Restore our fortunes, LORD, as streams renew the desert. Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest (Psalm 126:5-6). One phone call on August 18, 1999 changed my life forever. One phone call sent me on a journey of spiritual awakening that eventually...

I am a capable, strong woman and even as a little girl I loved to calculate, map and plan everything in my life. I had things working for me until I was faced with my biggest life-changing situation. A newborn and disease When my third daughter, Isabella, was born full term at 9.5 lbs, we were thrilled. Her older sisters had both been born...

Did you know that women are twice as likely as men to diet, even though men are more likely to be "overweight?" Or that black women diet as frequently as or more frequently than white women? And that a quarter of all pregnant women are actually distressed by weight gain? The fact is, eating disorders have no bounds. Although the majority struggling...

I am a New York City Police Officer. On July 12, 1986, I was on patrol in Central Park and stopped to question three teenagers. While I was questioning them, the oldest, a fifteen-year-old, took out a gun and shot me in the head and neck. Thanks to the quick action of my fellow police officers, I was rushed to a hospital. A few days later, once...

My father’s suicide catapulted me into a time of deep grief, a time when I questioned all I thought I knew about God, while clinging to Him daily for the strength to get through the pain. In those first shock-filled days after I heard the news that my father had hung himself in the basement of our home, my heart would scream: "NO, NO, don’t...