What’s Your Story?
May 12, 2009 | Books,Just thinking out loud,Proverbs 31 Ministries
In the past three days I’ve attended my son-in-law’s pinning ceremony and graduation commencement, ate too much cake, went mechanical bull riding (I watched), played laser tag, went GoKart riding, drove to Springfield, MO from Fayetteville, AR and spent the night with my brother and fam, then drove from there to Branson, MO for a church vision meeting, and I just arrived minutes ago only to realize…
that today my devo “What’s Your Story?” was on Encouragement for Today!
Let me take and breath and ask “So, what’s your story?”
I leave tomorrow to teach at a conference in Estes Park, CO. I’ll be there for four days and I can guarantee you I’ll hear someone say, “I’m not sure I have anything to write about.”
Really. You see, I don’t believe that.
Because everyone has a story. A life basket of sorts that you can pull from. Mine has dysfunction, cancer survival, overcoming odds to live fully. But it also has laugh out loud moments with family, tender moments, unexpected small moments with friends or strangers.
Stories are all around you. You live out a story every day.
What’s your story?
What have you learned through adversity that can encourage someone in the same situation you once went through? What stories do you have that may not be “super spiritual” but that make a person laugh (which makes us live longer)? Was there a time that God became real to you?
Well, Suzie, my story is painful.
There’s timing involved in sharing your story. When I was 20, I wasn’t ready. I would have shared my story out of a perspective of pain. Today that story is wrapped around healing, hope, joy, peace.
But write it down anyway. Keep a journal. Write in the margins of your Bible. Write down the tough stuff, the good stuff, the “I can’t see it now, but I’m trusting stuff”.
You see, hindsight is 20/20. I can look back and clearly see God’s love and direction gently holding me, leading me, and even teaching me.
So, what’s your story?
Next Monday I’ll return and pick one lucky winner and send any one of my books to the winner! Leave a brief comment sharing one brief anecdote (story) from your life basket.
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I really enjoyed your daily devotional on the proverbs 31 website. I would be in the group that doesn’t think they have a story but I do know as a mother of 4 there are lots of stories – I just need to learn how to share them. I feel the Lord is always telling me to teach others and I don’t think I have stories to share. I do need to start writing things down. Thanks for the encouragement to do so. I have looked at buying this book for my college age daughter but have not done it. Praise God I will quite procrastinating and get it bought for her to read this summer. Thanks for your story.
May 12th, 2009 at 2:34 pmSome of us are very much 2 x 4 people, where God has to whack us upside the head to get our attention. About 6 years back my husband was diagnosed with leukemia and I wasn’t handling it well. I was severely depressed, my Bible study had disbanded, I wasn’t able to attend my weekly prayer group, my daughter was pregnant for the 4th time in 4 years (and not happy), I had a difficult child in my classroom, and the list goes on. When I was whining before the Lord and telling Him all that was wrong with my life, my comment to Him was, “Everyone has abandoned me and all I have is you, Lord.” At that point I heard a chuckle and felt Him say, “That’s the point. I’m all you need!” Some of us need God’s perspective to reach that point where we give it all to God and really declare Him as our only Savior. I’ve retold that story many times to people who come to the Healing Rooms where I minister each week.
May 12th, 2009 at 2:55 pmI think I’m still in the opening stages of the story. Right now my kids are very small, I’m teaching at our church preschool, and I’m leading a mommy-friendly Bible study at our church. I’m busy learning how to be a good wife and mother and just plain old Christian woman, and I’m not always seeing the good part of some of the crazy things that have been happening lately, but I’m anxious to see what His plan is!
May 12th, 2009 at 3:03 pmAmy, Write it down. The things your kids say that make you laugh. The moments you close the door and say, “God, I don’t have a clue” and yet somehow you come out on the other side. Your story unfolds day by day, moment by moment.
May 12th, 2009 at 3:48 pmI loved your devo and post today. I feel it was written just for me! Guess I was in need of some encouragement to share my story. God has me going in that direction – I’m in the final stages of publishing a book about spiritual mentoring, which basically includes a look at the last 10 years of my life or like you say my story! Last night I was just reading through it before the printing process begins and doubt was creeping in. Really wondering if anyone could relate or if God would really use it, obviously satan was at work, thanks for getting things back in focus. And Suzanne thanks for sharing your stories with us!!
