The doorbell rang soon after I got home from dropping off a thank you note at my neighbor house. Surprised to see Janet standing on my front porch, I listened as she held up an envelope and explained: “Renee, this is the most amazing thank you note I have ever read; you have a writing gift and you need to use it.”
I was puzzled. It was only a thank you note after all.
Yet Janet’s words of affirmation stayed with me all afternoon. Her confidence made me wonder if God might use my words to touch the lives of others.
Prayers for direction had filled pages of my journal that month as I struggled to figure out what I was good at.
A few weeks later I attended a women’s dinner series at my church. Taking notes on a napkin, I thought about how nice it would be for the message series to be captured in a booklet so we could remember and apply the lessons in our everyday lives. Then I got the craziest idea: maybe I could write a study guide to give to other women who want to go deeper, too.
Quickly, doubt filtered my idea through reality: Who am I to think I could write something women would want to read?
Unable to get the thought out of my head over the next few days, I finally told Janet. Much to my shock she loved the idea. And she claimed the women’s ministry team had been praying for months about a gift to give the women after the dinners and that this was an answer to their prayers.
A few weeks later, they asked me to write a study guide. I nearly suffocated under the weight of insecurity, but Janet kept encouraging me, praying for me and telling me she believed in me.
With her prayers and prodding I wrote it, and over a thousand copies were given away. Then I wrote another the next year, and then another.
As I think about the impact of Janet’s words on my life and ministry sixteen years ago, I’m reminded of Elizabeth and her words to Mary when she arrived to tell her cousin she was pregnant with God’s child. “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! Luke 1:45
What a difference it must have made for Mary to have Elizabeth believe in the promise God proclaimed over her. Today as I think about a thank you note that started the legacy of my writing ministry years ago, I’m so grateful I get to encourage YOU because Janet believed in and encouraged me.
***
Here I sit, sixteen years later, sharing this online study living in a promise I pray almost every day. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within me.” Eph 3:20
This month, I want to honor the difference you make in my life and in each other’s lives through something we’re doing at Proverbs 31 Ministries to recognize and honor women like you and Janet through Legacy Cards we’re sending to those who have touched lives and impacted legacies:
I’m getting one for Janet and my mom {for Mother’s Day}, and a few others who have impacted my life and my legacy.
And today I bought one in HONOR of YOU my amazing online study friends!!
Each time you leave a comment and share your heart, your prayers, your journey with me and with each other — God uses it to spur me on and to encourage one another in so many ways. Whether it’s a few sentences or a few paragraphs, when I read how Jesus is loving on you, how you’re loving on each other or how He’s speaking to you through His words or something I wrote in my book or my blog, it’s a huge deposit of encouragement!! So thank YOU for sharing that part of yourself with me and with us! You impact my legacy sweet friends, and I am so very grateful!
For more details about our Legacy cards click here.
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Renee, all I can manage to say is thank you! From the bottom of my heart, you have made such a difference! I think you wrote this book just for me 🙂 God always is at work. I was able to get the last book on the shelf, and I think that was no accident. God is using you to do an amazing work in the hearts of his children!
I have truly enjoyed reading your book and going through this…I will be honest and say that I highly doubted (ohhh no there’s that “word”) that you would read all of our blogs thinking you couldn’t possibly read all of these or maybe even truly care about someone you don’t even know. See I have dealt with this for so many years that I am never good enough(I to have issues from my past that still haunt me) or that God couldn’t possible care about my petty little issues when there are so many “BIG” problems out there. I have failed and I have fallen down more times. But I do manage to get back up and keep going because of what God has done for me. But I want to have that confidence, I want to be free from my guilt and shame of my past…Thank you for what you are doing and the blessing you have been. God bless.!!!
ditto. echo. right there with ya! thank you!
Renee, thank you for turning from any shadow of doubt you have had about writing for women, and using a gift God has truly blessed you with. A few months ago when I read your devotion that had the invitation to your study I knew it was an invitation from God because I need this so much! Thank you for following God’s plan for you so that you may teach us where to find God’s promises in the Bible and how to use use God’s Word on a daily basis (sometimes hourly or even minute) to fight of satan from the control he can gain on our minds. This study is really helping me and allowing me to draw even closer to God. Thank you!
