Author Michelle Stimpson & Can God Use Trials for Our Good?
My guest today is best-selling author Michelle Stimpson who will share how God worked Romans 8:28 in her young life. Here’s Michelle:
“When I think about how God strengthened me through something I didn’t even realize was a struggle, I stand in awe. I was twelve years old when my mom was involved in a serious car accident. For almost two years after the wreck, she was in rehab learning how to become herself again. During that time, I (the oldest of three kids) had to take over her role as mom to my younger brothers. I remember signing their report cards for them, frying bologna sandwiches for dinner (cooking is not my gift).
While I don’t think I recognized this situation as a “problem” per se, I was incredibly lonely. All my friends were outside playing and I was tucked away in my house caring for my brothers. Even when my mom finally returned home for good, the dynamics of our family had changed so much, things weren’t quite the same.
I’m so thankful that God gave me the gift of writing to keep my head on straight. I started keeping a diary to deal with my feelings and help work through my frustrations and anger. Years later, I realized that God had used those diaries to speak to my heart; to lay the foundation for our candid, intimate relationship, which sustains my very life to this day.
I look back on that portion of my life, I recognize it now as perhaps one of the most trying times in my life. Now, when I hear what other people have gone through in their younger years and how those adversities lead to drug use, running with the wrong crowd, or other destructive coping mechanisms, I am nothing but thankful for God’s intervention. The only strength I had came from God Himself. The consequences, of course, were that I had reason to write almost every day of my teenage years. This discipline was actually the cornerstone for my writing career because writing in that diary developed my voice and confidence as a writer.
Similarly, my main character Tori in Someone to Watch Over Me has actually been through some rough times with her own mother and, later, with her great aunt, who suffered a stroke. Tori is suddenly thrust into a caregiver’s role while helping to raise a younger cousin she had no idea existed. Yet, caring for others that actually makes her stronger and brings her closer to God.”–Michelle
Bestselling author Michelle Stimpson has penned several works, including the highly acclaimed Boaz Brown, national bestseller Divas of Damascus Road, and her latest release, Someone to Watch Over Me. She has also published more than forty short stories through her educational publishing company. Michelle holds an English degree from Jarvis Christian College and master’s degree in education from the University of Texas at Arlington. She is a part-time language arts consultant and serves in the Creative Tyme ministry at her home church, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. Michelle lives near Dallas with her husband, their two teenage children, and one crazy dog.
Thanks, Michlle. God can use painful times for our good if we stay true to him. My time of testing came when my father left our family when I was eleven and my baby sister was 5 months old. My parents ran a business together so we lost our father and our income in one fell swoop. But it made me strong and made me depend on God. What about the rest of you? Would you share a time of trial that God used for your good?–Lyn
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