The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast

Kaley:

Well, hello everyone. Thanks for tuning in to The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast where we share biblical Truth for any girl in any season. I'm your host, Kaley Olson, and I'm here with my friend, my co-worker and my co-host, Melissa Taylor.

Melissa:

Hey, Kaley. And hey, everybody. All right, before we get into today's episode, if it's OK, I want to share something with our listeners.

Kaley:

Yes, please do.

Melissa:

Is that good? OK. Well, I want to let you know about our annual She Speaks Conference for Christian Communicators. And this is where we help women find, own and use their voices to make an eternal impact. And before I tell you anything else, She Speaks was my entry into speaking, writing and eventually working at Proverbs 31 Ministries. And part of it was I gained confidence to believe that what I had to share was valuable and important. It also helped me not to compare myself to other people but to realize how God created me. So I am telling you just from a girl who signed up for She Speaks back in 2003, I believe.

Kaley:

Oh my gosh, that was so long ago.

Melissa:

Yes.

Kaley:

I don't mean that in a negative way.

Melissa:

My daughter was not born yet, and now she's about to get married. But this is one of our staff's very favorite times of the year because we believe in this conference. We love getting to see you all in person and meet you and hear your dreams and hear how God's working in your life and come along beside you. And so if you're listening in real time, She Speaks 2024 is coming up. It's July 19h and 20, and here's what your ticket would include. Admission to a two-day conference experience with main sessions, hands-on workshops, worship and more. And let me just tell you: Those sessions are phenomenal.

Kaley:

Yeah, they really are.

Melissa:

And we have some phenomenal ladies and gentlemen speaking this year. There's a lunch on Friday and Saturday. There are guided community opportunities to network and connect with fellow attendees and roundtable-style conversations. So you get to learn from each other and connect with other people so that when you leave, you have people who can chat with on your journey.

We have first-come, first-served coaching appointments. And you know what? I don't want you just to take it from me, but I want to let you know what one of our attendees named Nancy had to say about the conference last year. Nancy writes, "She Speaks was just what I needed to reenergize my online ministry for postpartum working mothers. I was falling into the social media trap of posting to please the algorithm, but the conference reminded me to focus on value-driven content focused on my one. I know my target audience will appreciate the more personalized approach, and I fully expect an uptick in engagement because of this.”

Kaley:

You know what's really cool about our conversation today, Melissa, and how it relates to She Speaks?

Melissa:

Mm-hmm.

Kaley:

It’s that the guest teacher who we had on the podcast today — her name is Lauren Fortenberry; you guys are really going to like her because one, I mean she is so encouraging.

Melissa:

She is.

Kaley:

The most encouraging, very soothing. But what we found out at the very end of the episode is that Lauren actually attended She Speaks.

Melissa:

She did.

Kaley:

Lauren is a writing instructor, but she came out recently with her first published devotional and mentioned She Speaks conference as a vital part of her journey as a writer. And here's the deal guys: We have She Speaks every year because we know that there are those of you out there who feel called to step out and use your voice in some way, but you're doing it alone or maybe you're doing it but you don't really know if it's working or what you should do next. And we know also that you specifically want an opportunity to gather in person and network with others face to face in a setting that will energize you, challenge you, and remind you of God's purpose in your life.

Melissa, you talked about She Speaks being a 2002 or 2003 thing that you attended, and I jokingly said that was so long ago, but here's the thing too —

Melissa:

It was.

Kaley:

She Speaks isn't a conference that we just dreamed up yesterday. It's a conference that we've done every single year for over 20 years and have equipped thousands of women. And so I feel like that really just speaks to how established the conference is as a sought-out Christian communicators conference, because there's a lot of conferences that you can choose from to attend nowadays, but to be able to go and hear from speakers like Lysa TerKeurst, there's going to be a lot of other really incredible influencers and Christian communicators there. But all of the content is so carefully curated by our team with you in mind because we know you're showing up with open hands, hungry and ready to learn and be blessed and meet new people. And we know that your hands are going to be full by the time you leave. It's an incredible opportunity and an investment you'll be so glad you made. So yes —

Melissa:

I do want to say something because it's no matter what level you're on.

Kaley:

Yeah, that's true.