May 12th, 2009 at 4:38 pmBlessings,
Jill
I am a faithful reader of P31 Devotionals and while I enjoyed your story about my story very much today; it was the title of your book that really caught my eye… “The Woman I am Becoming…”. You see I am 51 years old; born again for 10 years (on May 23rd *\o/*); Mommy (to Rachel age 11); Mom (to Jennifer married age 21); Grandma (to Klaire age 4 months); wife (to Terry for 23 years)and I’m not sure who I really am! While Terry & I have both let ourselves and the world try to break us apart several times over the years; God has put us back together each time. We just went to our 3rd counseling session with our Pastor & a fantabulous woman/Christian counselor. The “D” word is not a part of our vocabulary so it’s time to fix what’s wrong. And this is the challenge. It would seem that my lifelong perceptions of what married life would/should/could be which, of course, is based in part upon my parents’ marriage of 37 years (before Mom died at the age of 62 from pancreatic cancer in ’93) is a fallacy full of masks and mirages. So what I thought a “real” marriage should be is not at all “real.” I’m really quite confused right now and am preparing myself for whatever it is that God must be getting ready to do in me. All that rambling (oops, you did say brief ~ sorry)to say that I am going to wait to see if I am chosen to receive a copy of your book before purchasing it to read and begin to figure out who “The Woman I Am Becoming” really is. God’s timing is perfect.
May 12th, 2009 at 7:24 pmI can relate to Norma’s post. Over the last year and a half, God has brought me to that same place where He says that He is all I need. My world fell apart a year and half ago when I found out that, after almost 20 years of marriage, my husband was having an affair. I was overwhelmed with fear: fear of being a single mother, fear of having to fully support myself and my son in some of the worst times for my profession (real estate!), fear of what all this would do to my 8-yr old son, etc. Not to mention the pain! I have been a Christian since I was a small child, but for many years I have found it hard to accept that God really loved me. Oddly enough though, in the midst of this really really hard time in my life, I have felt God’s arms around me and the truth of his love for me far more than I ever did during easier years. Several true friends pointed me to God’s Word over and over again: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are mine.” (Is. 43) and “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Prov. 18) and “Hear my cry O God, listen to my prayer….I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (Ps. 61) and “When my spirit grows faint within me, it is You who know my way.” (Ps 142) and many more. And something my shepherding elder said has stuck with me through it all. God is a loving and sovereign God, so not only did he allow this to happen, he made it for my GOOD! God has not seen fit to heal my marriage, yet, but He is teaching me to trust him. I’m still praying for my husband and asking God to heal my family, but something else a friend told me is so very true: “However big we perceive God to be, He is bigger! However strong, He is stronger. And it is when we are at our weakest that HE is strongest.”
May 12th, 2009 at 7:32 pmHi there.
Thank you for your encouragement to see each life event as a potential learning experience and story. Right now, my experience includes a relapse of depression, and it is really a struggle.
I have had a life filled with blessings, challenges, learning experiences, embarassing moments, moments of great fun, and times that are side-splittingly funny. Some wise person once said that “He who can laugh at himself will never cease to be amused!”
I have also had times of intense pain, heartache, fear, anxiety and depression. I have had times where others told me that Christians should not feel depressed. It made me feel such shame. I became anxious about being anxious, so to speak–judging and condemning myself in my struggle, instead of allowing God to take my hand and walk through the dark time with me.
I don’t share this so you can feel sorry for me. I share this because I know that there are other Christians out there that struggle with depression, and feel they must either pull themselves together, or struggle alone.
I also know that Jesus himself felt a plethora of emotions while here on earth. He had times of laughter, times of sadness (as that little oft’-quoted verse says, “Jesus wept”), and that in the Garden of Gethsemene, he was so deeply-troubled that he sweated drops of blood in his distress. He felt human emotions, but did not sin. He was also not afraid to pour out his heart to God, pleading before his betrayal, “If there is any way, take this cup from me.” We all know that he submitted to God’s will, but his humanness dreaded going to the Cross, knowing that God Himself would have to turn His back, as Jesus carried the sins of the entire earth on his shoulders.
As humans, we will experience a plethora of emotions also, but because of what Christ Jesus did on the Cross, we will never have the ultimate anguish of God turning our backs on us. He is there–He already knows what you are feeling, so share it with him. Pour it out to Him. You can’t shock Him. You can’t make Him not love you. You can’t make him turn His back on you and leave you. He is there. He is love. He is the peace you long for.
Wow! I’ve said a lot more than I intended to say! Have a blessed week!
gallerhea
May 12th, 2009 at 8:12 pmgallerhea@yahoo.com
Hello:) I enjoyed your devotional today. Love the brightness and cheeriness of this site! As a 40 yr. old & mom/stepmom to 6, I have tons of stories–I have been a teenage mom, single mom, working mom, married wife/mom and stepmom, just to name a few. I think throughout my past, I have been always busy to “get to the next part” of my life. Thinking, “that next part will be the great part” Lately, I feel the Lord showing me how to be grateful and enjoy what I have/am. I am hoping I will become more positive about things I have lived through in order to tell stories without being negative/angry or sad–while I know the Lord loves me, I seem to vent when I tell my stories…whats up with that??
