By His Grace
Finding Purpose After the Pain

Finding Purpose After the Pain

When we give God the brokenness and pain we endure in this life, and we allow him to heal our hearts, we become beautiful instruments of his love and grace. This week on the podcast my guest Stephanie Scott shares the painful wounds of losing a child, and how God’s amazing grace brought healing and comfort in her life. Today on the blog she shares how God took one of life’s most difficult losses and turned it for good. Stephanie recounts how she now has found purpose in pain.



by Stephanie Scott

Writing this was beyond my wildest imagination almost 20 years ago. There is a picture from then of me holding my tiny infant son while he took his last breath on earth. In the picture, tears are pouring down a face full of despair with a bright smile for the camera. 

     My son, Wyn, was to be my only biological child on earth.  Despite every heartbreaking effort in my quest to “be a mother.”  Accepting God’s will in this was as far from reality as the desert is from the sea.

      I won’t pretend it has been quick or easy. The anger I felt at God churned through my belly with a ferocity matched by the fires hell in intensity. 

      But I put a pretty face on for the world. I figuratively buried my pain so deep and covered it with concrete. Then spread rich and fertile soil. The seeds planted were sprinkled with the rain of held back tears. So the flowers could bloom in a brilliant hue.  For years I coasted in this way.

      Through God, the grief and anger escaped through the cracks in the concrete and porous nature of soil though. Little by little letting go and learning what He’s saying so. God ‘s staying power over dismaying power every time.

Through God, the grief and anger escaped through the cracks in the concrete and porous nature of soil though. Little by little letting go and learning what He’s saying so. God ‘s staying power over dismaying power every time. Share on X

        Now I am the team mom for Reinhardt University football where my husband is the Defensive Coordinator. I held my son and know the love I have for the players entrusted to me is no different. 

       When people thank me for what I do them, I always answer, “Oh, I am the blessed one.” And mean it! They call me Mama Scott and their love for me is all my mama’s heart ever needed.

       Some of these boys come from such broken circumstances.  The mothering I give is the first they have ever known.  A lot of them are learning about Christ’s love for the first time too. The best part of my job is praying for them and watching them come to Christ.  

        I am like the little old lady that lived in the shoe except God shows me what to do. All I ever yearned for was another son, and God has given me hundreds     

        It is just like it promises in Jer. 29:11.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

There is meaning and purpose in tragedy, and it IS God’s greatest blessing. My smiles now are not for the camera.


Stephanie Scott is a coach’s Tommy’s wife and team mom at Reinhardt University. Stephanie’s motto is faith, family, friends, football, and service. You can find out more about Stephanie on her blog www.hopeshaping.com      

Stephanie Green Scott: A Mother of Many

Stephanie Green Scott: A Mother of Many

Episode 9: Stephanie Green Scott: A Mother of Many

My guest Stephanie Scott suffered the painful loss of her premature son, Wyn. Though she has never had any children of her own, she has become a mother to many! 

Stephanie shares the purpose she found in her pain as the team mom to a college football team. 

My favorite quote from the show is “ I prayed for one and God gave me hundreds” – Stephanie Scott

Stephanie Scott is a coach’s Tommy’s wife and team mom at Reinhardt University. Stephanie’s motto is faith, family, friends, football and service. You can find out more about Stephanie on her blog www.hopeshaping.com

Contending for the Covenant

Contending for the Covenant

My sweet friend Angel Penn is featuring a series on her blog Experiencing Freedom on Biblical Marriage entitled Contending for the Covenant: A 20 Day Marriage Series.    I am honored and so excited to be one of the featured bloggers in this series! Check out this amazing lineup of guest bloggers.


Behind Every Great Man

As a young wife and mom with a house full of boys, I struggled to keep it all together. Our house was busy and loud most of the time since we homeschooled our boys. A great deal of my days were consumed with teaching, and training the boys, mountains of laundry, and trying to cook healthy meals to boys that were bottomless pits.

On one particular day, we finished our school early and made plans to go meet some friends at the park. Before we left, I wanted to get a head start on dinner so put a pot of dried pinto beans on the stove, covered them with water and planned to quick soak them before we left to go to the park. That way dinner would be quick and easy to cook when I got home. 

Between looking for a lost shoe, trying to find the bb’s to the airsoft gun, and getting out of the house in one piece. It was a usual but hectic time just getting out the door to go meet our friends. Finally, we get to the park, and the boys all run off to meet their friends, and I look forward to some much-needed mom fellowship….


My post goes live tomorrow and I would love for you to check it out. Behind Every Great Man  Find out What a Pot of Beans Taught Me About Being an Excellent Wife!

