A Friend In MeSample

“Our Stories”

Authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are the creators of the brilliant book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. Focusing on the three particular abuses for the world’s women—sex trafficking, gender-based violence, and maternal mortality—they offered solutions, such as girls’ education and microfinance, for these tragedies. They have seen how outsiders can truly make a significant difference in the lives of women suffering these injustices. Their book gives example after example of women who have turned despair into hope. We as Christian women need to do the same by talking about how God has turned our own despair into hope.

Your women need us to connect their suffering with our own pain and faith stories. We need to tell them our own stories of infertility, abuse, rape, bankruptcy, job loss, unfaithful spouses, pornography addictions, drug addictions, poverty, gambling, eating disorders, poor body image, abortion, widowhood, grief, accidents, and disease. This gives us a chance to tell what God did for us and in us during our times of suffering; those listening will hear about Christian hope. This is how we model a biblical view of suffering.

When people hear despairing stories that are turned into hope, it encourages them to sink into the sovereignty of God. They can hear the wisdom others gleaned from a horrible time. All of us are bombarded with news of mass shootings, genocides, school bombings, female mutilation, and sex slavery. Such atrocities may have existed before, but now we know about them sooner and with more detail. The women behind us don’t have the wisdom or experience we have gained from walking with God for more years. That is why it is so important that we share our stories.

*How can you better share your stories of suffering and hard times? How can you begin to regularly articulate what Christ has done in your everyday life?