Melissa:

You could just be thinking about getting started. There's something for you there. You could be ready to write a book or learn how to do that. There's something for you there. Whether it's speaking, teaching a small group, or leading a group of ladies in your neighborhood, or whether it's writing or speaking or leading, all of that is included in She Speaks. So I don't want you to think just because it's called She Speaks, you have to be a speaker. No, you don't. This really is ... if you are thinking about it or you feel like God has a purpose and a calling for you but you're not really sure where to go next, this is a great conference.

Kaley:

Yeah. It's really about learning how to steward well what God has given you. So, guys, go check out shespeaksconference.com, or click the link in our show notes. And then come see us. Melissa and I are going to be there July 19-20 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

OK, but now let's get to the show information because that's what everybody is really here to talk about. You already heard me mention our guest today is Lauren Fortenberry, who's a new friend, brand-new author. She's going to share her story of walking through loss and how God helped her find peace to press on but really how writing also helped her in that journey of healing. This is such an encouraging message from her new devotional, One Prayer Away: Healing Words to Speak Over Your Day, that we've also linked in the show notes for you. But for now, let's go meet our new friend, Lauren.

OK, guys, let's welcome our guest for today, Lauren Fortenberry ... Welcome, Lauren.

Lauren:

Thank you so much for having me.

Kaley:

We are so excited that you are here because you're a new friend to the show. I want to introduce you formally to everyone. You are a writer, speaker and influencer whose greatest passion is fearlessly and faithfully encouraging women through the love of Jesus Christ. Lauren is also a writing instructor at the University of Mississippi ... Hotty Toddy for all of my Southern friends. And her writing has been featured by NBC's Today Show, Good Morning America and a variety of other media outlets and blogs. She currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with her husband and two kids.

Lauren, I'm so glad that you were from Mississippi because we are like kindred spirits basically because I am too. But not only that, what is wild is before the show started recording, you and I put the connection together that my college professor is actually your father-in-law. So it is a small world.

Lauren:

It is such a small world. And so my husband refers to Mississippi as the largest small town because we're all connected in some way, shape or form. And so fun that you're connected with my father-in-law and to Mississippi. Unless you've lived in Mississippi, many people don't know that the state has a long history of producing amazing writers.

Melissa:

So true.

Lauren:

And so it's kind of fun. I live in William Faulkner's hometown, and I go to church where John Grisham went to church when he lived in Oxford.

Melissa:

Wow.

Kaley:

That is so cool. Well, OK, that actually tees up the question that I was going to ask you because a lot of times Mississippi, because it really is so far down south, it's a really small state. A lot of people either don't know anything about it or what they know about it might not be the best thing.

So, Lauren, I would love for you to share one of your favorite things about where you live.

Lauren:

In Mississippi, you are celebrated as a writer. I shared with you a little bit of the history, but everyone is welcoming and supportive and really just very hospitable and encouraging of who you are ... no matter where you've come from, they're just excited that you're in Mississippi.

Kaley:

Yeah, I agree. And most people have a very warm Southern accent, but I will give you this credit, Lauren: You being a writing professor do have a very polished accent. But I'm sure that if you or I were to play a game of cornhole in the backyard or something, we would get really riled up. And when we get really riled up, us Southern gals can kind of let the y'alls start flying. And so I'm sure you do that in your own way, but if you had never said that you were from Mississippi, I would've never known. And so you can just ... I think that that's a good thing. Lauren, you sound great.

Well, Melissa is going to transition into your teaching here.

Melissa:

Yes. But also another good thing about Mississippi: My husband was born there. And this whole family
—
Kaley:

Look at all the small world.

Melissa:

Whole family. Yeah.

Kaley:

That's crazy.

Melissa:

Born in Starkville though, so we'll just stop.

Kaley:

OK, I'm sorry about that.

Melissa:

OK, well ... tell you a little bit about Lauren. Lauren is on the podcast because she recently released her first devotional titled One Prayer Away: Healing Words to Speak Over Your Day. And what makes this devotional so special is that it includes 90 meditations of hope and encouragement in Lauren's poetic writing style. And today she's here to share what it looks like to find God's strength in the storms of life, which we all can relate to.

Kaley:

Absolutely.

Melissa:

So, Lauren, we cannot wait to hear what the Lord has taught you about this.

