They met while Jill was coaching Leanne’s 13-year-old daughter, Shelby, on a junior high basketball team. Years later, when Shelby was in high school she got seriously injured, and Jill reached out to her with encouragement, prayers and notes filled with words Shelby needed to hear.
One day Leanne sat down and wrote a letter to Jill, thanking her for the difference she was making in her daughter’s life. She described qualities of a great coach, and how she saw those in Jill, calling her a “bright light” that shined in many lives, including theirs.
What Leanne didn’t know is that months later Jill would go home one night to an empty apartment feeling bombarded by feelings of despair, paralyzing self-doubts and a deep questioning of her purpose in life.
Battling clinical depression and living under the weight of feeling worthless, Jill contemplated suicide.
But that night as Jill pondered her fate, she opened her journal to write in it and a piece of paper fell out…..
CLICK HERE to keep reading Jill’s story in my post over at (in)courage. If you’re heart could use a big dose of encouragement, I hope you’ll join me there!