5 Minutes for Books: Pearl Girls

Oftentimes, I’m guilty of wrongfully judging someone else’s life. When I read books by such renown Christian authors as Shaunti Feldhahn, Melody Carlson, Kristin Billerbeck or Tricia Goyer, I think She must have it all. What a blessed life she’s lived.

And then I read Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace, compiled by Margaret McSweeney.

McSweeney has compiled short essays from dozens of Christian women. Many are authors. All have seen God take the grit of their lives – the hard stuff, the sin, the doubt – and cover it over and over with His love and grace until it became a pearl.

Feldhahn and her husband were Harvard graduates with high power careers until the technology crash forced them into a five-year period of poverty. Carlson’s oldest son is a schizophrenic, and her youngest son fell into alcohol and drug addiction. Billerbeck has a mentally challenged brother. Goyer was an unwed teenage mother who had an abortion at age 15 and a child at age 17.

Each of these women, and the many others I haven’t listed, found themselves in dire circumstances. Situations they never imagined, and certainly couldn’t control. Each found God waiting for them in the midst of the hardship. In time, the grit became a priceless pearl that God produced to His glory.

I found these stories to be inspiring and encouraging reminders that God can take even the dirtiest and toughest thing in our lives and make something beautiful from it if we allow Him.

Pearl Girls also has a website for readers to become involved by posting their own stories. For more information, click here.

If you’d like to win one of FOUR copies of Pearl Girls (U.S. residents only), leave a comment here. We’ll announce the winners in next week’s column.

** The Giveaway is Closed **

Melissa has been captivated by books for as long as she can remember. She resides in Virginia and blogs at Breath of Life.

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