Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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How Knowing God as Father Fights Fear
AMY SANTARELLI |GUEST When I was a little girl, I stood at the top of the stairs at my house. It wasn’t a huge staircase, maybe 5-6 steps high. My dad stood at the bottom, holding out his hands, and told me to jump. He was a strong dad. He promised he would catch me. I leaned forward, arms outstretched, but I wouldn’t jump. I was afraid. I doubted that he would catch me like he promised. He finally gave up and sadly walked away. God as Our Father God is our heavenly father and in His Word He describes Himself as a father and His love as like that of a mother. In the New Testament, the familiar term “Daddy” or “Papa” is even used. These parental words are used over 250 times in the Bible. Here are a few examples: Isaiah 66:13: “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.…” Isaiah 49: 15: “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” Ps 103:13: “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”...
The Hope of the Gospel to Women
KAREN HODGE | CONTRIBUTOR Encourage- [en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, hope, or confidence. “But encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “today” (Heb. 3:13 NIV). Happy Birthday to the enCourage Blog! We give God all the glory for ten years of inspiring courage, hope, and confidence to thousands of women. He has used editor Christiana Fox’s ability and creativity to curate this vast storehouse of encouragement. While many other platforms share ideologies, cultural commentary, or political views, our blog has one purpose: to encourage! To bring the hope of the gospel to the hearts of women. Courage and Companionship In Women’s Ministry, we have the opportunity to walk in front of or alongside women as we walk each other Home. The fear of the unknown, failure, rejection, or suffering can threaten to paralyze us. Borrowing others' courage when it is in short supply emboldens us to persevere. To encourage means to impart courage or implant heart into someone....
When We Face a Relational Conflict
MORGAN FIKKERT|GUEST There it was: the email. And, with it, the anxiety. A lady from my Bible study group wrote to me that my response to her sharing her personal story had bothered her. The added twist was that her daughter was one of my closest friends. In my frustration and anxiety, I experienced two quick instincts: either shoot back a defensive email, or call my friend to vent to her about her mother. Other times, the tables have turned on me. Once, a lady told her friend about a decision I’d made that she disagreed with (although, she’d seemed happy with the decision when we had talked). Her friend then came to me, upset on her behalf. It left me with the question: why didn’t she talk to me about it herself? It should be simple, but we all know how hard it is to talk directly to the person we should be talking to. When a situation goes sideways, the anxiety can feel like water bubbling up in a boiling hot pot—it needs somewhere to go, and fast....
Biblical Wisdom on When to Say Yes
BETHANY BELUE | CONTRIBUTOR It wasn’t long after I moved to New York City that I was commuting home from a day at the Redeemer offices and happened to be in the same subway car with one of our assistant pastors. I don’t know how the conversation began, but I remember both of us making comments about how busy our lives felt. I was a recent college graduate, single, and navigating life with a full-time job in a big city. He was a pastor, husband, and father of young children. Both of us felt overwhelmed but for very different reasons. I do not remember much of that conversation except for a simple statement he made that has remained with me for many years: “Sometimes we have to say no to a good thing to say yes to a better thing. Every time we say yes to something, we are saying no to something else.” He probably wasn’t thinking he was making a revolutionary statement to me, but to a young girl figuring out time, boundaries, and life out of college, the statement changed much of my perspective. The Pull of How We Spend Our Time When we step back and think about the big picture of our lives, God’s Word makes it clear that each of us has a set number of days. The Lord knows these days before one of them comes to be (Ps. 139:16), and He has directly told us to wisely use our days that He has given us (Eph. 5:15-17)....
Fear You Are Not My Friend
TARA GIBBS | CONTRIBUTOR “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” says Proverbs 9:10. But when we think about the power of fear in our daily lives, that is rarely the fear that drives us. What makes you feel afraid? So often we don’t even recognize the root of fear which bears the fruit of not loving others as we are called to love. Am I bragging because I fear insignificance? Am I accumulating things because I fear lack? Am I running others down because I fear not being worthy? Am I a bad apologizer because I fear being wrong? Do I fear those who are different because they may threaten my security? Fear of the “other” in our country has risen astronomically in the last decade. Johns Hopkins did a survey in 2024[1] that showed more than half of each political party thought the opposing party was “downright evil.” In the 1990s, only about 20 percent of people held “very unfavorable” opinions of the opposing party. Fear is certainly affecting our world...
Women’s Ministry: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
MOLLY THOMAS|GUEST What a gift that CDM Women’s Ministry has been to me, our church’s women’s ministry, our presbytery, and our denomination. CDM (Committee on Discipleship Ministries) stands by its mission of connecting people to people and people to resources, and the trellis it has built to connect women is bearing abundant fruit across the nation and around the world. I grew up in the PCA but had never heard of CDM or the work they do. I first stumbled upon CDM the day that I had agreed to serve as the volunteer Women’s Ministry Director at our church. I knew I had stumbled upon a treasure trove of resources, but I hadn’t yet discovered the people. Registration had ended for Leadership Training 2024, but in God’s providence, He had a spot for me on the wait list. The theme that year was “A Covenantal Framework for Life and Ministry,” and for the first time in my life, I received a full overview of Covenant Theology and what it meant for me as a redeemed woman. Not only that, but God used the many speakers and facilitators there to show me that to be a Helper is a calling and a command, and that I had work to do in the Church!!...
