By Shannon Toller God's Brave Women - Shannon's Story Barf, mucous and constant crying are not what they tell you to prepare for at a baby shower. No number of pretty onesies and diaper genies can prepare you for the feeling of helplessness you experience when you watch your kiddos get sick in every room of the house. And when you are occasionally joining in on this fun germ-sharing merry-go-round, it’s hard to keep the negative voices in your head at bay. Your kids are sick

God's Brave Women - Alisa's Story There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “Love others as you love yourself.” (Mark 12:31) This verse is a little tricky for me. I don’t really have a problem “loving others” - for the most part that’s kind of easy. It’s the “as you love yourself” part that seems to trip me up. You see, I don’t really love myself. Oh sure, I think about myself and put myself first and consider what’s in my own best interest. Ironically, I think that is a comple

To God's BRAVE Women, When I started this Brave Women Series back in September, I didn’t realize it would be a thing. I knew every woman had a story that mattered. I knew each of us was brave, whether we recognized it or not. I knew God wanted me to create a space where we could come together and cheer each other on in our life journeys. But I still didn’t know if it would be a REAL thing. Now, almost six months later, I am blown away by the beauty of these stories. I conside

God's Brave Women - Mandy's Story As I sit down to write this I am filled with anxiety, as I have no idea what to write about. I hardly think about myself as BRAVE (wait, who me?) or a writer per say. And to write about being BRAVE seems so strange to me, perhaps self-promoting, if you will. But then again, I haven’t always had a good history of positive self-talk, personal affirmation, or consistent allowance of God to remind me of all who HE knows I am. So, here I sit. Thin

God's Brave Women - Elaina's Story My husband and I met in Miami while working for a community development ministry. After a year of friendship, we choose to commit our lives together before God and our families. Now if you knew me, you’d know I wasn’t the type of girl who longed for marriage or children. I never saw a healthy marriage and used my parents’ divorce as the picture of what the Lord called it to be. I was also told it would be extremely hard for me to get pregnan

When I was little I dreamed of having a family of my own, which naturally included me being swept off my feet like Cinderella. I imagined ho