May 12th, 2009 at 8:26 pmSuzy:
Your devotional today came at just the right time for me. I love it when God speaks to us through others and he spoke to me through your devotional.
I’m planning to attend the She Speaks Conference (writer’s track) this summer and I’m currently reading the book For the Write Reason. A couple of days ago, the associated Bible study required me to look back over my life and records specific events. I began have self doubts and wondered what I would have to share that others would want to read.
After reading your devotional today, I realize that I have been collecting stories in my life basket. In fact, I was reminded of a time when that still small voice spoke to me when I was a teenager. Like your story, it was a bit humorous, but only if I had listened.
God bless you!
May 12th, 2009 at 9:43 pmInteresting you say we all have stories. It has been a long three months-I lost a baby at full term and within two weeks, broke my wrist on the ice. Now I am trying to get back to work but they say my wrist is not strong enough. Being a single parent, two weeks without a paycheck is scary. My daughter asked tonight, would I have wanted to break my wrist-there is a reason. She agreed, everything has a reason and we just have to have faith, God has all the answers. We need to wait!
May 12th, 2009 at 10:20 pmThank you for this devotion that encourages and challenges me. I work at a Christian school and was asked today if I could get a devotion to some of our staff tomorrow morning. My thought went to giving a devotion on prayer but then I read your thoughts on sharing our stories. It is something I’m reluctant to do because of various negative reasons, self-doubt, afraid it will be boring, etc. etc. But as you said if we are letting God write the story of our lives there is something to share. I plan now to share a couple of stories of ordinary days where God showed up in an extraordinary ways. Thank you for the advice and encouraging me to stretch a little.
May 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pmThank you Suzanne for sharing this devotion with all of us. I am a 28 year old wife and I will soon be a mother to our first child Catherine whose due date is early next month. My stories are centered on how God teaches me lessons largely through my interactions with my family. I always prayed that I would marry my best friend. God answered my prayer, and my husband is my best friend. I have also always wanted to be a mother, and now I am really looking forward to meeting my little girl in a few weeks. I pray that God shapes me into a wife and a mother who shows His love to my husband and daughter, and to others that come across my path in life. Thank you again for sharing your heart with us through the devotion.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:28 pmYa know how when God’s Word is spoken it will not return void? Well I receive the P31 Ministries devos and actually have a seperate folder in my email where I can move them too when I’m too busy (or well I think I’m too busy) to read them but I’m cleaning out my inbox. Well today I was about to just click the move button on your devo (Sorry : ( ) it’s been a long day, my 6 month old son is cutting a tooth in so he was cranky, I didnt get a phone call or email from my husband in Iraq, and I’ve been desperately waiting for one since mothers day, He just left in April and this is his first deployment so its been an extremely hard adjustment. So I was looking forward to just doing my end of the day routine of checking email, facebook, and then bed. But something stopped me and told me to read your devo.
Earlier this evening when discussing with my mom about an upcoming womens luncheon shes helping organize, something inside me said you should ask to speak. I just shut the voice out… told myself no my story isn’t inspirational, I’m not perfect, I’ve sinned a lot messed up a lot, and I’m only 19 how can I relate to these women, older women, like 30+ in age, what can they learn from me? But then I read your devo and it touched me, maybe I should be telling my story, I dont feel inspirational or like I’m doing anything special but I’ve come a long way from who I was even just a year ago, and well lets just say to put my whole testimony on here would be extremely long and honestly probably not the right thing for the womens luncheon but I think I will ask to speak and pray for God to reveal to me what it is He wants me to say because I’m lost as to why I felt I should ask to speak.
