Courage Dear Heart

I love stories. I love stories of lives well lived, of battles won and love coming out on top. I believe that our stories are incredibly powerful, they are stories of hope, of life, of courage and of love, they can push other people forward knowing others have been there ahead of them and come out the other side.

My dream for this blog is that it becomes a place where stories of overcoming can be told, a place of encouragement, a place where you hear the words you “you are not alone in this”, a place that pushes people forward with love towards healing, restoration and all the “more” there is to be had.I want people to read the stories on this blog and be encouraged that actually there is always a way forward, that however hard it feels it is never the end, that there is always beauty to be found in the broken places.

I know that sometimes life can feel overwhelmingly hard and disappointments can crush us but I believe so passionately we are here to be each other’s hope, to hold each other’s hands as we walk this funny journey of life together.

So I will be starting with stories of people I know, people who have been brave enough and kind enough to let me share with you all but I would love to hear and share your stories, stories of people I don’t know because I believe these stories need to be told and I want to hear them and I am pretty sure others do too! So if you feel brave enough I would love to hear from you and you can contact me through the contact page.

I would also love to be able to pray for you, maybe right now life feels to0 hard, maybe you feel alone in that and not sure of the way forward – again if you feel brave enough I would love to here from you, all confidentially of course. I believe prayer works and that it changes things!!

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About

So my name is Becky, and I live in Sheffield in England. I am a lawyer working in the charity sector and am a single mum to a lovely little lady.

My story is a story I have written about before (www.beckyforder.com) so I don’t intend to repeat it on this blog but the reason I feel so passionately about the things I want this project to be about are because of the lessons I have learnt, the things God has set in my heart, the passions that have grown, coming out of that story.

Ten years ago, with no warning whatsoever, my precious husband, John, died. He was 28 and was fit and well. He fell ill and within 18 hours had gone. I was 6 months pregnant with our first child, Lucy. It ripped my world apart, it threw me into a place I never anticipated being. The pain was overwhelming at times, a lot of the time, there were lots of wrestles and struggles, it pushed my faith to the limits and those closest to me too!!

The 10 years since have been a funny old journey, a crazy mix of pain and joy. Lessons of holding on, of forgiveness and grace, of keeping on loving even when it hurts and its hard, of trusting, of choosing life and not bitterness, of identity, of faith, of community. So many beautiful and life-giving lessons which could only have come through the agony, the desperation, the loss, the emptiness. Would I have chosen those lessons over having him here? NO absolutely not! But there wasn’t an either or option, I didn’t get to chose how it played it out I could only walk the path I had been given. I haven’t always walked it well, in fact a lot of the time it has been hideously messy but I can say with absolute certainty that I am incredibly blessed and there has been so much beauty in the midst of and because of the mess.

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Contact

This is a contact page with some basic contact information and a contact form.