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Sometimes you must leave the comfort of what is to embrace the potential of what will be. @KristenStrong | #GirlMeetsChange {Click to Tweet}
I love these words written by my friend Kristen Strong in her wonderful book,Girl Meets Change: truths to carry you through life’s transitions. God is stretching me with Kristen’s words, encouraging me to open my hands and let go of what is or what I thought would be, that isn’t – so I can embrace the potential of what will be.
Today, I got to hang out with Kristen and talk about change, and her book on BLAB! Have you heard of BLAB? It was new to me but so fun!! Anyway, we spent time together in a live video conversation with our two dear friends, Crystal Stine and Jennifer Dukes Lee.
We shared our struggles and our stories; how we’re learning to stay close to Jesus in the midst of hard transitions. I also shared some practical ways Ive had to make adjustments so my heart can survive and my family can thrive in the midst of big and difficult changes we’ve been walking through the past year.
You can watch the replay of our conversation on Blab. But… I need to warn you: I was a slight mess for the first few minutes because my mic wouldn’t work. And you will get to see my cute husband trying to figure out what to do while the rest of the girls acted amazingly calm and refrain from shouting, “Shut your computer, Renee!” because hello, we were quite a distraction :). But once we got going, it was so encouraging to listen to what these amazing ladies had to share. So. So. Good! Click HERE to watch the replay.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
During our conversation, we talked about a few new resources I’ve created to help my heart and maybe yours, too. I wanted to make them easy to find here, so they are shown below. My journal just released and it’s on Amazon. The other two products are coming soon from DaySpring. I’ll announce when they are available – here on my blog! So, be sure to sign up for my EMAIL UPDATES – in my sidebar – you aren’t already!
Come to Me {journal}
by Renee Swope
Jesus invites us to come to Him: to receive, rest, be renewed, and remain in His love. Experience the power of God’s presences and rejuvenate your soul with the living water of His word as you are reminded with the truth of who God is and who you are in Him.Filled with inspirational quotes and prayers, this journal will help you position your heart to receive God’s peace, plans, perspective and purpose for you each day.
6×8 Hardcover, 144 Pages
BUY NOW on Amazon
A Confident Heart {100 Days of Living in the Security of God’s Promises}
DaySpring HeartLifter (Coming Spring 2016)
A Confident Heart {Scripture Shareables)
from DaySpring (Coming Spring 2016)
ENTER TO WIN a copy of Girl Meets Change
Whether you’re walking through a transition now, see one coming, or are recovering from the last one, change is inevitable. But thriving is optional. With Christ close by, be okay. As Kristen shares in her book,“If God is calling us out of one place, He is sending us to another with His blessing.”
Want to enter to win a copy of Kristen’s book, Girl Meets Change: truths to carry you through life’s transitions? Just let us know why you’d like to read it or who you’d like to give it to. Click SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS (below this post) and do just that.
I became a single mom a couple years ago. I am stuck trying to find my way that big change. So I decided my word for 2016 would be Change.
This girl has been met with a lot of change… the books cover looked like an interesting read.
I HAVE HAD A LOT OF CHANGES LATELY AND WOULD LOVE SOME HELP ON HOW TO DEAL WITH SOME OF THEM BETTER!!
I would really enjoy reading this book. I know God is moving me through many challenging transitions in my life right now and taking me out of my comfort zones.
I think this book would be a great encouragement during this time.
Thank you for this opportunity. ?
I really want the book so as to give it to my beloved wife and improve in facing the challenging of life in the marim.onial home. Thanks for what you sacrifice to better my home as God would have it
I have a feeling that God is about to take me through a transition in my life given that mom.has cancer and we don’t know if she will be back on chemo next week. We do know thst it is incurable unless God steps in so I have been told by someone trusted that God is changing me to be able to handle what is ahead of me. Change has never come easy for me and over the last year it has been nothing but change in my life. Plus I am trying to embrace change in my life this year. I want this to be the year of lasting change in my life that I don’t go away from. I would love to read your book and then pass it on to a friend or two. Thank you for sharing with us what God is giving you.
