🌻 A Reading Guide for Kansas Christian Women: Finding Your Place in God’s Love Story

Life in Kansas is marked by seasons—fields planted, harvests gathered, storms weathered, and skies wide with promise. Our spiritual lives mirror those rhythms. Some of us are planting roots of faith. Others are waiting for harvest in singleness. Some are weary from marriage, motherhood, or ministry, longing for rain on thirsty ground.

Wherever you are, there’s a book to guide you deeper into the romance of Jesus—the Bridegroom who never leaves His Bride.

Here’s a guide to which books might bless you in your life stage and season:

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🌸 Women in Their 20s: Rooting in Identity & Love

🌸 Women in Their 20s: Planting Season

• You’re like fields just after spring rains—newly tilled soil, tender shoots breaking ground.

• Some seeds are friendships, some are careers, some are romantic hopes—but the deepest roots are in Christ’s love.

• Life feels wide like Kansas skies, full of possibility and sudden storms. 🌦️

• Books in this stage are like seed packets—teaching you what to plant and what weeds to pull.

Life stage: Building faith foundations, navigating college, early career, friendships, dating, or early marriage.
What you need: Confidence that you’re already chosen, cherished, and loved before you take on any title—wife, mother, leader.

📚 Recommended Reads:

• The Sacred Romance (Brent Curtis & John Eldredge) – for women aching for more than the ordinary.

• Captivating (John & Stasi Eldredge) – discovering your worth and beauty in Christ.

• Sacred Singleness (Leslie Ludy) – if you’re waiting for love or wondering about God’s timing.

• 7 Myths About Singleness (Sam Allberry) – breaking cultural pressure and finding freedom.

• The Divine Romance (Gene Edwards) – a poetic love story between Christ and His Bride.

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🌹 Women in Their 30s: Intimacy & Identity as the Bride of Christ

🌹 Women in Their 30s: The Summer Sun

• The sun is higher now, and crops are maturing. 🌽🌻

• You’re stretched thin—watering what you planted, shading what’s fragile, praying the storms don’t flatten it all.

• This is when women often feel the heat of responsibility: kids, marriages, singleness that lingers longer than expected, or career demands.

• These books are like irrigation ditches, keeping your roots cool and nourished even when the prairie sun beats down.

Life stage: Some are raising kids, some are still single, some are newly divorced, others are trying to hold everything together.
What you need: A reminder that your worth isn’t in your roles, but in your union with Jesus, your true Bridegroom.

📚 Recommended Reads:

• Jesus the Bridegroom (Brant Pitre) – scripture-rich perspective on Christ as our Bridegroom.

• Embracing the Bridegroom (Teresa of Ávila, modern devotionals inspired by her) – intimacy with Christ in prayer.

• The Bride Wore White (Dannah Gresh) – wisdom on purity and renewal.

• A Deeper Kind of Calm (Linda Dillow) – for the weary soul needing peace.

• Redeeming Singleness (Barry Danylak) – if your 30s didn’t unfold as planned, reclaim joy in Christ’s call.

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🌾 Women in Their 40s: Faithful in Every Season

🌾 Women in Their 40s: Harvest and Drought

• You’ve seen seasons come and go. Some fields are rich and full, others left fallow. 🍂

• You know what it feels like to gather harvest—joys of children growing, wisdom gained, marriages matured.

• But you’ve also known drought years—loneliness, disappointments, marriages strained, or dreams that didn’t sprout.

• This stage is less about planting and more about faithful tending—reminding yourself that the Lord of the Harvest sees every field.

Life stage: Marriage pressures, parenting teens, maybe facing singleness again, or simply craving something more eternal than busyness.
What you need: To remember the bigger picture—your life is not defined by what you’ve lost or gained, but by Christ’s covenant love.

📚 Recommended Reads:

• Party of One (Joy Beth Smith) – thriving in singleness in later seasons.

• Intimacy with the Almighty (Charles Swindoll) – keeping Jesus central amid chaos.

• The Bride of Christ (Watchman Nee) – a vision of the Church’s eternal calling.

• A Passion for Jesus (Mike Bickle) – cultivating intimacy with God that sustains through dry spells.

• Jesus Lives (Sarah Young) – short devotionals for busy days when your heart still craves His voice.

