How a body breaking down became a soul waking up
For years, I had a life that looked like it was working. Full-time professor. Three small kids. A husband climbing the corporate ladder — traveling four to five days out of every seven. A house to run, a career to maintain, a performance to keep up.
And I was doing it. All of it. Not because I had to — but because somewhere along the way I had decided that asking for help meant I was failing. So I didn't ask. I just carried.
What I didn't tell anyone was that it was killing me. Not metaphorically, but physically. My body started breaking down from the inside out. Food allergies. Gut issues. Adrenal fatigue. Mental fog. Years of carrying more than I was made to carry had finally caught up with me. The worst part? I taught my students about the long-term effects of chronic stress. I stood at the front of a classroom and presented the research while quietly becoming the case study.
I was a believer during all of this. I went to church on Sundays and prayed at night. But God was not a priority — He was a footnote. A habit. A comfort I turned to when everything else had already failed.
"I wonder what God says about how to live life."
That was the question I finally asked myself the day I got the courage to quit. Not a profound theological question. Not a prayer I'd planned. Just an honest, desperate wondering from a woman who had run completely out of her own answers.
So I opened my Bible — not for a verse, not for comfort — but to actually learn. I was hungry in a way I hadn't been before. Every morning I woke early, sat down, and started reading. And journaling. And somewhere in the quiet of those mornings, God met me there.
That was over a decade ago. I have not missed a morning since.
This journal — Peace Begins Here — is the distillation of everything I've learned in those years of early mornings. It is a five-day practice, simple enough for anyone to start and deep enough to change everything. It's not a formula. It's an invitation. An invitation to sit down, hand it over, and let God fill you with something your own striving never could.
I know what it is to be so busy proving yourself that you forget about God. I know what it is to carry more than you were made to carry. And I know what it is to finally stop, sit down, and find Him already there waiting.
You will never regret giving Him your mornings. Not once. Not ever.
Peace Begins Here was born out of a breaking point and a decade of rebuilding. It was the Holy Spirit's answer to my question — and now it's His invitation to you.
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