Lauren:

Well, I cannot wait to share with all of the women who listen to The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast.
So talking about strength in the storms of life, it's difficult. I think one of the hardest parts of faith is learning to trust God with the pieces of life when honestly there is no peace, when we're low in hope, and when we see no way out of life's greatest stresses and storms. And truly when all we want to do is give up because we feel defeated and depleted. For myself, this season came in early 2018 when my father was diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer. In many ways, grief has a way of unraveling so much of our lives, but this news was particularly difficult for my heart.

I'm a daughter of cancer. And when I was 8 years old, I walked beside my mom during her battle with cancer. In fact, on my eighth birthday, I can remember very acutely standing at the base of my mother's ICU bed. By God's grace, her cancer never returned, so we never had to go through additional treatments. And we, for many years, decades, were able to steer clear of cancer. But the sadness that I had come to know so well as a child watching my mom walk through that journey, it found me again as an adult. Only this time, my father's cancer was terminal. And I think we all knew deep inside that there would be loss. And truly in that season, I could feel every part of my life beginning to fall apart layer by layer: my family, my career, even my faith became strained.

So I'm a book lover, and I immediately took to Google and began searching for any book that could speak to the waves of grief that I was enduring. Because in my heart, I had this persistent question: How do I trust God in the trauma of this trial? But I could not find that perfect book of encouragement that my heart so desperately needed. Little did I know, God was writing that book with my story, the one that women around the world would need and read six years later. So I gave up my searching. Until one day, I had an idea that changed everything in my life. I remembered an untouched Once-A-Day Bible that I had purchased somewhat spontaneously a few months before. So I grabbed it, walked into my bedroom closet, shut the door, and got quiet with God about everything that I had been carrying in my arms and my heart. This practice became a routine that became the most special part of my day. And in my Bible reading and prayers, God did the unthinkable. He joined me right there on my messy closet floor. And over the course of three months, I grew in relationship with God for the first time through prayer.

It was this sacred time with God that inspired the 90-day journey of my new book, One Prayer Away. What I learned in that closet in the stormiest season of my life is that prayer is really the antidote and answer to anxiety. The overwhelming and relentless voices that tell us we are falling short in all places and at all times, because that is not the voice of God and it is just not true. Prayer, however, is how God resurrects our heart with His hope. Second Corinthians 4:16-18 tells us, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (NIV).

The Apostle Paul was no stranger to suffering, and his words really point to the power of a deeper, closer walk with God. We were not made to live stretched and stressed when we rely on His strength, and we do not have to feel overwhelmed and overlooked when we trust in His sovereign love. And I believe prayer is how we get there, because every single prayer quiets the earthly chaos on the outside and teaches our hearts to focus internally on our holy God. This is how we find our calm. This is how we fix our eyes upon what is eternal. And we see not the immediate rewards, but the eternal fruit that grows from Paul's faith. In his pain and in his weakness, Paul's story is used by God to reveal His glory. When we are broken, God is strong. When we are hurting, God is healing. And when we are praying, we are learning to trust God in every word.
First John 5:15, gives us comfort in this confessional vulnerability of prayer as it reminds us that God is not just loving; He is actively listening to the deepest parts of our hearts. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of Him. When we are in the midst of emotionally and even physically difficult seasons, God gives us the gift of Himself. He is the one who will not leave us. He is the one who will steadfastly lead us. Not to winning in the world but to a path filled with purpose and peace. And in every prayer, God whispers, You are fully known; you are fully loved; trust in My timing. And this promise that we find in 1 John 5 is this: Where there is Jesus, there is life. God is not done with us. And this is not where our story ends. Not only can we run to God in prayer in our stormy seasons, but we can also release every burden we hold in our hands and our hearts. And our stress is replaced with His strength as we learn to follow the path He made just for us, because I believe traveling at God's pace allows us to unlock His peace.

I think one of the most well-known Bible verses is Philippians 4:13, "I can do all this through him who gives me strength" (NIV). But when we are enduring the hardest of life, our journey feels more like survival than strength of any kind. So how then can we fully lean upon God's power in our times of powerlessness? I think this is where the rich prayer life we have been cultivating with God begins to really grow our faith. And we realize, one day at a time, one step at a time, one prayer at a time, this is how God moves the mountains — maybe not the mountains that stand before us but the mountains that must be moved within us to accomplish the holy and healing work to which He calls each of us. And as we make one small yet bold move after another, God reminds us in presence through prayer, I will help you. I will hold you. I will make you whole.

