S2S Sisters: “New Books: Living Faithfully As Women” interview of Regina Rosenberry & Gina Martin

Our prayer is that you will be filled with the knowledge of His will, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power. Welcome to Strength to Strength, sisters. It's good to see each of you, and it's good to be here.

We're excited to have Gina Marten and Regina Rosenberry with us today. And we have an author interview planned for this meeting. So we'll be interviewing Gina and Regina on the books they recently wrote. So we can't wait to hear what they have to share.

I just want to make a quick announcement here before we get started. Strength to Strength has a new book bundle, which includes the following three books that were written this year: She Shall Be Praised by Gina Marten, Every Girl's Journal by Regina Rosenberry, and Colossians by Lynelle Marten.

So yeah, we'll get to hear about the first two books today in the interview. But I just wanted to share a little bit about Lynelle Martin's book called Colossians. So I'll read the description here on her book called Colossians. Dive into Colossians, a devotional study book for reflection and intentional journaling. This beautiful book includes free verse poetry with each of the 23 lessons, encouraging introspection and a deeper look at the text. Explore Jesus' work that transforms us from outsiders to members of God's multi-ethnic family. So that's a little bit on Lynelle's book.

Be sure to check that out. And so yeah, there's, like I said, there's a bundle with three of these books. And they were originally priced at $51 for three of them, but now with the sale, they are currently down to $35 for the bundle. So great deal and great books. Make sure to check it out. And also, if you place an order for $45 or more, you get free shipping. So that's for anything.

Anyway, I'm going to start us with a word of prayer, and then I'll turn the time over to Lynelle. Let's pray. Father God, we just come to You this afternoon, and we thank You so much for this time. We thank You for Gina and Regina and their willingness to share with this interview here. Lord, we ask that You would just give them calmness as they share. I pray that the books they've written would reach many hearts and would inspire many ladies as they strive to follow after You and strive to honor You. Lord, we just lift up this platform today, and we lift up this time of sharing. We just ask that Your Spirit would be here and that You would minister to the hearts and lives.

Lord, we just pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much, Mariah, for that. And thank you, Gina and Regina, for joining us today. So I'm really happy to be here with you all and to talk about these books that have just been released in the last two months. So they're brand new. And we're going to talk to each one of the authors here. We're going to start with Gina and her book, She Shall Be Praised. It is a very beautifully done devotional book on the study of Proverbs 31. And as we were talking earlier this week with Gina, she shared how the Proverbs 31 lady has a tendency to be looked at.

You can look at that passage and just feel kind of discouraged because it feels unattainable sometimes. And so her goal with this was to make it into something that is encouraging and inspiring. And I think she has really done that. So I normally on a call, I would do the introductions, but because they're both here with us, I'm going to let them tell us a little bit about themselves as we talk about their books. So Gina, you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and who you are, where you live, things like that.

Okay. Good to be with all of you. So I am the mother of six children. The youngest is nine and the oldest is 21. So I'm very quickly getting out of the little child stage of life. I'm from Southern Pennsylvania. I've lived here all my life.

I've been a widow since 2019. My husband had brain cancer. So that's part of my life story now. Yeah, I don't know what else you want to know. I love books and reading. My daughter thinks I should have other hobbies other than words, but reading and writing and editing seem to be my hobbies of choice at this point in time in my life.

Yeah, you also do have a blog. I've followed you for many, many years on your blog. And yeah, I think you do have other hobbies like baking and gardening. You love gardening. Yeah. Anyway, I'm privileged to know you as a friend as well, not just a virtual relationship too. So okay, now tell us the story of the book. How did it come to be? What was the catalyst behind it? What was the process of bringing it to publication? I know you said it was like a 10-year process. So what did that all look like?

And you can include in there the vision for it as well. All right. So back in 2015, in the fall, so it's 10 years ago, I was expecting our sixth child. And I don't know, coming up on Christmas, you sort of get kind of nostalgic or considering the Christmas story in a different way. And I was thinking about Mary and how she was chosen to be the mother of the Messiah. And Proverbs 13 begins with, "Who can find a virtuous woman for her price as far above rubies?" So I assume that Mary was seen by God as a virtuous woman. And in reading the passage in Luke 1 about Mary, the thing that stood out to me was her surrender to God.

We don't know what her dreams for her future were, but she was willing to lay down her dreams and to accept this calling as the mother of the Christ. And I was so impressed by how she wrote this beautiful song of praise to God. And so I took from that is a virtuous woman is a woman of surrender. Like so many times I look at Proverbs 31 and say, "Oh, she is a person that does this, does this, does this." Well, maybe it's more of a woman who is surrendered, who accepts God's call in her life. Anyway, so I wrote a short article on Mary.

And then I was like, "Well, I wonder if I could write another article on a different Bible woman for the next verse in this passage." So the next verse is, "The heart of her husband does safely trust in her." So I chose Noah's wife, and we don't know her name, but just imagining what it would have been like to have your husband called to this incredible work of building an ark, and how would you support your husband in a way that he could trust you.

