ZionMagazine-Final

with special needs in one form or another…I
had forgotten how to dream. When you’re in the
trenches, who has time to dream about anything
besides getting out?! However, several months
ago, God put it on my heart to begin writing. I’ve
always journaled and it was time for me to start
sharing some of the principles and life lessons I’ve
learned in this journey as a mom. I felt God asking
me to start a blog, so I did, and realized quickly I
was in way over my head!
I tried stopping or giving up…but God was
insistent. For two months I worked at putting
together a basic WordPress blog and I finally
published my first post on May 19, 2016. I was
thrilled and the feedback was good. So then I
thought, how do I make money doing this?? I tried
researching different ways and each time I felt God
saying, “STOP…hold loosely to your ideas of what
you think you should do with this blog and give
me permission to show you what I have planned.”
Three posts later, Sarah Terry reaches out to me,
a total stranger, and asks me to be a contributing
writer for a digital Christian Magazine for women
she was launching in the fall. WHAT???
Of all the blogs she could have come across, she
found mine! God was about to stir things up even
more and remind me AGAIN to hold loosely to my
ideas, hopes, dreams…and simply love those He’s
placed in my life…and at this moment, it’s a whole
bunch of teenagers from our church. My husband
and I have been doing ministry, informally, with
them for the last couple of years…opening our
home for hang outs, planning various events and
activities, and simply doing life with them…loving
them like they’re family.
My heart has always been to minister to mama’s
who also find themselves in the deep and often
lonely trenches of life with children that have
special needs. I ache for them to know they are
not alone…that they are Strong, and Brave, and
they were CHOSEN for these precious children
because THEY were meant to be their mom! I
firmly believe God still has a calling on my life
to minister to these mama’s. But God is also
beginning to show me that His calling is bigger
and is to include teenagers; to be another voice He
will use to show them their worth, to combat the
lies of the enemy that they have come to believe,
and to be an example of what it looks like to
have a strong marriage, especially for the teenage
boys…
It’s not clear, yet, what God is doing. Interestingly,
I am starting to realize that Sarah finding me on
the internet was no accident. It turns out God
has given Sarah a very big God-sized dream and
somehow, I think Dave and I are a piece of it.
Only time will tell. In the meantime, Dave and
I will continue to be faithful to finish raising our
daughters to the best of our ability, I will continue
to love on mamas and teens, and I will continue
to write. The rest is up to God to reveal in His time
and His way. But one thing is certain…whatever is
next is going to be beyond anything I could come
up with on my own, because that’s what God has
been showing me year in and year out and I trust
Him…
Roots
Heather Paul
Roots. We all have them. We all began with
them. All roots look different and their depths
are not the same, but we each began with a tiny
shoot, as the Lord knitted us together in the
depths of the Earth and intricately placed us into
our mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13-16).
God’s Word has much to say about roots
throughout the Old and New Testament. The
inspired Word of God speaks of the withering of
roots, the planting of roots and fruit bearing roots
that are firmly planted. In Isaiah 11, the prophet
gives great detail of the branch of Jesse, and how
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