The short version of my story
As a young woman, I only wanted two things: to live an abundant life, and to be a really good woman, wife and mother. Yet by 29, I had torn my family apart with a divorce, and “good” wasn’t a word I would use to describe myself. Selfish, undisciplined and immoral were more accurate. As these things dawned upon me, I did something I’d never done before: I grieved. Deeply. I was ashamed of the woman I had become and the hurt I had brought upon my children.
That painful honest season turned out to be a gift, because it made me willing to try the one thing I had avoided all my life: God. I had avoided religion for fear God — if there was one — would ruin my party. On the day my heart declared bankruptcy, God came and washed away all my resistance with His powerful love. I decided to give Him a try, testing His promises and ways. As a result — and to my surprise — I finally found the abundant life I had always wanted. While I was busy trying God out, I became a better woman than I ever dreamed possible. I wrote about this process in my first book, The Woman God Designed: Living The Life He Longs To Give.
Joy…. contentment…. wisdom…. hope.
God has sown these things in the garden of our shared life together. We nurture and tend these living things together every day. To be sure, there have been weed-pulling sessions and hard pruning at times — not to mention the application of stinky fertilizer. Like all gardens, every season brings a different pleasure or challenge to our garden of life. But it is OUR garden, and we KNOW each other in it. It is not a fantasy or a poetic metaphor to me; it is more real that anything or anyone else in this earthly life.
I remain a flawed and very human being, but it’s all right because I share life with a God whose love keeps leaping over such obstacles. Daily I taste the awesome grace and gentle goodness of God. His tenacious love inspires and encourages me to keep seeking Him and the goal of becoming like Christ.
After over 33 years of knowing God in real life every day, my passion is to teach you how to find this life for yourself, how to grow your own garden of life with God!
What you will find in my books and writings.
There will be stories of my experiences with the Spirit in the real places of life, interwoven with teaching on the Scriptures we have built this life upon. My books and blog teach about:
- The New Covenant of Jesus: God’s plan for sharing life with you. I present the Biblical and personal evidence for this in my book, They Will All Know Me: God’s Passion & Provision For Sharing Life With You NOW.
- Learning to know the Spirit, being guided by His voice and counsel in everyday life. The Spirit waits to teach God’s children how to live and love well. Can I Really Hear God?, co-authored with my husband Dr. Ron Woolever, teaches how to perceive God’s “voice” or communications in your Spirit.
- Why your Christian life must be rooted in God’s love for you and your love for Him, and how that happens. This is the subject of Rooted & Established In Love: The Power & Purpose of the Greatest Commandment.
- Why God describes life shared with Him as “entering rest,” and what that looks like. This is explored in They Will All Know Me.
- How God satisfies and nourishes you, His child. Most people never expect God to really satisfy them in real ways. Yet this is His promise!
- Why responding to a real “person” is very different than following a set of Christian rules. God is a Person, and knowing Him changes everything! This concept is covered thoroughly in both The Woman God Designed and They Will All Know Me.
I take very seriously the matter of being entrusted with influencing your heart and shaping your faith towards God. I don’t claim perfect doctrine, but I do claim a right motive: to know and understand God as He reveals Himself in His Word, not through the lens of my own comfort or preference.
God is more wonderful, good, and satisfying to know than you have dared to imagine.
He wants to be discovered; He wants to be known by you, for your joy and for His glory.
The New Covenant of Christ is God’s provision for a life shared with the Spirit that fulfills God’s promises to you. This covenant relationship is personal. It’s powerful. It is far beyond simple salvation, as magnificent as that is.
I’d love to hear from you concerning your own life with God and help you find answers to any questions you have.
Just so you know:
I will nag you to read the entire Word of God! God’s heart is revealed in every book, and you honor Him by seeking to know all He has revealed of Himself.
I try to stick with things I have tested in my own life. If I tell you that God can satisfy your heart, it’s because I have road-tested that promise myself.
God has set me free from the drive for perfection and taught me to go for the snuggle instead. I’m convinced that living close to God’s heart as a trusting, beloved child, is the “perfect” this heavenly Dad is after.
God doesn’t offer a trouble-free life. Even Jesus refused to promise such a thing. You live in a fallen world, you’re a flawed human being sharing the planet with all those other flawed humans — none of whom God will force to behave. Including you!
However, I am always beckoning you to step into a relationship with a very present God who can heal and renew the heart like no other.
The graphics I use often feature Teddy bears and children. Why? The world already has a well-defined image of the stern, holy, distant God. Without pulling back one iota from honoring God’s holiness and majesty, I present the tender heart of God — the side He shows to those who seek to love Him.
Jesus said, “Unless you come as a little child, you will never enter the kingdom.” Blog posts like Christianity: A Family With A Real Father offer you the permission you’ve always had to really draw near to God.
Knowing God is the treasure I will help you seek.
Christ Jesus paid the ultimate price for you to enjoy this relationship with Him and the Father. Knowing God is everything. Sharing life with Him is a joy that was never meant to begin in heaven; it becomes available from the moment you rest your weary heart against God’s.
My goal is to make you so thirsty for sharing life with Him that you will never be able to settle for anything less.
Please sign up to receive new blog posts, which happen once or twice a month. If you like devotionals in your inbox, check that box too. Check out the books I’ve written, and watch for the new ones to come. I’m still writing…. because I’m still learning to know this awesome God.
Because the Spirit of Jesus Christ truly satisfies my heart, and I want that for you.
Tonia
