Jamaica Gleaner

Latoya Bell pushes love and marriage in new books

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children, and also to show them how to become marriage material.

Bell said that both books were inspired by personal experience­s and statements made by close friends and family.

“There was a point in my life when I wanted to give up on love because of getting hurt by abuse or rejection. Some of my friends and family went through similar experience­s, so I understood exactly how they felt,” she shared.

During her season of hurt, Bell said that she sought Jesus who proved to be her comfort. It was then she said that the Lord spoke to her personally. One evening after praying for God to remove her desire to love, she said the Lord told her clearly that she had a choice to make.

“Would I shut Him out or continue to give love because He is love,” she shared, pointing out that her daily conversati­ons with others about love would often leave her feeling burdened because they viewed love as being a waste of time, and that weighed heavily on her heart.

“Many persons don’t realise that it is not love that hurts, and this was my driving force to writing

said Bell. Pointing to the breakdown in families powered by divorces, Bell said that the divorce rate worldwide is increasing, and

was written to remind people that marriage is the foundation on which the Lord designed the family to be built.

“A lot of people – including myself – grew up in a broken home, but I assure you, this was not the perfect will of God for any of us. So many children are hurting because they do not have a stable family, so we need to work towards rebuilding families,” said Bell, pointing to her book to explore encouragem­ent to keep the fire in the marriage burning.

Bell said that if there is one thing she wants readers to take away after reading her books is for them to recognise the importance of marriage and to start valuing the institutio­n once more.

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