It's called Loving God, Loving Others: 52 Devotions to Create Connections that Last. We are just thrilled by the stories in this book that walk through six different rungs of relationship. Perfect for you, a sister, a neighbor, or your mom!
Meet the Authors of Loving God, Loving Others
So what perspectives are shared in this book? Let's hear from the six writers themselves.
Beth Davis
Q: You write vulnerably about letting God in on how you’re really feeling. What’s your advice for women struggling to be honest with God about the hard stuff?
A: Keep it simple. I find some of those big, hard memories and emotions really just boil down to a single sentence: I’m mad; I hated that; This hurts. Talk to Him like a child would! I try to stay away from questions and notice when I’m trying to force understanding. Instead, just relate your heart to God. Starting with “little” everyday irritations or disappointments helps, too.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: It means a lot to me to share about how Jesus delivered me from pornography. I want to give hope to women who have struggled or are suffering from sexual sin and give them hope of healing and restoration. I didn’t really know that was possible in the midst of it, so to be able to give that gift of hope and remind others Who Jesus still is: Healer, Deliverer, Restorer, Redeemer. He wants to be Savior in every aspect of their lives, too.
Megan Hjelmstad
Q: You share intimately about your health and the journey of God showing you to love your body. What would you tell women who feel disconnection or struggle to love the challenges of health and body image?
A: You are absolutely not alone. It’s a constant battle to accept and bless the inherent goodness of our God-crafted bodies in a world that’s constantly modeling how we should reject them. Step 1 is to invite God openly and honestly into your struggle. Tell Him about it continually when it comes up, so He can gradually shift your perspective to align with His truth. I also love to pray with the image of our bodies as living tabernacles. We marvel at the most beautiful cathedrals while criticizing ourselves, but God tells us we are infinitely more beautiful and desirable to Him than even the most stunning tabernacle ever made by man! He wants nothing more than to make His dwelling in us and heal what has been tarnished from the inside out.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: I loved sharing about the grilled cheese memory! It’s been a tender lesson to my heart that God could bring such redemption from an experience of suffering I thought had no silver lining. What the enemy intended for my bitterness, isolation, self-pity, and hunger, God redeemed to bring real and concrete joy, generosity, community, and deeper fulfillment! It’s just a testament to how Our Lord desires to make all things, down to the last detail, when we give Him permission.
Nell O'Leary
Q: You tell us about your family of origin and how layers of family wounding can be hard to understand as an adult. Do you have encouragement for women looking to address some of these stories from their family of origin but who are reluctant because it’s messy and unknown?
A: I would tell them to find a trusted counselor, friend, or sister and to start slowly. Just look carefully and calmly at your story from the beginning. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your family members. Walk through memories that are painful with Jesus holding your hand. Practice radical forgiveness and boundaries as needed. Then I ask myself: What’s the worst thing that happens? I feel badly? But the best thing that happens is that I can start healing that will affect me, my family of origin, my nuclear family and kids, and ripple out to others I love. God’s grace is with us as we hope for healing and that is a powerful guide.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: I loved sharing about the creme brûlée French restaurant moment with my mom. It’s a beautiful thing when you can acknowledge someone’s feelings and reaction without backing down from a truth or boundary that needs to be said. I hope for the reader to find the truth and rest in it, too.
Bonnie Engstrom
Q: You explore different relationships that are in the context of love and closeness, family or like family, and are honest about how those can actually be some of the hardest to navigate and be gracious in. What do you say to the woman who feels like she can keep it together for the world but comes home and has trouble loving, actively loving, those closest to her?
A: To the woman who can keep it together for the world but struggles at home I say: you are not alone. Especially in certain seasons of life, those closest to us are the ones who need the most from us, and while that can be deeply affirming, it can also be incredibly difficult. Having trouble actively loving those closest to us should not be a prolonged experience. Personally, the Lord answered my prayers for healing through the help of a trusted doctor and the support of my husband and good friends to help me order my priorities, emotions, and energy. The world does not deserve our best, God and our loved ones do.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: My favorite story is from “Shouldering Responsibilities,” where I write about a perfect Michaelmas feast that was ruined—not by my husband and kids being home late from a sports event, but by my grumpy attitude. I think it’s a good example of how good marriages and happy families are not perfect, and it’s a good illustration of how the Lord uses every day life to grow us.