And so I wrote those two articles, one on Mary and one on Noah's wife. And I sent them to Marvin Wingert at Huber's in Home Magazine and just, yeah, asked him, "Is this something you'd be interested in? Could it maybe be a column?"

And he called back, and I know exactly when he called because I was actually in the hospital giving birth to my sixth child. And I came home and had his message on my answering machine. He said, "We like him. We want to start this column. And then when you're done with the series, we can put it together and make a devotional book." And I thought he was too optimistic because there's 22 verses. I didn't even know if I could complete it. Is there enough Bible women to write about? But that was the seed of the idea 10 years ago.

And so Huber's in Home is a quarterly magazine. So every three months, I wrote another article taking someone from the Bible and relating it to each verse in Proverbs 31. And I tried to maybe think a little bit out of the box, like instead of just saying, "Oh, this is a lady that's diligent and works hard." How could I relate it to a different aspect of a Christian woman's life? For example, okay, so the verse is, "He rises also while it is yet night and gave meat to her household and a portion to her maidens." And so trying to look at that verse in a maybe more creative way and not just say, "Work hard, get up early, prepare food for your household."

I looked at what does the Bible say is our meat and what does it mean to rise early? And so I looked at Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb early in the morning to worship her Savior and what it means for us to rise early or invest time in worship of God in His word so that we are feeding on meat and not just milk and have something to share with our families. So that's just one example. But so anyway, after I finished all 22 articles, it took about five years.

Marvin was still interested in compiling it into a devotional book. And so then I added some additional chapters to the beginning of the book and the end of the book. I also put in some side columns on historical information. So it took me a couple more years to get that done. So it was a long process, but finally, it's here. The book is completed.

Thank you for that. Yeah. And that's a really good overview of it. Like she said, the first couple of chapters kind of talk about more in general about Proverbs 31. And then she goes into each one of the verses and one of the ladies from Scripture that she has chosen to match with that verse and then wrapping it up at the end. It's beautifully designed too.

Do you want to talk a little bit about the design process? Like is that something did you pick out all the artwork for it? Did you have an idea of what you wanted? I did not. I did not. Yeah. They made it beautiful. I was not expecting full color. So here's the cover, but the inside of the book also has full-color pictures.

I did not have a visual of what I wanted it to look like. And their design team at Carlisle Press that does the Huber's in Home Magazine, they totally came up with the design. They would show me different things and say, "Hey, do you like this?" And I'm like, "Sure, that looks good." I'm not a designer. I'm not a visual artist. So for me, I felt like they could do a whole lot better job than I could. So I did the words and the words only.

Well, it's done very beautifully too. Besides the words, the words are beautiful and the book matches it. So okay, now tell us a little bit how you envision readers working through it. Who is the book for group study, individual study? What does that look like?

Yeah, I guess I was visualizing it mostly as a personal workbook, devotional type book. So it's laid out with short chapters. I know women are busy. They don't have time to read often a large amount of so the chapters are very short. They're usually only two pages long. And then it has a passage for further study. And it's usually a passage, not just like a verse or two, but sometimes a chapter, sometimes more than one passage. So if you have the time or desire to dig deeper into some of the things that were written about in the chapter, you have that opportunity. And then there are reflection questions. Each one has three questions for the chapter.

So there are 30 chapters. So you could use it as a 30-day working through Proverbs 31. It is not dated. There's nothing that says day one, day two, because I have used devotional books like that, and I get behind, and then I feel discouraged that I can't even keep up.

Yeah, I just know how life happens. So if someone wants to take a week on one chapter, they are free to do that. I know that some moms have purchased it to use with their daughters, which I love. And one thing I really tried hard is not to make it just for married women. I did have a single friend that I gave the document to. It's like, "Can you please go over this and make sure I'm not biased toward married women?" I'm coming from my perspective as, well, when I started, I was a wife. And I probably didn't say this, but partway through writing this, I became a widow. And so that did affect how I looked at Proverbs 31.

It did affect the way I viewed some of these verses. And I think I got a heart more for single women because of that experience. And so it was important for me that single women do not feel left out in this chapter because I fully believe it's for all women and women of every age as well.

Because another thing that I discovered in my widowhood journey is there are seasons of life when you cannot give and serve other people. I became very needy in every way when my husband was dying. I wasn't even cooking my own meals. People were giving and giving and giving money, time, food, just every way. And those are the seasons of a woman's life. And we're not always going to be this energetic, healthy, capable, efficient woman. There are going to be seasons that we are weak and helpless and needy.

And so I wanted to address that also in the book, that it's not about what we are doing, but yeah, belonging to the Lord, we can be a Proverbs 31 woman even in our times of neediness. So I don't know if I've answered your question, how you envision people working through this. I think, yeah, it can be done alone, together, but women of any age.

Thank you for that. Okay. And then another question for you is, do you have a favorite chapter out of the book? Like is there one of the ladies that you just really enjoyed that one the most?

That's a good question.

