It was one of almost 30 trips and a dozen surgeries. A loving and supportive patient advocate regularly visited my mom to encourage her; one afternoon she brought Mom a box of personalized Bible promises right before she was to undergo a big procedure. I marveled at the beauty, the peace and the hope that each scripture in the box brought. This was a perfect way to bring God's word to others!

During a season when you are dealing with something like cancer, so many things are uncertain. Families & individuals have to make life-altering decisions - sometimes with only a moment's notice. It can be a time filled with questions, loss, loneliness, physical pain, fear, uncertainty, depression, even thoughts of suicide. People can begin to question God - is He really there? How could God "let this happen?" If He loves me, why doesn't He heal me? I am going to post a longer answer to these questions later... But here is shte short answer!

For our own family journey (which included the cancer returning and needing more surgeries), having the truths of the word of God in our thoughts, in our hands and around the house, were important reminders that God Himself loved us, was working for us, and was able to do anything that was in His will to accomplish!

There is evil in this world - sickness, heartache and pain... and there will be no perfect place until we are all in heaven. But until then, we do have His perfect word as our anchor to keep us steady in stormy waters. This can mean the difference between life and death in our minds as we navigate through extremely painful seasons, like cancer, divorce, death, financial ruin, betrayal, and emotional hurts.  When everything else changes and is shaken, God remains constant, faithful and loving. His word remains a Rock for us!

So, back to our story... our patient advocate friend freely shared her Bible verses with me. I made some changes of my own, and started adding a few hundred personalized Bible verses in various packs and began to make Promise Jars for my friends!

One Mother's Day, I made one for every lady in our church! I cried as I made them; the personalized verses on the little cards were like little dictations from Heaven with God saying, "I promise all of who I AM to you" through each verse.

Since then, I've added hundreds of more verses, and have even more Promise Packs on the way! And that's how the idea for the "I Promise Shop" was born.