Mary Marantz and Amber discuss embracing the broken places of stories, how they can be made beautiful, and her personal journey written in the bestselling memoir, Dirt.

Beautiful & Broken Questions Mary and Amber Discuss:

1. (5:04) Take us back to your childhood and share a little about where you grew up and what family life was like.
2. (13:09) At what point did Jesus become intertwined in your story?
3. (17:13) You get to a point in Dirt where you’re clearly wrestling through completely discarding your roots and embracing their beauty.  You write, “I think about the boots and the bones, and how I didn’t want to be so lowly as to stoop down and help another human being shake off their layers of mud.  To wind up with their dirt on my hands.  I think that’s because for a long time I believed freedom looked like getting to a place where none of the people were muddy.”  Flesh that out for us a bit.
4. (24:00) As a young girl, your mom left to take a traveling job and over time she returned less and less.  What are some of the impacts her absence had on you and how have you worked through those as an adult?
5. (37:18) I found myself laughing and choking back tears as I read about Goldie and her influence in your life. What legacy would you say your grandmother left in your life?
6. (45:15) You eventually move away from WV and attend Yale Law.  Did you have to wrestle with your identity while attending Yale and then when visiting home?
7. (51:55) Dirt is very much a story of healing and as the subtitle states, “growing strong roots in what makes the broken beautiful.” As we close, what are a few areas of personal brokenness that you have experienced God’s faithfulness to make beautiful?

Quotes From Beautiful & Broken:

“The repeating theme we’re going to hear as we dig into this conversation is that we all have some version of a trailer, we all have something in our story that we have convinced ourselves, disqualifies us before we even begin.” “I feel like I spent a lot of my life just trying to get back to this place where I didn’t have to be better. I didn’t have to do more. I didn’t have to achieve to be worthy of spending time with God.” “There are a lot of studies that say, regardless of the circumstances a child is in at home, if there’s just one adult…who will take an active interest in that child’s life, they can change their entire trajectory.” “If the number one law school could not convince me, you have achieved enough now to be worthy, then what was going to be enough?” “I want a life that feels better on the inside than it looks on the outside.”

Resources Mentioned:

• Book: Dirt by Mary Marantz
• thebookdirt.com
• Book: Slow Growth Equals Strong Roots by Mary Marantz
• Book: Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
• Book: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero

Related Episodes:

• 51: Vaneetha Risner | When Suffering is Your Story
• 156: Bonnie Gray | Invisible Wounds & Soul Care
• 101: Paula LeJeune | When God’s Love and Adversity Collide

Episode Sponsor:

Classic Marriage Could your marriage use a tune up? In Classic Marriage, you’ll find:

• Biblical inspiration, honesty, and self-deprecating humor from the front seat of adventure with Michelle and Phil Rayburn.
• Tips to get under the hood and keep your marriage on the road to a long future.
• Tune-up questions in every chapter to work on your communication.
• Tools for how to tinker with overheated emotions and repair broken hearts.
• Witty comments from Phil – with a chance of dad jokes.

Learn more at Classic marriage book.com