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🌻 For All Ages: Timeless Devotionals

🌻 For All Ages: The Kansas Sunflower Truth

• No matter your stage, you are a sunflower in God’s field—always turning toward the Son, soaking up His light. 🌞

• The storms will bend you, the winds will test you, but your face belongs to Him alone.

• Whether in the first green shoots of your 20s, the blazing sun of your 30s, or the golden fields of your 40s, your identity as the Bride of Christ never changes.

Some books aren’t bound by age or stage. They’re wells you can return to again and again:

• The Pursuit of God (A.W. Tozer) – a classic for every generation.

• When God Writes Your Love Story (Eric & Leslie Ludy) – shaping romance, marriage, and life under His hand.

• Experiencing God’s Love (various devotionals across denominations) – daily bread for the soul.

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✨ Final Word

Kansas women, whether you’re single, married, widowed, or divorced, your deepest name isn’t “wife,” “mom,” “career woman,” or even “single.” It’s Bride of Christ.

Pick a book that speaks to your season, and let it remind you: the truest romance, the deepest covenant, the most faithful love story is already yours.

Book list: 

📖 Agape Love of Jesus

1. Falling in Love with Jesus – Dee Brestin & Kathy Troccoli

2. The Divine Romance with Jesus: We Are All So Loved – Devotional anthology

3. Agape Love of Jesus: God’s Love Never Fails – Various

4. Agape: The Love of Jesus and the Heart of Christianity – Dinesh Deckker

5. Love as 'Agape' – Theological exploration

6. Jesus Lives: Seeing His Love in Your Life – Sarah Young

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💍 Jesus the Bridegroom / Bride of Christ

7. Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told – Brian Simmons

8. The Sacred Romance – Brent Curtis & John Eldredge

9. The Divine Romance – Gene Edwards

10. Jesus Is the Bridegroom: A Biblical Perspective – Elizabeth George

11. Intimate Bride: Experiencing Jesus as the Bridegroom – Sharon Jaynes

12. The Bride of Christ – Watchman Nee

13. The Hidden Manna – Watchman Nee

14. Intimate Moments with the Bridegroom – Sharon Jaynes

15. The Great Romance – John Eldredge

16. The Bride: God’s Eternal Purpose Revealed – R. A. Torrey

17. The Beloved Bride: Experiencing Jesus’ Love Daily – Elizabeth George

18. Preparing to Be the Bride of Christ – John W. Price

19. Christ’s Bride: Experiencing Intimacy with Jesus – Dee Brestin

20. The Song of Songs and the Bride of Christ – John Piper

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🌱 Singleness (Seasonal or Lifelong Callings)

21. Redeeming Singleness – Barry Danylak

22. 7 Myths About Singleness – Sam Allberry

23. Single and Satisfied – Nancy Wilson

24. Singleness: A Gift of God – John Stott

25. Single, Saved, and Seeking Him – Michelle McKinney Hammond

26. Singleness: God’s Gift – John Piper

27. Not Yet Married – Marshall Segal

28. Whole in Christ – Michael Lawrence

29. Party of One – Joy Beth Smith

30. Sacred Singleness – Leslie Ludy

Sacred Love Code TM

 

The Sacred Love Code™ – Writing with Holy Intimacy

In a world where love stories are often cheapened, oversexualized, or stripped of deeper meaning, I felt a calling to write romance differently. That calling gave birth to The Sacred Love Code™, a set of boundaries and principles I follow in all of my storytelling, poetry, and creative works that explore love, intimacy, and desire.

The Sacred Love Code™ is more than just a guideline—it’s a heart posture toward love. Inspired by the biblical Song of Songs and God’s design for covenant intimacy, it frames romance and affection in a way that is poetic, reverent, and purposeful.

Why I Created It

I wanted a standard I could write by—one that allowed me to explore the beauty of intimacy without crossing into what feels cheap, graphic, or exploitative. At the same time, I didn’t want to erase passion, longing, or the beauty of human connection. The Sacred Love Code™ allows me to write stories that honor God, celebrate love, and still capture the full depth of romance and desire—just as God intended.