Sarah Elizabeth
Q: You step through the tricky lines of friendship and go deep into how God alone fulfills our most inner needs, but He also works through the friendships in our lives to demonstrate His love for us. For the woman who is struggling to make and keep close friendships, what is your advice for her on a practical level, but also interiorly?
A: That was my story for the longest time. Enduring the revolving door of friendships is deeply painful, and I think it can teach us this narrative that rejection and unforgiveness must be our story. At an interior level, we have to rebuke that, and continue to lean into the belief that love endures. Every time I have persisted in prayer, I have been so surprised by the way the Lord has responded to my need for community. On a practical level, if we want to sustain our friendships, we have to pour out, and be generous with our time and emotional energy. Sometimes my prayer is just, “Lord, how could I be inconvenienced for a friend this week?” It’s little things, like cooking dinner or leaving a voice note to check in, but they matter.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: It’s probably the story related to peer pressure. I tell it to my friends all the time, mostly because it’s a fun, dramatic high school story. At the same time, I look back on the moment as deeply pivotal. My senior year of high school was a year of radical docility to the Lord, and I remember feeling so secure in who I was and where I was going, probably for the first time ever. I never advocated for myself back then, so I feel like that moment was truly the beginning of me coming into my own, before I made the move to DC. There was no real external validation to affirm I was on the right track, but I knew the Lord and I knew myself, so I was confident. I’m twenty-three now, and I try my best to hold that seventeen-year-old freedom close.
Emily Stimpson Chapman
Q: You describe the challenge of not being defined by our work, talents, or even our God-given gifts. For the woman who feels secure in her identity coming from how or what she does or produces, what would you tell her about the deeper identity of being made in God’s image and likeness and how to un-entangle these ideas?
A: An identity that is rooted in what we do and how well we do those things is a fragile identity. Sooner or later, it will break. How well we weather that failure will depend on what we have to catch us. If we have a relationship with Christ and a knowledge of who we are in Him and how great His love for us is, that failure can be a gift. It helps strip us of our illusions about ourselves and root ourselves more firmly in Him. That relationship really gives us a soft place to land. When we don’t have that soft place, though, when the relationship with Christ isn’t there, that failure can be a heck of a lot more scary, upending our identity and our world. The invitation to find our identity in Christ is still there, but it can be harder to recognize that invitation and take us longer to accept it. So, if I have any advice, it’s don’t wait. Don’t wait until failure comes to start building that relationship, and don’t wait until failure comes to start rooting your identity in Christ. Start doing the hard work now. Spend time with Him. Read about Him. And slow down. Start saying no to more things. Think and pray about where you’re truly called to give your time and energy and evaluate if you are doing anything simply because it seems impressive and important, and not because it’s something you love and to which you feel called.
Q: Do you have a favorite story of those that you share?
A: That’s like asking me to pick a favorite child! Impossible. I will admit, though, that in the craze of this past year, juggling three babies and keeping house and all my work, that I have thought back fondly more than once to the quiet and peace I experienced during the months I spent working at the retreat house on the Eastern Shore. It was such a gift to be surrounded by that kind of quiet. And even more of a gift to learn to find meaning and purpose in simple acts of service. That was a lesson that has blessed me so much in these busy days of mothering, where the temptation is to find meaning in the more exciting to seemingly important work of writing and not in the deeply meaningful act of caring for my children and making a home for them.
How Would Your Life Change?
In this brand new book, you will get to walk alongside these women as they share stories of how the Lord changed their lives in both simple and radical ways once they shifted their focus to loving Him and loving others for His sake.
What would happen in your life if your focus became those two tasks? What could be different? What could be redeemed?
We can't wait to walk alongside you in this new devotional!
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