Renee.
I love this study, I have highly recommended this book and study to so many women and even one man that I know. I think this book allows you to go deep in your heart and discover stuff you didn’t even know was there. Wow I am kind of in the mist of it. Not sure where it is all taking me but I am kind of getting thoughts from all over the place in my heart and bringing it to Jesus who is the center. I haven’t really felt a healing yet, because I feel like the Holy Spirit is still uncovering stuff. I grew up in a religion that did not teach me about Holy Spirit. And I feel like I have a new found friend, I know that sounds weird but this book has opened me up to a new relationship with the Holy Spirit and I feel a stirring of excitement in my spirit I can’t really explain. And I am not really sure where it is going. So I would like to thank you for being obedient to God . Stay tuned right 🙂 . Renee my prayer for you is that you even go deeper with The Lord as you lead many women to be totally free in Jesus…
I think uncovering is part of the healing process and it’s amazing to see God do this wonderful thing in your heart. Your are excited because the Spirit now lives within you and is giving you guidance and encouragement at every turn. I’m so excited for you and may He continue to bless you abundantly through this study!
Hello Renee, I just want to thank you for this online Bible Study. When I started on this journey with you, I was also starting a new journey in my whole Church life. This study has gone hand in hand with what I am learning at Church. Yesterday our Pastor talked about hoe words have an impact on our lives, we can either by built up, or broken down. I also read this last night in chapter 6. I must say that reading encouraging words from you, about your journey, has really been building me up. I am very grateful to the Lord for leading me to this Bible study, and to my new Church. I feel like my love for the Lord has been reignited. Much of this is because of the encouraging words here, and the confirmation of thes words at my Church. I love how the Lord makes everything come together so simply. So easy to understand. I am coming out of the shadow, the Lord is shining His light brightly, so that I can follow. I want the fullness of God, and I want to be a light for others. Thank you Renee, for sharing your legacy with us. God Bless YOU!!!
Morning Renee
Thank you for following your heart and finding the confidence to do what your doing…it has and will impact women for eternity….I have copied and cut out each trinket you have placed in this study and placed in my journal of my confident heart that is flourishing and spreading to others as I share what God is doing in me through you…
Blessings to you !
Patty
God bless you. God is using you in great ways. God gave me a message for a friend that He had delivered to my heart. This message largely came from your book. She said it was an answer to some things she had been Praying about for 2 months. Wow! Draw close to Him He draws close to you.He has been ignited a fire in my heart during this study and another study. Vision greater than me and prophesies over me about a year ago. This is the time to begin, he softly whispers, a new season, for such a. time as this!! Wow#This is God!!!
Thank you Renee for what you do for us women . I n a busy and crazy world like ours, most of us claim that we have no time to pray and study the bible, you a real busy woman, spare quality time with thousanda of us on a daily bases..May God continue to use you.
I too sruggled with who I am and what God wants from me.He Put a wonderful lady in my life who encouraged me and taught me that I am a princess in God’s eyes. She continueously reminded me that I am the daughter of the King of Kings and there is nothing He will not do for me. (n I grew in an orphanage all my childhood). Now I live like a princess and there is nothing I will not do for my heavenly king and FATTHER. i still have my little moments of low self esteem but in those moments I reakise I am not walking alone.He is right there beside me.
Thank you again for ministering to all of us
Kim
Renee, Renee, Renee, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
God bless you and your family. When we started I said it was going to be a phenomenal life transforming experience for us all. I wasn’t wrong. The last few weeks have been wonderful, going through the study and reading through your book has so much imparted my life. Thank You so much and God bless you real good.
Thank you very much Renee! God has truly sent persons my way to encourage me. I think of my current situation, desiring to go back to school yet am so scared of the GRE. If I can get over this hurdle, I’ll be accepted. Yet I’m so overwhelmed everytime I pick up the book to prepare for it. My friends encourage me, yet fear seem to reduce me to being frustrated and giving up, everytime.