What It Means in My Writing

When you see Sacred Love Code™ Certified on my work, it means:

1. Sex is treated as sacred, not shameful – never crude or graphic, but honored as part of God’s design.

2. Affection is intentional and worshipful – tenderness and closeness are written with reverence, never cheapened.

3. Bodies are beloved, not idolized – beauty is celebrated without objectification.

4. Desire is holy, not carnal – longing is expressed with emotional and spiritual meaning, not lust.

5. Love reflects God’s heart – every act of affection points back to faithfulness, devotion, and redemption.

6. Romance unfolds with purpose – attraction grows through trust, spiritual unity, and maturity.

These six principles form the Sacred Love Code™—a promise that my words will never exploit love, but will always reflect its deepest purpose.

For Other Writers Who Want to Use the Sacred Love Code™

The Sacred Love Code™ is not just for me—it’s a framework any writer can adopt. If you long to create love stories that are passionate yet pure, tender yet powerful, then this code can serve as your compass.

Using the Sacred Love Code™ means committing to storytelling that is:

• God-honoring

• Emotionally rich

• Purpose-driven

• Never shallow or exploitative

By carrying the Sacred Love Code™ Certified mark, you’re letting your readers know that your work handles romance with the dignity, beauty, and holiness it deserves.

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✨ Whether you’re a writer or a reader, my hope is that the Sacred Love Code™ reminds us that love was never meant to be cheap—love was meant to be sacred.

catching breath: a poem

Catching breath by telle wild rose ©️ 2025
Theme song: hand me down by citizen soldier

Why does no one notice she,
I don't understand...everywhere I look there is he.
I try to run but I cannot escape, you see,
Hunted and haunted by his sins hes done to me.

He smiles while I scream and cry in sorrow
Always one step behind in his shadow
But I know the way out, I take the blade
And for once I drop the facade

He gets him the glory and the family,
While I'm all alone, unloved, nobody wants me
I'm called liar, deceiver, or worse yet
I'm believed but should just forgive and forget

The ones that remain by my side,
Can't even see past the mask I use to hide.
Or perhaps they do see and care not for my tears not to soothe my fears,
They're Too tired of my pain I've been carrying for years

They don't have the memories of the rapings, but I do,
Who else can carry this weight the way I do?
But don't celebrate yet, I'm not a winner at living
I'm a failure at death, scorned lover of dying.

Why don't I just get better they wonder,
Why can't I move on, it was years ago, they ponder.
But even shadows follow the body full of ghosts,
Like black water seeking to drown her in its coasts.

Choke the dream, destroy hope,
But no matter, I know of the best way to cope.
A different kind of drug enters my system
An old friend and she, dancing to a familiar rhythm

Rivers of the red flow,
This next act isn't for show
She takes last breath
As she finally is welcomed by death.

Psalm 147:3 ESV / 443 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 675 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Psalm 34:17-20 ESV / 1,233 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV / 823 helpful votes
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Encouragement: there is always hope. Always a reason to keep going. God will give each of us beauty for ashes. 

 

✍🏽 Poetry Writing Guide: Transforming Pain to Purpose

🌑 Step 1: Name the Wound (Honesty Before God)

• Begin with raw truth. Don’t polish it.
  
  

• Let your pen bleed what your heart cannot yet pray.
  
  

• Use imagery of what it feels like in your body, your spirit, your mind.
  
  

• Prompt: “Lord, if my pain were a creature, a storm, or a shadow—what would it look like?”
  
  

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🌫 Step 2: Sit in the Darkness (Lament)

• Allow silence and sorrow their place—this is biblical (see Psalms of lament).
  
  

• Short forms (haikus, fragments, broken stanzas) mirror the fracture of trauma.
  
  

• Prompt: “What words catch in my throat but refuse to leave?”
  
  

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✨ Step 3: Search for the Light (Scripture Response)

• After the outpouring, invite God’s voice.
  
  

• Choose 1–3 verses that answer the wound with His truth.
  
  

• Let scripture “speak back” to the pain, like a dialogue.
  
  

• Practice: Pair every raw stanza with a scripture. Don’t force “happy endings”—let the Word stand as the balm.
  
  

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💔➡️💛 Step 4: Reframe the Pain (Turning Toward Purpose)

• Ask: “What can this scar teach me? How does this crack let light through?”
  
  

• Reimagine your poem not as just a cry, but as a testimony in progress.
  
