Amy Carroll's Blog

About 5 years ago, in a season where I was beginning to experience discontent, a wise friend asked me a thought-provoking question. “If you could do anything you want, what would you do?”

I didn’t hesitate. Instead, this answer sprang from the depths of my heart, “I would get out from behind my desk!”

Now, friends, that’s a bit of a problem for a women who has been a writer and author for over 15 years. A writer’s place is most often in a silent room. Alone. Behind a desk with fingers flying over a keyboard.

Writing requires solitude and quiet.

The rub for me has been that I’m a people person who gets cabin fever in half a day. Yet, God gave me passion for each blog post. Every social media post. Three whole books. His grace on this thrilling ride has been fully sufficient, but now our good Father is giving me my wish.

He’s moving me from behind my desk into new adventures.

This post is to announce that I’m embracing a new season that includes an indefinite writing hiatus. It’s uncomfortable for me since “writer” has been so much of my identity, but it’s joy-filled too!

Continue Reading How to Embrace the Joy & Discomfort of a New Season at AmyCarroll.org

Friends, I’m emerging from a writing hiatus to share a message that I believe will be encouraging to many of you. Andrea Herzer, a survivor of chronic illness, is releasing her first book, Incurable Faith: 120 Devotions of Lasting Hope for Lingering Health Issues, next week. She’s guest blogging here today for all of us but especially for those who are wrestling with chronic pain or illness. Please welcome Andrea!

I’d been mostly homebound and disabled by debilitating pain for years before my cancer diagnosis. Being homebound is isolating, so I was grateful for the sudden outpouring of love during my difficult season of aggressive chemotherapy. One night, while reading en­couraging comments on my Facebook page, I felt deeply supported amid my suffering.

But then I read the page of someone else who had cancer. She had hundreds of comments and photos of people wearing T-shirts to support her. Suddenly my twenty-three heartfelt, supportive comments melted into nothing. Envy not only destroyed my sense of gratitude and peace, it robbed me of compassion for someone else who was suffering. It took my eyes off God’s provision and purpose in my life.

When I give in to the temptation to compare, my mind easily spirals into other negative thoughts, like complaining.

Continue Reading Finding Freedom from Negative Thoughts (Even on Your Hardest Days) at AmyCarroll.org

If you’ve done part 1 and part 2, God has prepared you to speak with love! You can trust His Spirit to guide you.

Having said that, Esther shows us that the Spirit helps us to :

Pause for the power.Speak at the right time.

Pause for the Power

In Esther 5, we see that Esther didn’t give her request to the king at her first banquet. Instead, she invited he and Haman to a second banquet where she asked her husband to save her people.

It seems strange, and there’s no explanation in Scripture for Esther’s pause. There are some hints, though, and it simply seems to be a matter of God’s timing. In the middle, there was a pause where God was working.

Speak at the Right Time

In chapter 6, Esther finally speaks up to save her people. It’s worth noting, though, that she speaks at the end of a long process:

She listens to Mordecai’s despair over the edict and his advice.She feels the twinge of fear, knowing that her husband holds the power of life and death, but she moves ahead anyway.

Continue Reading Three Practices to Prepare for Christmas Love- Part 3 at AmyCarroll.org

Last week I started a series to walk through three practices that prepare us for Christmas love in the midst of hard moments. If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here.

Practice #2– Fast & Pray

Last January, I started preparing our moms for new traditions this year. Barry and I have an empty nest now, and our siblings have grown children too. As the family grows and ages, it’s harder and harder to get everyone together. I’ll bet lots you you have experienced this!

In September, my wonderful M-I-L, Barbara, reached out to discuss Thanksgiving plans, and I carefully pitched a new schedule to her. “How would you feel about having Thanksgiving at my house this year?” I asked gently. She’s been the hostess with the mostess for all our married years, and I thought she might be sad about giving it up.

You can imagine my delight and surprise when she said, “Sure! I have some people I’d like to include. Is that ok with you?”

(Note: Don’t make assumptions about other people’s reactions. I think Barbara might have been waiting for me to step up for years.

Continue Reading Three Practices to Prepare for Christmas Love– Part 2 at AmyCarroll.org

Why do I need practices to prepare for Christmas love? Because I’m feisty. And opinionated. And I like to be right. (Maybe I’m the only wretched one here? Or can you relate?)

Also, the most wonderful time of the year comes with the inevitable hard holiday moments. You know they’re coming…

Aunt Ella-Belle will ask you if you’re dating anyone. Again.Uncle Sam will insist on bringing up the election even though you begged him not to.Your much-loved-but-unnamed-friend will need to debate some theological jot or tittle.Your friend who can really cook will sigh in disappointment when she bites into your slightly burned pie.

Brace for a version of one of these things or ALL OF THEM. You know they’re around the corner.

So how can we prepare to respond in love, being godly women who speak up in godly ways? Or how can we choose to not speak at all?

I believe that Esther shows us three practices that will help us to prepare ahead and practice love in the moment, so we’ll let her help us on the Thursdays leading up to Christmas.

