God's Unfathomable Grace

Where our hidden shame meets God’s unfathomable grace . . . 

Confessions of a Good Christian Girl

You already know the women you’ll meet in this book. They may sit beside you in the pew . . . or work with you in the church kitchen . . . or move your heart from a speaker’s podium. They all been saved. They all love the Lord. And yet . . .

·        One struggles with suicidal despair.

·        Another is involved with adultery, pornography, or a same-sex attraction.

·        Another endures regular beatings—or worse—by someone who claims to love her.

·        Another is divorced . . . or thinking about it.

·        This one drinks secretly or “doctor shops for pain pills”

·        That one wrestles with depression or bipolar disorder.

·        And many others feel they can never be thin enough, beautiful enough, successful enough . . . or Christian enough to be loved or accepted.

They’re all good Christian girls who have been broken by sin—their own and others.

They all needed the honest, life-giving truth at the heart of this book.

Do you?

Comments

[Black]

Tammy,
thank you for a fabulous dinner, laughter and truth,
I love your honesty...I love the way you bring beauty to everything you do,
you are an inspiration,
can't wait to read the book!!
love you,
Lisa Black

[Brett & Cole]

T, I can't wait to read it! Sounds amazing and certainly much needed. Thanks for being an inspiration to those around you (myself included). Love ya, Nicole

[Steven Barrett]

Dear Tammy,

I just read through a few portions of your book which I saw at the Hadley, MA Barnes and Noble bookstore.

Thank you very much for writing this, and you gave me newer and fresher insights into some longstanding and vexing problems I've had to deal with for the past 36 years following a breakup I had with a person I loved very dearly, but lost. We've gone our separate ways, and while our parting wasn't pleasant (seldom are!!, especially back when you're both headstrong and ever-so wordly at the wizened age of 19/20!)

Nevertheless, I could never bear to hold a grudge against this person, whom by the way, had the guts to advise me about an onset of bipolar mania on my part, way back in the early seventies before the courts finally opened the windows and doors to the "mental health" systems. She had her problems, but she was at least considerate and gutsy enough to give me a heads up; which is more than my parents did, even though both my wife and I now suspect at least my mother had more info she could've shared.

I'd like to send you a more personal request on how to handle a more sensitive aspect of this person as it relates to helping me pull some loose threads together and how I can best use it in an ecumenical devotional I'm in the process of writing for mentally ill people and their loved ones, et al.

Insofar as your public blog-forum is concerned, I am asking for your and your other readers' prayers for this woman and her. However, if you would kindly reach me by the email I've listed privately in the submission form, I'll have more pertinent, albeit necessarily -- for the moment, anyone -- private information available.

(I've been a professional writer for the past quarter-century and am well aware of the power of the written word and how much damage it can do. And the very last thing I want to do is to cause harm to anybody, especially someone whose welfare I still care for.)

As the father of two young women (and sons) as well as the proud husband of my wife Ruth for the past 24 years, I'm very sensitive to the potential damage a young girl/woman can be put through, not just for her relative youth, but for the remainder of her entire life.
And, as a man, I also appreciated what your sensitivity to the pain so many guys who hadn't a clue to why their girlfriends bolted so suddenly. While I can't say exactly for sure if the same reasons were involved, I could surely identify with my brothers left holding their tears back, especially during the far less sensitive Seventies.

I'll share this, though. Late last spring, while visiting a local public library, I let loose a flood of tears that were bottled up for nearly forty years on this particular matter which helped to explain why I never quite "got the right handle" on how to be more confident, open and much more trusting in my relationships with women until I met Ruth. Even then, as you can tell, it still took a lot of prying and finally crying one afternoon to finally make (some) degree of sense out of all those years of silently suffering as a result of going along with the "guy culture" of dealing with rejection(s) and treating women in general. (What always shocked me, was the extent to which even the girls would participate in such mental games with their minds. Denial as novocaine.)

Although not a prude by any means, I (hope) my experiences in life made me a lot more sensitive than I might otherwise have become and noticed in several of my Christian brothers who still harbor the more deeply insidious side of male chauvinism.

God Bless you, your ministry and your writing skills. I'm having enough trouble trying to deal with an unsettled part of my past, and you work with such problems every day in and out.

You are indeed a Blessed woman.

Thank you for your anticipated response and assistance.

Sincerely,
Steven
Hadley, MA

[tammy]

Thank you so much Steven for your amazing insight and thoughtfulness...to a very difficult issue...I will be contacting you via email...

Tammy