Category: Guest-Writers

Written By: Michelle Nehrig

Michelle Nehrig

Michelle is a daughter of the King of Kings. She loves Jesus, her children, coffee, and books.

Michelle is grateful for the grace that is heaped upon her daily by her heavenly Daddy. She is still learning how to accept it for the gift that it is. You can find her thoughts, life-lessons, and sometimes comical adventures with her animals at: beauty in between. Her life verse is Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight.” This is something she is still learning.

Written By: Christina Rich

Remember as a kid when you plucked dandelions from the grass and blew on the fluff, and then watched the individual white flakes catch the wind and fly away? Did you consider where the seeds might land and produce fruit? I know for me, as a kid, I didn’t even realize those fun weeds God created for the children’s enjoyment, produced more of themselves in mass quantity.

Having been in ministry one way or another for over twenty years, I’ve planted seeds and never seen them grow. I’ve tended plants produced from seeds another planted, and I’ve witnessed the harvesting of other seeds.

Take heart, know that all your planting and tending seeds is not done in vain. Whether you are in front of an audience of one or an auditorium of thousands, now that God places people in your path for an eternal purpose, some for a minute moment, some for a season, and others for a lifetime. That purpose may be to offer a silent prayer, give a kind word, offer them a warm meal, hold their hand, or give them a message from the Lord.

We should be like a child taking delight in blowing on the dandelion when it comes to planting seeds. I know I long to be more like a child and enjoy the labor God places in front of me. His word says in Deuteronomy 28:12 that He shall open to you His good treasury, the heavens to give rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands (amp). When the Holy Spirit blows across the seeds I scatter, the ones of me being me in Christ, I don’t need to know where they land, what takes to good ground, and when or how it produces fruit. All I need to do is be me in Christ, to rest in the peace of God and trust Him that His word never turns back void, and He will bless the work of my hands.

Author of multiple inspirational romance books published with a New York publisher, Christina offers insight on how she fulfilled the desire God placed on her heart to become a published author. As a minister, she brings her experience of breaking free from the offense of old wounds. She also gives suggestions on how to walk in a Godly spiritual response instead of a fleshly worldly response during tough, sometimes seemingly, crushing circumstances.

Written By: Vicki Johnson

The words escaped my lips before I knew it. His face indicated that my verbal aim was dead on, devastating the target. My son and I were going round and round about a situation his thoughtless attitude had caused and I was trying desperately to make my point clear. Choosing sarcasm to express myself resulted in collateral damage to our relationship requiring a diligent effort on my part to repair the harm my careless words had caused.

Like a hand that has the power to caress or slap the face, our words affect others to heal or to hurt. We say things without thinking, not considering the long-term implications. Words, like seeds, live in the hearts and minds of those who hear them.  Eventually they can germinate and produce more fruit of the same kind.

Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

A seed is the promise of life. No horticulturist intentionally plants weeds in her garden. Who wants an abundance of unwanted, undesirable plants that only live to choke out the potential of beneficial produce? Great care is taken to plant a valuable seed in ground that will receive, establish, nourish, and grow it to full maturity and productivity.

Words can and should generate hope for those who have given up, love when hate is clouding the issues, comfort in times of hurt, kindness when tempted to lash out in anger. The kernel of this potential rests in the goodness of God.

Life began by the Word of God. God has given us the gift of speech; utilizing The Word in everyday life.

Make the most of your opportunities to plant good seeds into your family, the people you work with, strangers who cross your path as you go about your day.

Just wait and see what a beautiful harvest results!

Vicki lives in southeastern Pennsylvania with her pastor hubby, David, and daughter, Esther. Her four sons, two daughters-in-law, and four grandchildren live in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota. She has just settled into her third home in the last four years and is looking forward to putting down roots, geographically and horticulturally. She writes at: http://gracefilledgirl.com/index.html , offering a cup of cool water for the marathon of life. She works as an on air announcer at 1075AliveFM/WBYN where her radio sign-off is 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He will bring it to pass.”

Written By Katie Walker

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

I repeated this verse in my head many times before I could accept it as truth. One of my counselors worked with me in pointing me towards this verse anytime I tried to explain to him that I wasn’t good enough for God; that I was always a sinner and always would be.

Though I had grown up in the church, I grew up with my own belief system about God. While I watched my older sibling rebel against my parents, I took pride in knowing I was not like him. While he continuously broke the rules, I strived to live by the rules believing that was all I needed to get by and be accepted.

If I just go to church every week… if I just obey mum and dad all the time… if I just do well at school and never get a detention… if I just read my bible every day… I will be good enough.