I have just left a 12 year abusive marriage and am now the single mother of 4 amazing boys and we are rebuilding our life. My mom shared this post with me and it seems like an excellent resource to help me through this time in my life.
Aging parents, disabled & unemployed husband, caregiving, working FT, teaching a class, my own chronic health issues. There’s not enough of me to go around, and even though I know that someday all of these things will change and I’ll long for “the good old days” when everyone was healthy and happy and life was different, there are days now when I feel helpless and hopeless. The inevitable is that things will become more difficult. But when I can refocus my attentions and spend time with the Lord, I come back to the knowledge that my hope is in Him, and that one day all suffering will end, all will be made new, and we will fall on our faces in worship of our King.
Where do I start? I have such a long story and I am inspired by the stories of others and some I really wish I could help due to my experiences. So much God brings people through. More than once I have wanted to give up. I have gone through cancer’s late effects as child and adult and felt with depressing in elementary school when I didn’t know what it was and also in high school when I let go because of my struggles and I found myself crying out to God many times and I didn’t know how to pray I had thought God did not like me for some reason. Graduually that changed but I had more struggles and struggles with faith. Quite a few years ago due to a heart condition and late effects two things happened I had heart failure for a 2nd or 3rd time (since I was young) and also a cyst called a schanoma in my lower back causing intense pain for what seemed like a long time period. I was treated but to get diagnosed was a nightmare having to have three one week hospital stays due to a complication in surgery trying to get a line in my neck for my heart. I also wound up with premounia while in the hospital. I believe God was there then and helped me recover from it all.
Now I have been dealing with mysterious pain in spots of my feet and in both legs from my feet up. When it started it was horrible and I was a mess and I cried out to God and prayed and I am still praying because none of my doctors have been able to tell me and the tests like many tests for anyone were almost worse that the pain itself. I try not to let fear in and give it to God and I am reading the bible and going to church and talking to God but I still need the strength to get through I would not have gotten this far without God. For anyone who reads this hang on keep talking to God. I keep thinking he has given up on me but then somehow he shows me his love and helps me through I still need support though and I think your book may help. Hope I can help someone as well.
my life has gone through journeys that were not even on my map. Sometimes I feel I’m in a car and just spinning in circles trying to go one direction but every time it stops I am headed down a different road. I just told my husband the other day that life has thrown so many changes and challenges our way that you would think by now I could go with the flow. But instead lately, I am even more unsettled by change. This book sounds great. I know several people that would benefit from it. Thanks for the opportunity for someone to win a copy.
Since losing my beloved husband Jimmy last April , we were married 43yrs, have 10 children, 12 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren…and I feel as though I’ve lost hope, I feel alone, unsure of what to do or where to go for help, I pray with what seems to be with every beat of heart, but for a zillion miles away from the Lord. We didn’t have life insurance, Jimmy’s med bills then the nursing home took all of our money And I still have a 20yr old son & a 14yr old daughter at home….I sure could use prayers and any suggestions, I would gratefully appreciate it. Thank you
I heard you on K Love talking about your mother’s memory book. I can tell you as someone who has been around of a lot of elderly people who have to get rid of all those memories and treasures to go into assisted living that ONE THING has keep the hope and faith up more than anything.
I have went in and shot photos of how they had arranged things and pictures as they were in the walls and given them that. SENIOR BOOK and it was if they could now walk across that last stage and graduate. Highly recommend for anyone to do that even before they even put their house up for sale. May God bless you as you become that encouraging person you are meant to be.
The Lord knows how hard change is for me. Even though I know He is right beside me I struggle with change. Coming out from a lot of dysfunction in my life was hard. Maybe that is why change is a struggle
for me, only the Lord knows what I need to direct my steps to change. I will be praying for God to direct my
steps if it is His will for me to read this book. Thank you
I would love to bless my friend with this book. She has very recently experienced multiple life changes, very big changes. For the last 30 years or so her life has been very stable, so change is something new for her.
We recently lost our almost 16 year old daughter to her 12 battle of leukemia. Satan won the physical battle, but our Lord won the spiritual one. So I would love to read this book because I certainly need some help with the enormous change in our home…
That book sounds perfect for all of us because change and seasons are going to come, and I would love to read it to have more ammunition for dealing with change and life.