  

• Shift the imagery from decay → survival, from grave → garden.
  
  

• Prompt: “If I survive this, what do I want my future self (or another wounded soul) to hear?”
  
  

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🛡 Step 5: End with Hope (Encouragement for Others)

• Even one line of hope is enough. (“You’re still here. That’s holy.”)
  
  

• Offer a prayer, blessing, or whispered reminder at the close.
  
  

• This step transforms personal lament into communal witness.
  
  

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🎨 Techniques & Tools

• Contrast: Write in two voices—your pain and God’s promise.
  
  

• Imagery: Use physical metaphors (scars, fire, storms, cages) to anchor the intangible.
  
  

• Fragment & Flow: Don’t fear broken lines or abrupt endings—they reflect trauma honestly.
  
  

• Sacred Echo: Repeat key words or phrases like a heartbeat of survival.
  
  

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🕊 Prompts for Christian Trauma Poetry

1. “God, here’s what I haven’t told anyone…”
   
   

2. “My wound feels like ___, but Your Word says ___.”
   
   

3. “The lie I’ve believed is ___, yet You call me ___.”
   
   

4. “This memory still chains me. Can You write freedom into it?”
   
   

5. “If I could whisper hope to someone else in this pit, I’d say…”
   
   

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⚔️ Closing Practice: The Shield & the Sword Method

The shield and the sword

• Shield: Name what fiery darts (thoughts, memories, temptations) are striking you.
  
  

• Sword: Answer each one with a scripture line—sharp, spoken, alive.
  
  

• This turns your poetry into both testimony and spiritual warfare.
  
  

Poetry Pain To Purpose

⚠️ Author’s Note & Content Warning

Dear Reader,

This guide is raw. It is real. It is meant for the brokenhearted who still reach for God in the dark.

Inside these pages, you may encounter writing prompts and sample poems that name hard things—trauma, mental illness, depression, grief, self-harm, and despair. These themes are not meant to glorify pain, but to give language to what too often hides in silence.

Please move at your own pace.

• Take breaks.
  
  

• Skip exercises if they feel too heavy.
  
  

• Come back when you’re ready.
  
  

This guide is not a substitute for professional care. If you are struggling with self-harm, suicidal thoughts, or overwhelming pain, please reach out to a trusted counselor, pastor, or crisis support line. You are not alone.

Above all, let this book be a companion, not a burden.
It is not here to demand healing overnight, but to remind you:
You are still here.
And that is holy.

With tenderness,
—Telle Wild Rose

From Wound to Witness: A Christian Poetry Guide for Transforming Pain to Purpose

A workbook for survivors, strugglers, and scribes who want to write with God through trauma, mental health battles, and the shadows of suffering.

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🌑 Part I — The Foundation: Why Write Wounded?

1. The Call to Write in the Dark

The Bible doesn’t hide the cries of broken people. Job cursed the day he was born. Jeremiah wept rivers. David filled the Psalms with “How long, O Lord?” Writing our pain is not unspiritual—it is sacred honesty.

When you put the wound on paper, you aren’t glorifying it. You’re dragging it into the light where it cannot fester alone. Writing becomes a way of saying to God: “Here I am. Here is my mess. Can You meet me here?” And He does.

✍🏽 Exercise: Write your own “Psalm of Lament.”

• Begin with complaint: “God, this hurts…”

• Pour out your sorrow without editing.

• End (if you can) with even a small seed of trust: “But You are still near.”

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2. The Power of Naming the Wound

Trauma thrives in silence. Depression grows when unnamed. Naming is not weakness—it is the first act of resistance. When you write, “I am lonely,” or “I crave the blade,” you are no longer hiding. You are confessing, and confession is holy ground.

✨ Prompt: “If my pain were a creature, storm, or shadow—what would it look like? Describe it in detail.”

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3. Content Warnings & Sacred Boundaries

Your pen is powerful, but your heart is tender. Writing about wounds may re-open them. That’s not failure—it’s human. Learn to pace yourself:

• Take breaks.

• Pray before and after writing.

• Ask God to sit with you in the pages.

🙏🏽 Practice: Write a “safety prayer” you can whisper before every writing session. For example:

“Jesus, hold my heart as I write. Let my words be honest, but not overwhelming. Catch every tear, guard my mind, and remind me to breathe.”