These ideas weren’t bad, but my motivation was. I became so focused on believing I had to do to earn any love or acceptance from both people and God.

This belief system didn’t lead me very far. In fact, I became very stuck in a self-destructive cycle when it became clear I couldn’t stick to those rules.

Each time I tried to be good enough and tried to be perfect, I failed. And, soon enough I was living a life completely guided by guilt and shame which brought me even further away from God.

My thought patterns and beliefs turned from If I just try… to I will never be good enough.

Even though I grew up with the knowledge of God, and the Bible and salvation, I ran far from God believing I would never be fit for His family. I was ashamed, and believed I was a mistake.

The years after I graduated high school, and tried to attend University, are a blur for me. I entered destructive relationships and got caught up in self-destructive cycles.  I didn’t think I was worth waiting for. I continued to believe I was much too broken for God.

Eventually I hit rock bottom and was hospitalized. At this point I knew the only way was to turn back to God. This was the turning point for me. I knew my belief system wasn’t getting me anywhere. Clearly I was missing something. I returned home to my family, and more importantly turned my ways back to God. I began a long, hard, painful journey of recovery.

Over the next 5 years I have continued to learn more and more about God’s unconditional love, amazing grace and sovereignty.

Not only that, I have accepted His unconditional love, amazing grace and sovereignty. I am a work-in-progress but am no longer bound my legalistic beliefs, or guilt. I have learned more about God, salvation and forgiveness in the last 5 years than I have in my whole life growing up in the church.

It doesn’t matter where we come from or who we are, there is always a time to be born. I was once born to my parents, and I was born again to God.

Katie is a child of God. She loves Jesus, coffee, owls and craft. Katie is also passionate about writing encouraging articles for Christian women to point them to Jesus. You can read her blog at www.ourseasonsofgrace.blogpost.com.au

Written By: Patti A. Pierce

In 1991, I began what is a relationship that is now in its 26th year.  I met the love of my life.   Dennis is an incredible man of God.  In August of 1992, we were married.  He was 30 years old at the time we were married, and I was 23-year-old.  I always knew I wanted to have children, but I was in no hurry at the time.  So, we set out to enjoy our first year of marriage.  At the end of that year, we started thinking about possibly starting a family.  But once again, we were in no real hurry.  Our second year of marriage flew by and we still were blessed with a child.  By this time, I was ready to have a baby.  All around us, various family members and friends were enjoying the blessings of being pregnant and having babies.

After a couple of trips to the OB/GYN doctor I had been seeing I was getting really concerned.  One day I went into the office convinced I was pregnant.  The staff members simply had me give a sample and then proceeded to come out and tell me it was negative and where to go to check out.  I was devastated when I left the office.  By this point various family members had begun asking questions about when we were going to have children.  I watched my husband’s sister and his sister-in-law being blessed with additions to their family.

Finally, we decided to switch doctors.  From the moment, I walked into the new office, I had an entirely different experience.  Because of how long we had been trying to conceive, the doctor recommended I start Clomid to help me conceive.  He also realized I had chronic hypertension, meaning high blood pressure, and sent me to a different doctor to address that.  After one cycle of Clomid, my husband and I decided to stop that intervention.  I hated the person I became while taking the medicine.  My husband and I discussed our other options, including the idea of adoption, but neither of us felt that was the right option for us.  We both agreed that either God would bless us with a child or He would close that door for us.  We became reconciled to leaving the matter in God’s hands.

Over the next 10-12 months, I lost a substantial amount of weight and got my blood pressure under control.  So, in September of 1995, I could stop the blood pressure pills.  Life went on and on October 31, 1991 we received surprising news.  That morning, I felt like we might be pregnant, but I wanted to know for sure.  I called my husband at work and asked him to meet me that evening at a local clinic to have a blood test done.  I guess I should have told him not to mention it to anyone, but I really did not think about it.  So that evening we went and had the blood drawn.  Very quickly, we were told the results were positive.  In God’s time, He had blessed us with a child.

We left the office and went home to pick up a mug we had received in a Tupperware shipment that made it clear we were expecting.  I wrapped it up to present to my mother-in-law. Then we went to my grandfather-in-law’s house since there was a family get-together that night.  As we entered the house, various aunts and uncles asked if we pregnant.  Obviously, my husband had told my father-in-law, who in turn told my mother-in-law, who in turn told other family members and so the news spread.  I firmly believed my in-laws should hear it first.  it was such a blessing to share the news.