Continue Reading Three Practices to Prepare for Christmas Love- Part 1 at AmyCarroll.org

There’s nothing like the Holy Spirit and a great tour guide to help you see the world with a new perspective.

In the past, God has used spiritual tour guides like Sunday school teachers, Bible study leaders, and mentors to help me focus in on Himself. But He used a literal tour guide in September, an Italian spitfire named Sylvia, to rock my world with a fresh insight from something in my line of sight.

Basilica di Santa Prassede, the beautiful space in the picture below, is tucked in behind a quiet courtyard in the middle of the bustling city of Rome. Like St. Celcilia’s that I wrote about last week, St. Prassede’s is built on top of a house church hosted by she and her sister, Pudentiana. Like Cecilia, Prassede was a Gentile, and her father was a Roman Senator that was the first member of the family to become a follower of Jesus. Both Prassede and her sister were martyred for providing Christian burials on family land in part of what is call the catacombs.

Basilica di Santa Prassede in Rome

A Nagging Question

As Sylvia led us around this stunning space, she gave us an art history lesson.

Continue Reading Where Is a Woman’s Place? at AmyCarroll.org

Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves change because our perspectives shift over time. When I visited Basilica de Santa Cecilia in Rome the second time, I worried that the year that had passed had exaggerated my recollection of the place. Happily, not so!

The beautiful courtyard in front of the church was still dripping with bougainvillea.

Its interiors still sang with their soaring heights.

Intricate mosaics still glittered magically, and the wonder I felt over the talent and tenaciousness of the artists remained.

But most of all, my sense of awe over the history of this church was the same. In fact, it had grown.

This beautiful edifice is a basilica that was built over a house church hosted by Cecilia in either the second or third century, depending on which historian’s record you read. Although lore has grown up around her, Cecilia’s story contains many beautiful parts that form the scaffolding of what we know of her life:

Cecilia followed Jesus in the early church when there was tremendous persecution.She was part of a wealthy family, and she devoted her home and land to the church as a meeting place.

Continue Reading Where Have All the Stories of Women Gone? at AmyCarroll.org

It takes a village… to write a book!

When Lynn and I were writing Esther, we fed the draft chapter by chapter to a team of readers who gave us feedback. We couldn’t have done it without those amazing women, and Esther wouldn’t have been half as good without the changes they helped us to make.

Two of our most faithful encouragers have guest posts going live today. Here, you’ll read a post by Shelley Boulos. Please encourage her in the comments and then hop over to Lynn’s blog to read “But What I Can Do” by Cecille Valoria.

Here’s Shelley….!

Esther is widely admired for stewarding her calling with boldness
which lead to the deliverance of the Jewish people. Yet, the victory did not happen overnight. Nor was she given a roadmap to follow with easy-to-read signs
pointing to the path of safety.

So what helped Esther develop the wisdom needed in the face of
a potentially fatal situation?

She must have felt a myriad of emotions but amidst that, she
found herself in a sticky situation that required decisions.

Continue Reading How to Steward Your Sphere of Influence at AmyCarroll.org

Here’s how I used to say the title of today’s post, “It’s ok to be mad?”

I thought that I had everyone fooled and that my anger was under wraps. I mean, simmering resentment isn’t as bad as being mad, is it? I believed that my cheerful demeanor and quick-to-smile personality masked the fact that I was often on the verge of erupting.

But in a conversation one day about my Enneagram* 1-ness, I said to my husband, “I was shocked to read that an Enneagram 1’s besetting sin is anger. I don’t think I’m angry.”

His reply?… “Hmmmm.”

Maybe I didn’t cover it so well after all. :/

I’ve written extensively about my 50-something struggle to feel my feelings fully while expressing them appropriately. Let’s just say I’m still in progress especially as it relates to anger. The lid is off, but it’s not all tamed. I’m still working toward harnessing healthy anger in righteous ways while naming the emotion under anger in other situations.

That’s why I’m doing something rare today. I’m recommending a valuable resource for dealing with anger (I’m not the only one am I?) instead of writing my own thoughts.

Continue Reading It’s OK to Be Mad at AmyCarroll.org

In the past few years, I’ve learned many lessons from Esther. It all began when my friend Lynn noticed a pattern in her story that I’d been trying to implement myself.

Listen –> Feel –> Do –> Speak

Did you see it my my devotion today? Here’s an excerpt:

I’m especially inspired by Esther, who saved her people with her words. She didn’t rush in with her own thoughts, nor did she stay silent out of fear. Instead, she paused and fasted for God’s direction. (Esther 4:16) She waited for just the right time to speak. (Esther 5:8) Then she didn’t stop speaking up, even though her life was in danger, until her people were fully safe. (Esther 8:3-6) Esther left behind self-protective silence and followed God, allowing Him to shape her words. In turn, He used her voice to redeem her people.

Listen– At her moment of crisis in Esther 4, Esther didn’t plunge forward with her own ideas. She paused to listen for God’s solution.

Feel– Esther let her feelings of alarm over the King’s edict move her forward into righteous action.

Continue Reading Lessons from Esther & a Giveaway at AmyCarroll.org