50 Women Every Christian Should Know: Learning from Heroines of the Faith
From the mission field to the kitchen table, these women changed lives. Some changed thousands, some changed just a few, yet every one is a heroine in her own right. What an absolute privilege it was to learn about their stories. And how humbling and inspiring it was to learn how they lived out their faith in the everyday, right where God placed them, right where he planned for them to be all along.
My friend Deidra left me a Voxer message last week. She knows I’ve been struggling with my career and calling as a writer recently (for reasons I’ll probably get into here some other day), and she said something I very much needed to hear in that moment:
“God knows the plans he has for you. And they are plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. I just want to remind you that God’s plan for you is to give you a hope and a future. God is perfecting the things that concern you.”
Turns out there’s a whole bunch of Scripture woven into that message — pieces of Jeremiah and the Psalms and probably some other stuff that I didn’t even catch. But those words, a mix of Deidra’s and God’s, were exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.
And so that is my prayer for you and for this book. I pray that the stories of these 50 women — their words and their lives — woven together with God’s words — will be the exact message of hope, comfort, courage, encouragement, strength and inspiration you need to hear, right here, right now. May these stories, may this book, help you see where and how God is working in your life.
Okay, so now some fun…because it’s release day, right? We ought to quit being all somber and serious and have some fun!
I have a couple of gifts I’d love to giveaway, along with three signed copies of 50 Women. [To enter the drawing scroll all the way down to the “Rafflecopter” entry form at the bottom of this post]
First, one randomly selected winner will receive an 8×10 frameable print of this lovely Julian of Norwich quote:
Note: print will not come framed.
I love Julian of Norwich. She was an anchoress (What? Don’t know what an anchoress is? Well you’ll just have to read the book!) and mystic in 14th-century England, and she was way, way ahead of her time. She had a beautiful understanding of God’s infinite, unshakable love for his people, which she articulated in a series of reflections entitled The Revelations. One of her most famous quotes is this one — “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well” — which I love, because honestly, who doesn’t need this kind of reassurance and encouragement from time to time? I know I do, approximately every 14.3 seconds.
Next, two randomly selected winners will receive a set of eight blank note cards with this quote —“Do small things with great love” — which is often attributed to Mother Teresa (and she did say it), but was first said by 19th-century Carmelite nun (and now a saint in the Roman Catholic Church) Therese of Lisieux, who was a role model for Mother Teresa (see I know these little factoids now that I wrote the book). And both women are featured in 50 Women, so that works out perfectly!
Aren’t they so pretty and fun? (Why yes I do have an teensy Etsy problem…) [To enter the drawing scroll all the way down to the bottom of this post and complete the “Rafflecopter” entry form]
Last, all three randomly selected winners will also receive a personalized, signed copy of 50 Women Every Christian Should Know along with one of the above-mentioned gifts.
Finally, I just want to offer a heartfelt thanks to all who have helped with the launch of this book and all of you who read this blog. I know two books in one year is a bit of overkill, so thank you for faithfully reading, cheering and sticking with me, even though it seems all I do at times is yammer about misfits and women around here. I appreciate you and am grateful for you Every Single Day.[notice the caps: that means I’m not fooling around]
Enter the drawing to win [email subscribers: click here and scroll to the bottom of the post to enter the drawing]:
And be sure to visit some of the bloggers on the 50 Women launch team to hear what they have to say about their experience of reading the book [email subscribers: click here and scroll to the bottom to see links to other blog posts about 50 Women].