Your card of me being a blessing is an awesome thing and because so many persons have blessed my life and says I’ve blessed their’s its hard to pin point one person or even 5 that I can send this card to without feeling I’m skipping someone who’s blessed me greatly. I’ll get a few and prayerfully God will show me whom is most in need of a little reassurance in their walk with Him or even a standardized test like myself.
May the Lord continue to keep your heart, keep your mind and keep you soul. May His peace, presence and promises resound in your heart and expressed fully in your deeds, continue to bless women like me all around the world. Thank you for being a blessing to me.
It’s good to hear how you started Renee! I have a friend Janet who sent me a card saying “Someday you will write a book.” It was massively encouraging, yet I have self-rejected my writing for so long. When my daughter started reading blogs with me (our first was Ann Voskamp) after a while she said, “Mom, you should write a blog and you should put my pictures on it.” So I did.
Even if I never publish a book, I have the joy of writing and connecting and being used of God to bless others.
HI. I was really looking forward to doing this study with a friend of mine who really struggles with the thoughts that she is never good enough. She was very excited about the study and even more so when our books arrived.The fact that the Author’s name was Renee, and the love heart on the cover, was exactly how my friend Renee signed her pots after she made them, and after her name on paper! We did the first week, deciding that we would read the chapter together and work through the questions afterwards as well. My friend was reading and underling and relating to so much of what was written. We had a great time together with the study and God and we were excited about the next week. The next week never came. My dear friend fell into the traps of her old life of heavy drinking and drugs. (She had been off this life for 18 months before that.) After a dreadful week and many incidences where the police had to be called I no longer know where she is. Her children are no longer with her and many people have expressed to me how frightened they were in her presence in these last few weeks. I miss her so much. I am writing to ask if all you ladies could please pray for Renee.
Dear Renee, I’m so thankful you share your heart with us all here though your book.
First online bible study, and I knew I God was calling me to be a part.
God is overwhelming me with his love and Faithfulness as I study each chapter. I am in aw he thinks so much of me! It is so refreshing to meet with God and fall in love with him again.
I have suffered from low self esteem for a long time due to circumstances beyond my control.
It’s very easy for the enemy to tell me I am not worthy, so thank you for daily reminding me that God says I am and that he loves me unconditionally. I must continue to truly believe he thinks so much of me!
You are a special treasure to all of Renee. Thank you for listening and for writing what we all need to hear.
Thank you, Renee! You are so sweet and such a blessing to all of us!
Renee, your book has spoke to my heart. Thank you so very much. I am enjoying and learning so much from your words. I look forward to each chapter. God bless you.
I am praying for everyone attending this Bible study. May God bless each and everyone.
Thank you for your lovely post Renee! Your words were so encouraging as is your book and this study! I agree there is power in our words and am blessed by the edifying words you speak and pray for us and to us! God bless and have a great week! 🙂
Saturday we took part in Comcast Cares preparing bags of meals. One gal who worked with us kept saying she was worthless and could not do anything. She had her two small boys with her and was trying to let them help fill the bags. If she was a little slow putting her part in she would say she was worthless. And every time she said it I told her she was not worthless. I saw a caring mother, a woman trying to help others, a Child of God. It was so sad that she had such a picture of herself. I wish she could be a part of this study and be reminded how important she is and how much she has to offer.
Thank you, Renee, and all of my sisters here who have opened their hearts and shared their hurts and risked rejection by being vulnerable and transparent here on this “share” forum. I have been so encouraged by all of you; and God has given me a place of safety and acceptance to share my struggles and successes. My heart breaks for all of the broken hearts we have; but my heart soars to know that we all have the greatest Physician of all, who is working in our lives to heal us. Renee, thank you for encouraging us to submit to His emotional surgery. You are a blessing!
Thank you Renee for this study and your willingness to share your heart. it has helped me dig into those deep recesses of my heart as well and begin to give me direction in the things I must address. Our God is so faithful…thanks for the reminder and thank you for your faithfulness as well!
Thank You Renee!
Just as I had read an email that had me about to doubt my worth, your email came to remind me of the lies our enemy throws our way! I smiled and remembered our Word…HIS- Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are Mine!” Isaiah 43:1b (NAS)
You bring blessings to my Sisters and to me everyday! Thank you for your obedience.
I Love You Renee!