Because only when we allow God to do things within us, can He do all things through us. And I think about the Apostle Paul and the passage that comes just before Philippians 4:13. Paul is not reflecting on this belief that God will help us to accomplish what we set our minds to. But instead, the binary nature of life. There will be times of plenty, and there will also be times when we are in need. There will be times of hunger, but there will also be times when we are well-fed. But no matter what happens to us, we can learn to be content with whatever season we are facing in our lives because of who God is. And prayer is the quickest way back to His heart.

So in the endless storms that I experienced in my own life in 2018, prayer in my closet became a shelter. And each time I opened the door to reenter my everyday life of kids and work and grief, I grew a little stronger. Even though I could not perceive anything changing in my world on the outside, on the inside, I found the strength to walk toward healing. And I think this is the greatest gift of faith — even when, even if, God, the author of our story, is not done. And Deuteronomy 31:8 reminds us of His promise, "The Lᴏʀᴅ himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged" (NIV). God is our security when the seas rage, and He is our stronghold when the storms come. And the rain ... I have learned that it doesn't last forever.

In late March 2020, I got the call that hospice had given my father just a few more hours to live. Immediately, I packed a bag in Mississippi and drove 12 hours to Virginia to get back home just after midnight. And I held my father's hand. And I read to him Psalm 27, a love letter from God's heart to mine, a love letter from my heart to my father's. "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lᴏʀᴅ in the land of the living. Wait for the Lᴏʀᴅ; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lᴏʀᴅ" (Psalm 27:13-14, NIV).
Because when we choose to share our days with God, when we invest in a deep and lasting relationship with him, we can lean on this strength in every single day and hold to this promise: God is good, even when life is not.

Melissa:

Wow.

Kaley:

Lauren, thank you for, well, thank you for your whole teaching, but specifically for taking us into the moment where you had to actually walk through that loss so that we could see how your time with the Lord when you found out that your dad was diagnosed with cancer helped you be able to process that better.

And I'm just thinking about our listeners and our audience right now. And actually during part of your teaching, I went over to our prayer wall on our website because I was like, I want to know what other kinds of storms people asking us for prayer about. And here's what I found, cancer, which is what you mentioned. I mean so many people are sick now. Infertility, job loss, financial strains, family issues, anxiety, mental illness, marriage strain. And so there's things that people are walking through. Everybody's walking through something that's either personally affecting you, like your physical being, or it's affecting somebody that you love. And it's hard knowing that you've got to walk through that.

Melissa:

Yeah, very hard.

Kaley:

And, Lauren, there's this Christian, I guess it's like a theology term of “the already but not yet.” And you exactly say those words, but I kept getting them in my head as you were talking about how God gave you the peace and the strength that you needed even though you were still walking toward loss. And this idea of already but not yet is that we're already living in the promises of God, but we're not yet fully experiencing them because we live in a broken world. And I think that that's the hardest part about being a believer ... is that we're facing just death and decay all the time.

And what you shared at the very end, Lauren, when you shared that verse from Psalm that says, "I will see the goodness of the Lᴏʀᴅ in the land of the living." That is such a promise to hold on to.

But I keep thinking about maybe where you were whenever your dad actually did pass away and he was physically no longer here anymore. And I'm thinking about all these people who are walking through cancer or infertility or financial loss or marriage issues, whose story might not end in restoration just like your dad's story didn't end in restoration on earth. So can you help me, and maybe our listeners too, get a little glimpse of hope from that verse. When you lost your dad and you were claiming that you would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living even though he was dying, what did seeing the goodness of the Lord look like the next day and the next day for you after you had lost him? Can you share a little bit about that?

Lauren:

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm so grateful that you mentioned some different prayer requests and some different burdens that are on the hearts of all the listeners. I think each of us are in our own storm. And for myself back in 2018, the storm of grief, that to be honest, I think never fully ends. When we love people, one day our relationship with them will change, and we may lose them in this earthly life. But I really come back to Psalm 27, and I have to share I had met with my pastor back home and we had discussed different ways that if I was there in the presence of my father, just as he was passing, what words I could share, what biblical verses I could pray over him. And this one was just ... I opened my Bible and there it was, and the promise about the goodness of God, the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living that I found and that I hope to share with your listeners is in those moments when life is dark and when our hope feels impossible and the burdens that we are bearing we feel as though we will break under them, the goodness is that God is there with us.