25 years into my marriage, the last 5 spent caring for my husband following a major stroke…… And he wants us to separate.
I am living with changes DAILY and hoping I can survive….. I need to read this book!
I’d love to read this, well, because Change is Inevitable. And, I always share with my mom and sometimes my daughter and anyone else that I feel could use it.
My daughter graduates from high school this year and is going to college 12 hours away from home – a big change! She told me today that she would like to read this book!
I really would love to read this book. When I lost my job in 2013 after working for nine and a half years at the same firm, I thought I would find a new job right away. That is not how it turned out. After searching I could not find a new job that paid what I was making before. I worked some temporary jobs hoping they would lead to a permanent position but the corporate world has changed. At 53 I was being passed over for college educated candidates for less pay. I also found that corporations preferred hiring contract employees and that means no benefits. No paid holidays and no insurance. I took one position with the hope of it becoming permanent with a little over half the pay I was making. I lived on my retirement until it was gone. Then there came obamacare which I was told I qualified for until I found gainful employment. It was great until Tax season came and I really did not qualify. So now I owe the government the premiums for the ten months that they paid. After ten months I decided I had to look again and finally found a permanent position last August. Praise our Heavenly Father for my new permanent job! I’m afraid it did not end there. In late September the corporation I am working for laid off an entire department and has reorganized every position in my department and I have been told there is more to come and possibly more layoffs. Oh I haven’t mentioned that I am single and have never been married so I was and still am dealing with this on my own (of course with God’s help when I allowed Him to help). I am getting better at allowing Him to guide me now. So that is why I would love to read this book because sometimes I think I cannot take anymore change when it comes to my employment but I think I would be open to marriage now at the age of 55 years of age. 🙂
I know with all of my heart thAt God has been leading me to new and unknown territories. I am very scared and unsure of myself and where he wants to take me. But, I WILL trust in him! His is MY never failing God. Only he knows what the future holds. I pray that I can hold steadfast to his plans for for life and not waver.
I would like to read this book.I am a widower and have had to learn/change to a life without my beloved husband. Now my parents, in-laws, two brothers, and one sister are dead. Just a few months ago my daughter died after a long courageous battle against cancer and a major stroke. Life is full of transitions.
I’d love to give this book to a dear friend who is like a daughter to me who is going through a time of transitions.
I’m going through a tough transition with my job. I’d love to win this book and pass it to someone who is going through a difficult challenge.
I would love to have this book to share with my sister. She is trying so hard to follow Christ! She recently made some major changes in her life by leaving a relationship that was not Godly, signed up for school, and started a job and I think it would be great for her!
I would love to read Kristen’s book! My youngest son is in his last semester of college. He has been living at home and going to college locally. He’s about to graduate and he’s getting married in October. So I am just about to be an ’emtpy-nester’.
Definitely sounds like something I could really benefit from. Waiting for disability determination hearing. Waiting for the authorization for the tests to see if Daddy’s cancer (from years ago) has not only returned but metastasized. Waiting to find out if the nerve damage caused by a procedure can be treated, or will I be “stuck” with very limited use of my arms as well as legs? Some days believe God is in control and has a plan for my life, others really struggle.
I love to read this book and I thank u for giving us all the opportunity to win.I want it for my self then I give it to my mom.I believe it will help me understand transition better.
I thought I landed in the end job of my life. Perfect in every manner. As write this I question change at this time of my life. GOD has to be in control and I will go but change now is what I have questions about or even how to know if he is looking for me to change.
I would love to read this book. My husband is a cancer survivor of almost 3 years. The struggle has not been easy but with God it has been good. He just learned that he has 2 spots on his lungs and one on his liver. They say they are not sure if they are cancerous because they are too small to even test at this point so we have 6 months to wait and pray. Most days we are good. My husband’s attitude is amazing. But I’m treasuring these things in my heart, wondering where God is leading next.
I’d like to read the book because I just had my first baby. Major translation period of my life that I love and want to be the best at. I would share it with my new mom friends and anyone else I felt led to.
I’d love to read this and share it with my daughter. ?