If the last chapter of my life could be labeled, it would be “Breaking Generational Cycles.” For those who are unaware, generational cycles are patterns passed down from each generation of your family - they can be both good & bad!

The chapter I’m currently living is titled “Foundations.” After you’ve been broken down and stripped, and burned every bridge - you have to build a new foundation. My journey through the pro-life movement and large ministries shaped my character.

My personal journey in standing alone for what I believed in, within a particular movement built a new foundation with God. This foundation is preparing me for a new season of life that God has yet to reveal to me…Join me in my new series on this journey starting today with Part 1!

“24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Matthew 7:24-27

God is currently building in me a foundation for His plans. He broke generational cycles through my many ministry opportunities, which you can read about in my book Becoming and my other Tirzah¨ articles. (To access these articles click on my name above).

God and I have been working in this last season of my life. He has stripped me of all excess and laid a new foundation, brick by brick. It has been a season of quiet. It has been a season where I chose to be less public, while I reflect on my journey from past to present. Today, in July 2023, it is the first day I’ve written outside of my journal about my own life in over a year.

It is significant for me as I have spent the last seven years of my life writing publicly about my life here on ¨Tirzah¨ and sharing a spotlight in the pro-life movement! It was such a special moment to spend the last year privately recording my thoughts, reflecting on the past, and dreaming of a future yet to be determined.

The significance of this day is that exactly one year ago, I moved back into my biological father’s home. I took a leap of faith and left my job working within the pro-life movement. I chose to take another leap of faith and devoted myself to working with teenage girls and young adult women online (stay tuned for later parts of this on-going story).

This was me going back in space and time that a younger me dreamed of. The non-profits were God’s path for me and things I would not have naturally chosen to do.

As a child, I never dreamed of running ministries, or working in the pro-life movement, or many of the other opportunities that have been placed in my life for that matter. I was raised in an environment that proscribed women as being solely a wife and a mother; a circle that believed and reinforced to women that they were only created for one purpose - to procreate.

I disagreed with that upbringing and God took me on an exploratory journey to undo what I was taught. He showed me who I truly was to HIM, as a woman, as a daughter, and as a precious human that He intentionally created. My identity is not solely to be a “wife” or a “mother”. My identity must first be grounded as a daughter of the King; every other identity falls underneath it.

Even still, to this day, I believe that the most precious identities, after being a daughter of the king, are those of wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. However, those relationships must always stem from being firmly rooted in knowing exactly who I am. About six months ago, I found every letter I wrote to my future husband, a husband that as of right now, I do not yet have, and have not yet met.

At 31 years old reading the letters I wrote, I read the desires of a girl’s heart; a desire to be loved, seen, and truly known. I put all of those letters into a binder to give to the man I will one day marry. They are his letters to read; meant for his eyes only.

Reading through them, I find them embarrassing, silly even. Yet, deep down, I believe and I know he will love reading all of those letters written by someone who spent years praying for him without even knowing him.

A consistent theme throughout my teenage years was a desire to be a ¨stay-at-home¨ mother to raise children (and adopt), and to serve the community. Somewhere along the way, the world got mixed in with that. A world that says being a wife and a mom is not important. Women need to lead.

You need to show men that women can do anything. I encountered plenty of pastors who said just that. I have been told that my love of Jesus means I should take a platform in ministry. I have never had the desire to be a pastor, however. I have desired to serve the Lord and partner with what He is doing on this earth.

In hindsight, I am so glad God took me on the journey He did. Growing up with the church background I had, I was so unsure of my identity in Christ. Every time I took a new job, worked with a new client, and explored a new country, I discovered that God had given me the courage and ability to do INCREDIBLE things on my own as His daughter.

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Philippians  4:13

Those were important steps. I learned that I could stand on my own two feet. I found God everywhere I went. So many hours were spent driving from place to place and talking with God. While other girls went out on dates and went shopping, I spent hours in nature and in my car talking to God.

One of the things God has taught me is simply: serve and be with Him. He is the one who orders our steps and every piece of our life. There is no reason to worry about the day I will get married (not saying I never do), the children I have, or where I will one day have a home. Instead, I can choose to have a grand adventure. 

Speaking of grand adventures, the “quiet” life can equally be a grand adventure if you so choose. I always choose to say “yes” to Jesus and then wonder what on earth I said “yes” to. After I left yet another company that I got to help lead, God placed me in the streets. For the first time, God had me door-to-door in the pro-life movement for a little over a year. This was not something I had done before or ever dreamed of doing. However, God pulled me right in.

It all started with a challenge from a leader in my life. She told me if I wanted to be the best at what I do, I should know all of the legislation for the pro-life movement. I am highly competitive when it comes to my professional life, so I accepted the challenge she did not realize she issued. I printed every single page of ¨Roe v. Wade¨ and carried it around in a folder.

I spent hours studying each page and tracing all of the laws. Then, I went and found the legislation and statistics for every state in the United States. Somehow (obviously God) I ended up right in the middle of a job opening to work educating people in the state of Wisconsin about the pro-life movement. This was October of 2021.

I’ve had a lot of jobs and I have loved a lot of jobs. This was incredibly fun because it allowed my life experiences to merge. I had spent years serving young adult women who wanted to present with me and my work. In addition, I loved getting to know people in the community.

Suddenly, I was thrust into a role where people encouraged me to invite every young adult woman AND man to come to work with me and get paid. This company went above and beyond anything I had experienced. Stay tuned for part 2 of this continual series!