And it's not that we can necessarily know in that moment, yes, this is absolutely God's goodness because we are overcome with sadness, we are overcome with loss, [and] we are overcome with all of the dreams and the hopes that we had maybe being unfulfilled or the idea that they will never come to fruition. But I have learned through prayer with God that He will help bring us back to His heart and that He will hold us and He will tell us who we are in Him and that is never alone. And that in every day to come, He will help us to endure the greatest challenges and He will also equip us.

So I drove through the night, and I was able to be with my father in the wee hours of that morning. And he passed away that afternoon of course, end of the day in the afternoon. And as I was holding his hand as he passed away, I experienced this peace, and maybe some of your listeners have as well, if they've been in the presence of a loved one passing, this sense of God, saying Thank you for your obedience, for being here, for doing what I've called you to do. So for myself, driving through the night, supporting my family, my mom, my father in his last moments, and his friends and all of us in the room who were grieving, it was very powerful.

But God gave me the peace of saying, I am holding your dad, and I'm holding you. And I think the greatest peace that we have is that God is big enough to hold everything and all of us. Even as we feel we are potentially falling apart, God takes care of us, and God will continue to take care of us. And this land of the living is for all of your days ahead. God knows what's coming, and God will help your heart to endure it ... keep trusting. And also, let your light shine as you allow God to shine within you. He has given you that light so that you can help lead others to His love and His grace and His mercy in their greatest times of need.

Kaley:
Yeah, that's so good. And that speaks to the fact that it's not only just believers who are walking through this already but not yet. I mean everybody is walking through it; the differences that we have, the hope ... and that our hope can be a light to others.

Melissa:

Well, as you were talking, I just was reflecting over pains in my life. At one point one of my kids was cutting themselves. My marriage went through some issues. And then like you, I lost my mom to stage-four lung cancer. And I just remember the pain of those times, and I thought about the hope I needed, and I literally would just beg God for I wanted to feel better now; I wanted a quick fix. If you told me I had to walk through something, I would've just been worried. I would just beg God for help. But I love what you said, how one day spontaneously you found that Once-A-Day Bible and you just walked into your closet and shut the door, probably not knowing what you were even going to do in there except for maybe read that book, but that practice became part of your day.

And I think it's important to remember that one small step, the next step, is all we need to look at. We don't need to worry about the whole journey. We can have hope that God is there, but that one small step ... and I feel like your book One Prayer Away, it feels like that is a great small step to get started to talking to God and listening to God and just having those healing words to speak over our day no matter what it is that we're going through. And so I'm so glad that you shared that beginning of you getting in that closet and now that's like a daily practice for you, one day at a time, one step at a time, one prayer at a time.

Lauren:

Yeah, absolutely. And it took me a little bit longer to get through that Once-A-Day Bible, but I was able to read through the Bible and in many ways beyond that season, that three-month season in the years that followed, that walking with my dad through cancer, I spent a good amount of time traveling from Mississippi to Virginia to be with him during treatments to help my mom around the house, to take care of him really until his final days. And the gift of every day having a little bit of time with God for myself, that was Once-A-Day Bible. But my hope and my prayer is that One Prayer Away can really not add something else to the endless plates that women are spinning and juggling and feel as though they have to accomplish tasks from. But it gives them something that speaks healing and hope into their lives. And again, just that it helps reduce the burdens of anxiety and perfectionism and feeling not enough that so many women wrestle with. One Prayer Away is really an answer to that because it's how can I get close with God? Whether it's in the morning, whether it's at night, in the middle of the day after work, where they can be reminded of who they are in God and that He is leading them. He's leading their hearts to goodness and His grace that will prepare them for every day to come.

Melissa:

Wow.

Kaley:

So good.

Melissa:

Well, thank you so much, Lauren. We really appreciate your time and this book that you've written. And thank you for sharing your story and for coming on our show. For our listeners, I strongly encourage you to do two things. First, give Lauren a follow on Instagram. I mean, Kaley has been looking at her Instagram and says it is so worth the follow.

Kaley:

It's so worth the follow.

