had not. After time in jail
and rehab, after much counseling and many court ordered classes, after much Bible study and close connection with God, and after the prison visits and mentoring
of Diane Hale, Misty’s life had changed.

Julia Jorns, CPA, manages Accountants
of the First Mountain City, Jasper, GA.
Her experience includes 45 years in
private and public accounting, business
management, and financial
education.

“It’s really cold out there,” she said in spite of her
warm smile. Her brown hair pulled back, she looked
neat and attractive, appropriately “girly” as she would
describe the look her counselors at My Sister’s House (a
Rehab in Atlanta for women) had advised her to pursue.
Her persona hid the past with all its addictions, heartaches, and struggles for a better life.

ed her second husband, the father of her son and second
daughter, when he was charged with physically abusing
her, the allegations contributed to the court’s giving full
custody of her oldest daughter, at age six, to her first
husband. Misty was twenty two and the path toward
total self-destruction had begun.
“Well, I gave up on life and hope,” she said. The ensuing addiction to methamphetamines resulted in her
dropping out of the Licensed Prac ti-cal Nursing program where she had completed two semesters. Her
life was on a downward spiral. By 2010 she had been
arrested, bonded out, arrested again and again, put on
probation. “I had been on drugs for about ten years.
Using straight, hard drugs that would space me out to
the point that I didn’t have to feel was pretty much what
it was all about, too.”
During her stints in the county jail, Misty began reading the Bible. “My first turning point (for the better)
happened the first time I was in jail when I just got to
know God a little bit. But it got even better when I spent
the four and a half months there and