August Book Club
You know the feeling of encountering a kindred spirit, if only through their words, and suddenly you feel a little less alone in the world?
I had a moment like that a few weeks ago. A sweet friend simply tagged me in an instagram post and wrote the sweetest note of encouragement in the comments. She said that I reminded her of the person who had written the post and that I was a gift. I don’t know why it hit me so deeply, but just reading those kind words brought tears to my eyes and gave me such a deep sense of affirmation. As I scrolled through the feed of Anjuli Paschall, the author of this particular feed, and I looked at her beautiful family and read her heart filled, soulful and raw words, tears continued streaming down my face.
God in his loving kindness was gently whispering to my heart through my friend Kathy and then through this new voice of Anjuli Paschall. I learned Anjuli was a member of a writing group I belong to already and that she had just just released a book in March called, Stay. How ironic to release a book with that title at the beginning of a season of quarantine. His timing is always perfect, and I believed that He purposed to bring me to this place at this time just as He timed the release of her book at exactly the point in history that her words would have greatest impact. As I glanced through the book description, it didn’t take me long to know I wanted to read this book. She was speaking to me, to my pain, to my struggle.
Here is an excerpt from the book…
"Women's hearts are dying. Right there in the middle pew of our church sanctuaries, our souls are slowly slipping away. It is a vicious pull between doing more and drowning. Life feels like a string of constant disappointments: unpleasant surprises in marriage, friendships dissolving, miscarriages, postpartum depression, months on end with little appreciation and almost no sleep...... We walk and move while years go by and we wonder what happened to the person we once knew. A fog rolls in slowly and silently. We live on the surface, somehow just surviving."
By page 16, I knew I was already all in with her message because it is also my 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚌𝚛𝚢, the problem I see and can’t unsee, the one I've experienced and gained freedom from but to a certain degree, still experience.
The reason I created this website and Wholehearted Mom Community is because I see a generation of women wanting to live free and wild and fully alive, but we are bound up in so much bondage from the enemy of our hearts and dreams. I know that I know that this is my 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎, to speak truth and life into women.
We must DO less and STAY more. I want to live in a way that doesn’t demand more of myself and others, but in a way that listens more and LOVES more. Oh, So much more. I believe God has called me to be a catalyst for this one little movement among many other movements. And just like he used the voice of Kathy and Anjuli to speak to my one little heart, I pray and hope that my words might reach just one person and help them feel a little bit less alone.
If you’d like to join our community and/or participate in the book club, you can click here to grab your copy of the book from my little amazon storefront where I have begun to collect some of my favorite things or just grab a copy from your favorite book retailer!
Then, click here to join our facebook community discussion!
XoXo - Abby