You may know Julie Roberts for her Gold-selling album, her soulful voice, or the unique way she connects with her fans. What you may not know is what she’s experienced behind the scenes, both with her career and personal life.
Julie’s life has been filled with ups and downs, as anyone’s is, but she’s dealt with some unique experiences and hardships. After keeping it all in for so long, a friend encouraged her to share her story. They would run the trails together and discuss their lives. Julie explained, “She knew I was speaking too, to others living with MS and she knew about about my diagnosis and my struggle since sharing that to convince my industry that I can still do this.”
Julie agreed that sharing her story would help not only people living with MS, but anyone faced with adversity in their life. Julie’s friend introduced her to Ken Abraham, who became Julie’s cowriter on her book, Beauty in the Breakdown: Choosing to Overcome. Ken and his wife Lisa were instrumental in helping Julie share her story. They would pray at the beginning and end of each writing session that God would give Julie the courage to open up and that her words would help others.
We sat down with Julie to discuss her book and advice that she has for others.
Country Evolution: What was your favorite part of writing this book?
Julie: I got to dig deep and be totally honest with someone that genuinely cared about my life, and that’s Ken. And just being able to speak on things I’ve held in my whole life. Being able to share that, it was like therapy that I never had.
CE: You talked a lot about overcoming obstacles that have come your way. What advice would you give to someone that is struggling with something in their life?
Julie: “Everyone I know is struggling with something. For me, what I’ve found, at forty years old, I know If I turn to God for wisdom to show me how to deal with my struggles, that’s honestly the only thing that saves me. I learned the hard way that when you turn to the world to answer your questions on big decisions of struggles, like your health or career, it’s not the right way to go.” The advice that I can give to someone that might be struggling with anything in life, is that if you have faith, turn to it, that’s what gets me the right answer now.”
CE: If you were to write the next chapter of your life, what would that look like?
Julie: I’m searching right now for what my purpose is on this earth. I always thought growing up, that my purpose was to sing country music and I realized five years after I was diagnosed with MS that it was also to help others living with MS. And now, I want to do both! I have a strong desire to release this record and then I have a strong desire to keep speaking in my next chapter so that people living with MS don’t give up on their dreams. I meet people a lot that they just want to give up on their dreams, when I’m at a speaking event, and I don’t want them to. I want to keep inspiring others.
You can purchase an autographed copy of Beauty in the Breakdown: Choosing to Overcome on Julie’s website.