While you are there check out some of the other powerful posts in this series, and give Angel a follow. #Istilldo

Much Love,

 

 

 

Misty Phillip

With Jesus We are Enough

With Jesus We are Enough

As women today we are bombarded with the images of perfection. From the fashion or home magazines, perfectly curated Instagram feeds, or Pinterest boards. Everywhere we go we are faced with the unattainable standard our culture portrays is the “perfect everything”.

the perfect body

the perfect husband

perfect kids

perfect home

perfect car

The perfect EVERYTHING!

Many women have bought into the lie of perfection and that leaves us feeling inadequate, discouraged, and insecure. The lies we believe impact how we live which is why many women today struggle with self-worth, feeling like they don’t measure up, or that they just aren’t enough. 

My guest today Missy Lewis has struggled with feeling like she is not enough, and is on a mission to tell women that through Christ we are enough. 

Friends, the truth is on our we will never be enough, we will never live up to an unrealistic standard of perfection. But praise God when we are weak Jesus is strong. When our identity is rooted and grounded in the love of Jesus Christ, we learn that in Jesus we are enough.

The problem begins when we compare ourselves to others. Comparison is a trap and a joy killer. It takes our eyes off of Jesus and puts our eyes on what we perceive we have or don’t have, or what others have. And that will leave us coming up empty EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Comparison takes our eyes off of Jesus, put our eyes on what we perceive we have or don’t have, or what others have. And that will leave us coming up empty EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Share on X

Instead, we should laser focus on Jesus. Not on our friends, our sister, our family, our kids, our neighbors, our social media profiles, our bank accounts, our stuff, our house, our cars, our problems, or anywhere else but Jesus. Jesus is the only one who can satisfy, and meet all of our needs. 

We love the Olympics in our house and always watch them. Different family members like different events. My son Connor loves watching the swimming and was a huge Michael Phelps fan. He would go around the house imitating his arm motions and starting position. When Michael Phelps swims he doesn’t look at the swimmers in the other lanes to see what they are doing. He is focused on doing what he is supposed to do. I think this is a great visual for our lives. We don’t need to worry about what others are doing, we just need to focus on swimming hard and fast in our own lane. Keeping our eyes laser-focused on Jesus.

In the book of Hebrews Chapter 12:1-2 states, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In these verses, our Christian life is referred to as a race, and that we should look to Jesus, the founder, and perfecter of our faith. Fully man but fully God, Jesus did what only He could do. He is the perfect sinless, spotless lamb, that died that we may live. On our own, we will never be enough. But because Jesus paid the price of our sin on the cross, and defeated death, hell, and the grave, we are made enough. 

Here are a few thoughts from my guest Missy Lewis on being enough.


 

Not Enough… by Missy Lewis

Is there anyone else out there who feels as if you are never enough?  Not pretty enough.  Not athletic enough.  Not thin enough.  Not smart enough.  Not old enough.  Not young enough.  Not funny enough.  Not outgoing enough…

You get the picture.

I have spent a lifetime in this state of “un-enoughness,” and I’m fed up with it!  I invite you to join me and, on the count of three, we can all yell, “ENOUGH ALREADY!”

Ready?

One!

Two!

Three…

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Doesn’t that feel better?

You are enough already!

I am enough already!

We’ve had enough already!

Enough of listening to the enemy whisper those vicious lies into our ears about how we can never be enough.  Because you know what the Truth is?

We. Are. Not. ENOUGH!

Not alone, anyway.

God knew this, though, and He never intended for us to stay that way.  He made a way through Jesus so we can be enough.  The choice is ours, though.  If we choose Jesus, we are made complete in Him.  If we deny Him…we will never know enoughness.

Missy Lewis is a wife, Momma, and “Minnie” (that’s her grandma name) from rural West Texas. When she’s not playing with her two precious granddaughters, she blogs at themissylewis.com. She is a scribe and a messenger with one urgent message – God loves you just as you are! You are ENOUGH already!


Friends, we are in a battle. We have an insidious spiritual enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is a liar, and a thief and he is bent on our destruction. That is why we must take our thoughts captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ. We need to know the truth of God’s word because the truth sets us free. The truth combats the lies that try to derail us from being all that we were created to be!

I challenge you to get into the word of God, study it, know it, believe it, and use it to combat the lies.

Much Love,

 

 

 

Misty Phillip

Missy Lewis: You are Enough

Missy Lewis: You are Enough

We are bombarded with images of perfection. Many women today struggle with self-worth, feeling like they don’t measure up or that they just aren’t enough. Missy Lewis is a woman on a mission to combat the lie that we are not enough!

Missy Lewis is a wife, Momma, and “Minnie” (that’s her grandma name) from rural West Texas. When she’s not playing with her two precious granddaughters, she blogs at themissylewis.com. She is a scribe and a messenger with one urgent message – God loves you just as you are! You are ENOUGH already!

 

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