Over the next months, I enjoyed every minute of my pregnancy.  And on June 28, 1996, I was blessed to become a mother for the first time.  As God’s Word states, “There is a time to be born” and this was the time for our first son to be born.  Over the next several years, we added two more sons in 1998 and 2000 followed by a daughter in 2002.  God has richly blessed me through my children.  Even though the road to have our first son was not smooth and simple, I would not have changed anything.  If you are in a stage of waiting to have children, I pray for God to draw you near to Him.  If you are in the stages of young children, I pray for God to bless you as well.  If you are dealing with teenagers, college students or an empty nest, I pray for God to surround you as well.

~Patti

My name is Patti Pierce and my husband and I have been married for over 23 years.  My husband has been an ordained Primitive Baptist preacher almost that entire time.  We are a Military Homeschooling Family who lives in North Central Pennsylvania. We put our faith in the one true Sovereign God.  We have been on our homeschooling journey for over 10 years now.  We have four children – three sons ages 19, 17 and 15 along with a daughter who is 13.  I blog about our life as a family, as home-schoolers, and our faith which guides our daily lives.

My blogs are:

https://truthandgracehomeschoolacademy.wordpress.com/

and

https://truthandgracewritingandlifecoaching.wordpress.com/ where I blog about the very beginning of journey to blog about my journey about being a writer and about working on my masters degree in Human Services with a concentration in Life Coaching.  I never dreamed this is where I would wind up, but this is where I find myself being led to go.

Written by: Nichole Stern

I spent my life drawing lines in the sand. I might do this bad thing, but I wouldn’t cross my imaginary line and do “that” worse thing. And because I wouldn’t do “that,” I believed I was better than those who did.

Terribly backward thinking, I know.

But a sinner will tell themselves all kinds of lies to justify their sin.

I’m just a small town girl from South Georgia who was determined to be somebody one day. I come from a great home. My parents are amazing and I’ve never doubted their love for me. They taught me right from wrong, and I became really good at choosing “right” when people were watching, but doing “wrong” every chance I got.

In my single-minded pursuit of fulfillment, I spent years chasing the things this world had to offer and it wasn’t long before the road I had chosen became a battlefield littered with the relationships and dreams I had sacrificed in the name of success.

 

Although I’d said a prayer as a child and thought I knew who God was, I was far from Him, and each step up the ladder of success led me further and further away.

I remember congratulating myself and pridefully thinking I’d finally made it when I found myself working in a corner office with a view of the Statue of Liberty.

Success tasted so sweet in the daylight.

But later that night, after working another twelve hour day, as I stood in the pouring rain waiting for a cab, I was overcome with a heart wrenching loneliness and a soul emptiness I feared would never be filled. Thinking I could shake these feelings, I continued to chase my dreams, always believing I’d be satisfied by just a little bit more.

Still seeking to find my worth in the things of this world, I moved to South Florida for a guy. I left all the familiar things behind and even took an entry level job to follow him. Once there, it seemed the loneliness and emptiness I’d been battling only intensified. My guy was traveling for work 95% of the time and when he was home, we argued. A lot.

During this time, I passed a little church on my way to work every day, and like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to eventually attend Sunday services. The Pastor passionately spoke truth in love and he along with others from the church truly lived their lives to honor God. They loved me in spite of myself. I’d never experienced anything like it before. God used the Truth I learned there to change my heart.

One Sunday morning in 2006, after hearing a message from Luke 18 where Jesus compares the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector, God showed me my Pharisee heart. My prideful drive to be better than everyone else and my refusal to see beyond myself had kept me from Him. He allowed me to come to the end of myself, because when I found myself surrounded by all my failures and brokenness, I found Him. He showed me all the ways I’d tried and failed to fill the void in my soul, and in His great grace, mercy and forgiveness, I finally saw He was what I’d been searching for all those years.

When Love found me eleven years ago, all those lines I had drawn in the sand were washed away by amazing grace.

He wrecked me in the best way, and I’m committed to spend my life following hard after Him, because now I understand the somebody I am meant to be is the Daughter of the King.

 

Nichole is a grateful Jesus girl saved by grace who has been called to live out Psalm 107:2 “…let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story.”

She serves on the Teaching Team with Proverbs 31 Online Bible Studies. She is a writer and speaker who finds great joy in mentoring young women and helping others learn more about God through studying His word.

Nichole and her husband, Todd live on a little slice of awesomeness outside Raleigh, NC they call Manna Homestead. They share this space with rabbits, goats, chickens, bees, and their two dogs, Maverick and Charleigh.

Website: https://hisbeautymyashes.com

Facebook: Nichole Stern

Twitter: @nicholestern

Instagram: @nicholestern

Written By: Michelle Nehrig