UWShine Collection

Dear Enduring One, I see you there with your hair pulled into a ponytail and some makeup splashed on your face to hide your pale cheeks. I see your dry, chapped hands rubbed raw from clenching them often. I can see the worry in your eyes because I’ve seen that look in my own mirror. How I wish I could help you see, this too, shall pass. No matter what the doctors prescribe or nurses say you know only God knows the answers. Would it help if I told you that relying on Jesus to walk with you means that He can also carry you? But you have to ask him first. You have to believe that he will carry you. As women we are

Dear Working Mom, You wake up each morning weary, tired not sure how you are going to get through another day. You anxiously reach for that cup of hot vanilla flavored coffee anticipating the caffeine rush.  You struggle to get the kids and yourself out the door feeling a bit overwhelmed as to what awaits you at the office.  As you approach your desk and power up your computer, a voice inside you whispers, give me your day and I will give you my strength. You take a deep breath, relinquish your heart, and the peace of God surpasses your soul. The pressures of work suddenly seem to subside.  You and your boss are getting along, in fact she pays you a nice compliment.  Your

Dear Fearful One, Each day you desperately try holding everything together. Through the to-do list and life’s routines it can sometimes be easy to distract yourself from those haunting thoughts that are always just at the surface of your mind. You feel the tension throughout your whole being. Out in public you smile all while trembling inside hoping that no one notices what you see in your own weary eyes. At night, when all is quiet your head starts in with the “what if’s” as you long for sleep to set in. Fear is exhausting. This is a burden you were not meant to bear. You are a daughter of the Lord and He has an enemy. This enemy is scared to his very core

Dear Working Woman, You are a beautiful example of diligence, dedication and hard work. Although many times you feel as though you are just going through the motions of your tedious routine, you are in fact persevering under the pressure and being shaped into a woman of great strength. You rise each day giving yourself fully to the work of the Lord, asking Him to guide your steps and give you the strength needed to be a light in your not so godly work place, facing the office gossip and trying to remember who you are in Christ while still checking off your own to do list in your head……others wonder how you manage to balance it all so seamlessly. I need to go to

Dearest Griever, I want to challenge you to set a glass in the middle of your kitchen table and pray over that glass every morning. Listen for God’s whisper when He shares with you the name of someone who needs YOU. Reach out to that person and pour into them, you never know who needs to hear the words “I’ve been praying for you!” Then add a marble to the glass every time you pray for them until you see your glass as half full. It’ll be difficult at times, like spiritual growing pains. Allow God to use you and your story to bless someone else. And know that quite possibly, your name may be on someone else’s marble as well. You’ve come so far