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🌫 Part II — The Craft: Writing Through Pain

4. Forms for the Broken & the Brave

Not every wound fits into neat stanzas. Trauma poetry can look jagged, abrupt, or fragmented—and that’s okay. Your form should mirror your feeling.

• Fragments: Write broken lines that end suddenly—like thoughts cut short.

• Haiku: Capture sharp bursts of intensity in 3 lines.

• Free Verse: Let it all pour out without rhyme or structure.

✍🏽 Exercise: Take one memory and write it three ways:

1. A haiku

2. A fragment poem

3. A free-verse spill

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5. Metaphors of Survival

Metaphors help us survive the unspeakable. Instead of writing “I’m anxious,” write, “a thousand buzzing bees live in my chest.” Instead of “I was abused,” write, “a thief broke into my soul and left me hollow.”

But poetry doesn’t stop at the dark. God gives us power to reframe. Wounds become scars, graves become gardens, crosses become resurrections.

✨ Prompt: “My pain is ___. But God is ___.”

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6. The Two-Voice Method

Imagine your poem as a conversation:

• Voice 1: Your pain, raw and unfiltered.

• Voice 2: God’s Word, answering back.

Together, they weave testimony.

✍🏽 Practice: Create a two-column poem. On the left, write your voice (“I feel forgotten”). On the right, let scripture reply (“I will not forget you; I have engraved you on my hands — Isaiah 49:16”).

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✨ Part III — The Healing: Scripture as Balm

7. Writing with the Shield & Sword

Ephesians 6 calls faith our shield and God’s Word our sword. Use them in your poetry.

• Shield Poem: Name the fiery darts: lies, fears, memories.

• Sword Poem: Strike back with scripture.

✍🏽 Exercise: Write a two-part poem:

• Part 1: “The enemy says I am ___.”

• Part 2: “But God’s Word says ___.”

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8. Psalms in Your Pen

Most lament psalms follow a rhythm:

1. Complaint (“How long, O Lord?”)

2. Petition (“Please hear me!”)

3. Declaration of trust (“But I will trust You.”)

4. Praise (“You are my deliverer.”)

✍🏽 Exercise: Rewrite one of your laments in this structure.

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9. Journal Prayers: When You Can’t Pray

Some days, your pen will dry up. Borrow prayers. Borrow scripture. Borrow courage. Even silence can be a prayer if offered to Him.

🙏🏽 Practice: Write one of your darkest lines. Then add a short borrowed prayer, like: “Father, hold the pieces until I believe again.”

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💔➡️💛 Part IV — The Transformation: From Survivor to Witness

10. Turning Scars into Testimonies

A scar means: the wound closed. You lived. When you write from scars, you don’t glorify the injury—you testify to survival.

✨ Prompt: “What does this scar teach me about God’s mercy?”

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11. Speaking to the Next One in Line

You are not just writing for yourself. You are writing for the one still in the pit. Become the voice you once needed.

✍🏽 Exercise: Write a poem beginning, “To the one who still hides their wounds…”

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12. Hope as the Final Note

Even if hope is only one line, it shifts everything. Not toxic positivity—just survival truth.

✍🏽 Practice: Take one of your darkest poems. Add just one line of hope. Example: “But I saw the sun rise again, just for a moment.”

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🛡 Part V — The Practice: Building a Life of Poetic Faith

13. Rhythms of Writing with God

Create a sacred rhythm:

• Scripture nearby

• A journal or notebook

• Prayer before and after

• Space to breathe

✨ Prompt: “God, if my pen were an offering, what would You do with it?”

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14. Sharing or Keeping Sacred

Not every poem is meant for the public. Some are altars for God’s eyes only. Others become testimonies for the world.

✍🏽 Practice: Choose 1 poem to keep private, and 1 you could share with others as testimony.

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15. Legacy of the Wounded Healer

Henri Nouwen called it “the wounded healer.” You minister not in spite of your scars, but through them. Your poems are not just art—they’re altars. Sacred stones of remembrance.

✍🏽 Exercise: Write your own “final whisper”—your blessing to future readers:

“You are not the wound. You are the witness. And beloved, you are still here.”