Melissa:

Yes. And her Instagram is @laurenfortenberrywrites. Again, that's laurenfortenberrywrites. And then also, why don't you grab Lauren's devotional, One Prayer Away: Healing Words to Speak Over Your Day, because with this devotion, you'll receive 90 meditations and prayers to pray over you and your friends and inspirational quotes and soothing photography that really helps create a place where your soul can rest. And we've linked this for you in our show notes.

Kaley:

Yeah, it's so pretty too. We saw the cover behind Lauren. You guys can't see her, but it's behind her hanging on a wall over there, and I just love it. I love a good devotional that also looks really pretty on my nightstand, and I know our listeners do too. Also, Lauren, because you are a writer and a writing professor, I did want to take a moment to talk to you about that. For just a few minutes, so really quickly, will you share with us about how you got started writing personally, not just professionally as an instructor because I know we talked about that at the beginning of the show. This is something you do with your life, but it's very different being an instructor of writing versus actually writing a devotional like One Prayer Away. So will you share with us how you got started? How did you know it was something you wanted to do?

Lauren:

Yes, I am so excited to share this because truly it's one of the questions that I get asked the most when individuals find out, individuals that I meet or students that I teach find out, that I'm a writer: How did you get started? And for myself in my second master's degree, I got a master's in public health and did some peer-reviewed research, and it was enough to really show me that academic writing was not the perfect fit for me, but it gave me a good survey into professional writing. And some years later, when I was teaching first-year writing, I really felt God calling me to write. So on the night of my 30th birthday, shortly after my second child was born, my daughter Aspen, I started writing, I started a blog. And once a week would just share my thoughts on faith, on teaching, on grief, some of the things that I had endured in my life and was trying to find healing through.

So that was, I guess eight and a half years ago, I started a blog. And in the beginning, I didn't necessarily feel God calling me to write a book but just to write. And over the years, I guided students in the classroom in blogging. And to a certain extent, I’m still guiding them with social media writing. So my writing transitioned from blog writing to mostly social media writing. And back in 2022, my publisher reached out, found me online, and we cultivated a relationship, which then evolved into a book deal and became One Prayer Away.

And actually, curiously enough, Proverbs 31 was connected in that journey. So after I had started a blog, but certainly before I had started working on my book, I went to She Speaks in North Carolina. And I was so affirmed by the teachings that I encountered there, and it was the perfect encouragement for building my brand — my writing brand online.

And that has even evolved. And now I really see all of my writing that I do each day, the prayers, the devotions, the inspirational visuals that I create, I really see that as a ministry. And so Proverbs 31 has encouraged me to see my writing as a ministry and how I can really help lift up and encourage and give hope to women's hearts, not just in the United States but of course across the globe. And One Prayer Away has been exciting because it's a physical manifestation of eight and a half years of really trying to be obedient to where the Lord has called me and the words that He's put on my heart.

Kaley:

Wow. Yeah, I'm glad that you mentioned the time that it took because things do grow slow many times. It's not always like you have this calling and you know exactly what it is, and the next year it's done. I mean, you even said a few moments ago that you felt called to just start writing and you didn't really feel called to write a book until later. And I think that that's how God works. He does it in small steps, even similarly to how you talked about in your teaching. It was just one day at a time, but for you, it was one step at a time there. And I'm so glad you also mentioned She Speaks because I do remember meeting you; we talked about that earlier as well.

And I love She Speaks, Melissa; it's one of our favorite times of year. We do get to meet people like Lauren who are just everyday people who are also writers or speakers and have messages, but they don't really know where they're going with it, and they want to come to a conference and an event that's going to help point them in the right direction.

And so, guys, I know many of you may be in Lauren's shoes from a few years back where you're passionate about writing and just getting started, maybe you have a blog, or maybe you're sharing words of encouragement in some way, but maybe it feels like you're fitting a round peg in a square hole. I'm not sure if I got that analogy right, but maybe I did. If that is you, we put together a free writing quiz titled “What Type of Communicator Are You?” And so if you're not quite sure yet where your writing direction is headed, this is a really cool tool that our team put together that can help you evaluate: Where do I need to go, and how do I know I'm in the right lane? It's absolutely free ... just click the link in our show notes to take it, and you'll be emailed your results.

Melissa:

That's awesome. Love that. Well, that's all for today, friends. At Proverbs 31 Ministries, we help know the Truth and live the Truth because it changes everything. Thanks for joining us.