So you’re devo touched me in that aspect but also because I know that the growth I’ve made in the Lord in just the past year has been huge, literally a year a go around this time I was in the ER with major migraine headaches and it was revealed to my mom that I was pregnant, which threw her for a loop. My now husband and I had known and had finally gotten the money for an abortion and I was scheduled to have one at the end of that week. Here I am a year later, with a wonderful little boy, an amazing husband, and I wouldn’t have ever gotten here without the Lord. Not to mention the relationship between my mom and I which has always been rough and almost none existant before, is in the healing stages, definitely closer than I can ever remember. My walk with the Lord is also closer than its ever been and I’ve been feeling the tug to start journaling or blogging or something, because I know that this is the time to write down all of the little things that I’m realizing and learning everyday as well as just to write out my entire testimony. Gosh, wow, even just writing this I’m realizing how much I the Lord has truly done for me just as I’ve gotten closer to Him… Praise God, He is SO good!…
I don’t want to take up too much more of your time with my rambling but I just wanted to say Thank You for the devo, it really has touched me and lit that fire that God had been kindling in me over the past couple of weeks. Please say a little prayer for me to figure out how God wants me to tell my story, I’ve tried writing in a journal as well as blogging on net and I just can’t find something that works for me that I’ve been able to keep up with. I hope you stay safe in your travels and find some time to rest and let God refresh your soul it sounds like you live a pretty hectic life : )
God Bless and Love in Christ,
May 13th, 2009 at 12:03 amCarleen
Hi Suzy! Thank you your willingness to share your story. Growing up, my story always seemed to revolve around my mother abandoning me. That will be part of my life story. Now I focus on how God patiently, yet persistantly, taught me to focus on his love for me. It really is deep, wide, long and high!
May 13th, 2009 at 8:55 amThank you, Suzanne, for inspiring women with all sorts of stories to share their stories. I think we all want to know there is someone out there who has been through the same turmoil, feelings, or “ah ha” moments that we ourselves have. I know I do. It really encourages me to know I am not alone in what is happening to me. I can learn so much from others who have been down some of the same paths I have traveled. I have so many stories to share that have happened over the 51 years I have lived on this earth, I can’t begin to tell them all. But as I look back over my life, I realize that God had His protective hand over me all the time. Some of the “bad” stuff that happened to me, such as alcoholic parents, dysfunctional childhood, my mother having breast cancer and a radical mastectomy, death of my father when I was 12, foster homes, marriage at 19, miscarriage, tornado destroying my mother’s home, and my divorce, all happened to me before I was 30 years old. I thought that anything positive in my life I had achieved was from my own doing. My determination. My being a survivor. And I prided myself on that. A lot of other people did too. But after I came to realize what Jesus had done for me, I started seeing that it was not me, but God, who had made everything good in my life possible. I had a different outlook on life. One of the ways God blessed me was by sending my second husband to me. It was the beginning of a new chapter in my life. I started seeing blessings all around me, and I haven’t stopped yet. I am blessed beyond measure, and don’t hesitate to tell anyone that will listen. GOD IS GOOD! I am not a writer, but I am a talker. I would love for God to give me the ability to write or speak in front of a group of people, but He hasn’t yet. Until then I will just tell people, one on one, what He has done for me. And as far as stories to tell from the second chapter of my life, I have more traumatic events and stories to tell that have happened to me than happened in the first chapter. However, I consider everything that has happened to me, which most people consider to be bad things, to be total blessings. God works all things for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. I BELIEVE that, and that is why all the obstacles in my life — such as our court battles with my husband’s ex-wife, custody battles over his step-children, my mother having two heart attacks and then dying less than a year later, having two more miscarriages, finding out I had a genetic disorder that would affect any pregnancy I would have and probably result in Downs Syndrome or Turner’s Syndrome for my child, my husband starting his own business with his sister as a partner and cutting his pay almost in half, having a breast cancer scare (which turned out benign), learning of a “surprise” pregnancy when I was 37 years old, taking a leap of faith by quitting my job of over 20 years and losing more than half our income and all our benefits to be a stay-at-home mom, my husband walking into work one day and finding out that he didn’t have a job anymore because his sister had the business a hundred thousand dollars in debt, having to take a second mortgage on our house to payoff half the debt of the business, a second breast cancer scare with surgery (benign), mini-strokes resulting in diagnosis and surgery for a dissected carotid artery, a major stroke during the recovery from the surgery, a second surgery for the carotid artery, losing the use of my right hand and not being able to talk, going through rehabilitation therapy to regain the use of my right hand and learning how to talk again, losing my memory, finding a lump in my breast two months after my stroke that turned out to be cancer, and going through six months of chemo, two hospitalizations and two months of radiation — don’t appear to me as negative stories in my life, but as blessings that God used to grow me closer to Him and make me into a more God-focused person who has a story to tell about God and all His mercy and love. I know personally how God can deliver you from a fire or through a fire and the result be a much stronger faith!
May 13th, 2009 at 12:04 pmThe stories of my life are centered around family and relationships. Basically, I’m learning from the Great Teacher how special I am, but also how there are so many things I need to change. I am so, so thankful to God for not giving up on me. I’m growing in my relationship with Him, which strengthens and improves my relationships with others. I’m gaining confidence in areas where I had none thanks to God!
May 13th, 2009 at 4:36 pm