Seventy-four years after it was gifted to her, I have my great-grandmother's Bible in my dining room. The leather binding is cracked, but the red letters still stand out bold on the pages. I'm named for the woman who owned this Bible. She raised my precious grandma, who then raised my mom, who in turn brought me (and my siblings) up in the faith ...
I never wanted to be a part of this club. I never imagined when I was a bride sailing down the aisle at age twenty-five that twelve years later I would be living “‘til death do us part.” This wasn’t part of the plan or part of a future I had ever imagined. I am a widow. That word defines me in some sense as one who has lost a husband. It ...
My mascara assures me it won’t budge, its waterproof formula guaranteed to hold strong and not break down, even when I can’t make those same promises about myself. I tell her my story. She’s the first psychiatrist to really ask for it. Usually, they just ask what meds I’m on, which ones I’ve tried, which ones have left me sobbing into my pillow ...
Our friendship didn’t begin under normal circumstances. It was a Sunday, and one of my prayer team members came to me after church and said a woman she prayed with was in danger of taking her own life. As the leader, I was responsible to follow up and ensure her safety. Thankfully, we found her still in the church, and one of our female pastors ...
My second child is a little girl, and I joke that she has been strong-willed and stubborn from her earliest days in my womb. I was incredibly sick during that pregnancy, throwing up sometimes six times a day. I was hospitalized twice for fluids during my first trimester. It was as awful as it sounds, and some days my only prayer was, Please let me ...
I would have thrown my head back in nervous laughter if you had told me a year ago what I’d be doing today. It all started last spring when God led me to have a complete hysterectomy. I knew He was using it to heal me from almost thirty years of suffering. He kept whispering to my heart that this surgery was my path to freedom. He was calling me ...
I became a Christian sitting on the bottom stairs of our apartment building with the boy I fell in love with praying for me. I felt such a huge burden off my shoulders, a burden I didn’t even realize was there. I felt so free. I felt on fire and so loved. Just two weeks after I graduated high school, I was not only getting married to Jonathan, ...
My friend and mentor, Moira, let me borrow the book Hinds’ Feet on High Places last year. “This book is going to make you trust Jesus more,” she said. I was skeptical. I held her well-worn copy of the allegory in my hands, a watercolor illustration of a deer on the purple cover. How could a story about a fearful, crippled animal move me toward ...
Today we're celebrating with (in)courage co-founder and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Holley Gerth as she releases a new devotional, Hope Your Heart Needs: 52 Encouraging Reminders of How God Cares for You. It's a little book that's big on encouragement. Enjoy the excerpt below — it will make you laugh, maybe cry, and want to find some ...
Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground — everything that has life.” And that is what happened. Genesis 1:29-30 ...