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✍🏽 Appendices

• Poetry Prompts by Theme: grief, betrayal, depression, self-harm, healing, hope.

• Scripture Index for Writers: verses for darkness, verses for comfort, verses for strength.

• Sample Writing Schedule:

• Day 1: Lament poem

• Day 2: Scripture reflection

• Day 3: Rewrite with hope

• Resources & Helplines: Include crisis lines, faith-based support, and mental health resources.

✍🏽 Appendices

Poetry Prompts by Theme

• Grief: Write as if speaking to the one you lost. Write a poem beginning with “If I could have one more conversation…”

• Betrayal: Describe betrayal as an object. “Betrayal is a ___ in my chest.”

• Depression: Write depression as weather. Storm? Fog? Endless winter?

• Self-harm: Write a dialogue between you and the blade, then let scripture answer.

• Healing: Write about a scar as proof of survival.

• Hope: End a poem with sunrise imagery, even if the rest is night.

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Scripture Index for Writers

• Verses for Darkness: Psalm 139:11–12, Lamentations 3:20–23, Isaiah 43:2

• Verses for Comfort: Psalm 34:18, Matthew 11:28–30, John 14:27

• Verses for Strength: Philippians 4:13, Isaiah 40:31, 2 Corinthians 12:9–10

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Sample Writing Schedule

• Day 1: Write a lament poem (raw, unfiltered)

• Day 2: Sit with scripture, write a reflection or dialogue poem

• Day 3: Rewrite the poem with hope or testimony

Repeat weekly or adapt as needed.

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Resources & Helplines

Emergency & Crisis Support (U.S.)

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988 (24/7)

• Crisis Text Line — Text HELLO to 741741

• SAMHSA Helpline — 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

Faith-Based Support

• Focus on the Family Counseling Line — 1-855-771-HELP (4357)

• TheHopeLine (Christian) — www.thehopeline.com

International

• Befrienders Worldwide — www.befrienders.org

• Lifeline Australia — 13 11 14

• Samaritans UK — 116 123

• Talk Suicide Canada — 1-833-456-4566

Ongoing Mental Health Support

• Therapy for Black Girls — www.therapyforblackgirls.com

• Faithful Counseling — www.faithfulcounseling.com

• Open Path Collective — www.openpathcollective.org

• Mental Health Grace Alliance — www.mentalhealthgracealliance.org

BONUS: sample poems and scripture with reflections:

Sample Mini-Poems by Theme

Each theme includes two short poems: one raw lament and one scripture-infused response. Together, they show how to move from pain to purpose.

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🌑 Grief

Lament:
I set the table for two,
but only one chair creaks.
Silence eats with me,
and even the air
knows your name.

Response:
He gathers my tears in His bottle (Psalm 56:8).
The empty chair is not the end,
for love stronger than death
waits beyond the veil.

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🩸 Betrayal

Lament:
Your smile was a knife,
soft at first,
then cutting deep.
I bleed in places
you will never see.

Response:
“You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5).
While wounds still sting,
He anoints my head with oil,
and my cup overflows.

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🌫 Depression

Lament:
A fog has taken my house.
I cannot see the door,
I forget there is one.
Even the mirror whispers:
you are lost inside.

Response:
“The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
Even in this fog,
I feel a spark—
a lamp for my feet, a light for my path.

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🔪 Self-Harm

Lament:
The blade calls me friend,
“just one more line.”
But the crimson rivers
become my shame,
never my healing.

Response:
“By His wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Christ answers louder:
The Redeemer of Israel

43 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,

And He who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by your name;

You are Mine.

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🌿 Healing

Lament:
My scar is a seam—
not the end,
just a stitch
where I was once undone.

Response:
“He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).
This scar is a banner:
I lived, I mended,
I carry proof of grace.

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☀️ Hope

Lament:
The night is stubborn,
clinging to my shoulders.
It feels like forever—
an army of shadows.

Response:
“His mercies are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23).
Dawn is stronger.
One small sunbeam
carries eternity’s promise:
this darkness will not win.

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✨ Final Word: Writing does not erase the wound. But it transforms it—from silence into song, from scar into testimony. Your words can become someone else’s survival guide. And even more: they can become an altar where God is glorified through the very pain that once tried to destroy you.