Probably the very last chapter, and it's not about a woman, I probably enjoyed the most because I have thought about a lot. And I think it probably took me to get through the entire study of Proverbs 31 to get to this point. But the whole idea of the goal of us as women should not be our productivity or what we are doing for God, but our relationship with God. And that relationship bears fruit in ways that maybe we don't always see or envision. And it's not always about what we're doing.

So one of the women that I write about in the very beginning, it's in the introductory chapters, is the woman with the issue of blood. And for me, I always looked at the word virtue as sort of a feminine term. But in Mark, when it talks about the women with the issue of blood that comes and touch the hem of Jesus' robe, it says that virtue, that Jesus' new virtue had gone out of him. And when I looked at the word virtue and what it means in the Greek and Hebrew, it is a word of power.

And that power that Jesus has is available for us. And it's not about what we are doing on our own strength. Because if we're trying on our own strength, we're not going to make it very, very far. So probably my favorite woman in here is that woman because she knew her need and knew where to get the power, that virtue that only Jesus has that he can give to us.

Yeah. Thank you for that. And then you also have, I think, different quotes throughout here. So either a quote from someone else or a quote from yourself. What is one of your favorite quotes from the book?

Oswald Chiemers, yeah, included a quote of his about faith. And I like this one. Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the one who is leading.

Yeah. I know, well, probably many of you listening have been through hard things. And we want to see the future, and we want to maybe control the future. I have found out how much I'm a controlling woman or want to control things. But faith is resting in the one who does know the future.

Yeah, that's beautiful. And he's a God we can trust. He's our Abba Father, our Daddy Father. And we can trust him. Thank you for that. Okay. Is there something that you would like to leave with your readers, or what's your heart for your readers?

Yeah. Well, maybe I've already said this. I don't know. But yeah, the purpose is not to look at these Bible women and say, "I want to be like Ruth," or, "I want to be like Mary," or, "Be like Dorcas." But the purpose of the Scripture is to reveal God, to reveal God's story in the world, in mankind. And I'm hoping these women are just a reflection of God's work in the world. And if we can catch a vision that we can, like these women, we can serve the Lord, but it's mostly the story of God.

The rest of these are just humans.

Yeah, we want God's glory to be held up in the Scripture. And that's a beautiful way to look at it. And it gives you a fresh eye to look at some of these stories that we know so well as to actually go through looking for where was God in this story and how was he working and what happened and what did he do. So that's beautiful.

Okay. To wrap up this one, I'm just going to read a little bit out of chapter 30, which you talked about being your favorite chapter. And I think you have some really powerful words in here. So I'm just going to pick out a little bit here.

It says, "You may naturally be a gifted homemaker. Your mother may have trained you well. And maybe you can organize closets, can peaches, and grow lush vegetables. Or maybe you excel in empathy, knowing how to sit with a grieving friend, send a note of encouragement, or mentor a struggling teen. Maybe God gave you artistic ability, and you can paint, arrange flowers, or sew beautiful quilts. Maybe you can build the kingdom of God by teaching children, caring for the elderly, or organizing office files. Whatever the skill or talent in your hands, you can use it for the glory of God."

And then jumping over to the next page, it says, "Give her of the fruit of her hands." That's Proverbs 31:31. Maybe the goal of the Proverbs 31 woman is fruitfulness, not productivity. A fruitful woman knows she will need to rest, that there are seasons of dormancy due to illness and other circumstances. She knows that she will plant seeds but may not see the fruit. She knows that her life on earth is fragile and short and that she may never reach the potential she desires. She knows that the hidden activities, such as prayer, may have more value than loud and obvious actions. God's kingdom is often upside down in the world's view.

When the disciples asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God?" Jesus pointed to a little child and said that those that are humble, like a child, are the greatest. In Jesus' preaching, he didn't refer to the Proverbs 31 as a model for the Christian. Instead, he gave another list. He said, "Blessed are the sorrowful and the suffering, the merciful and the meek, the poor in spirit and the pure in heart."

And then goes on to say, "In Christ's kingdom, the woman who is weak in body or mind, the one who relies on the help of others, and the one who will never give back as much as she has been given, she may be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." So that is beautiful. And may it inspire you all. And I know that Gina's heart is that this book would be an inspiration to you in your journey wherever you find yourselves. And we'll have a little bit of time for Q&A at the end of this. I'm going to go ahead with Regina's. But you can save your questions for Gina, and I'll open it up for a Q&A here at the end.

Okay. So let's jump over to this book, Every Girl's Journey. And this is written by Regina Rosenberry. And this book, I read through it, and it is, again, it's just a very beautifully done book. Regina did some of the artwork herself, as I understand, and also had some other pieces that were specifically done for this book. And she just has a way of going through the physical journey of a girl through her girlhood years and putting it into a beautiful light, the way that God designed it. And so, Regina, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? Your family? Where you're from? Your church? Things like that.

Okay. So yes, I grew up in the Chambersbury area. And when I was married, I moved about 20 minutes south to Greencastle. So I always said I didn't get too far in life. We're about five minutes from the Mason-Dixon line. And I always said the war is still being fought in this area. There's a lot of debates at school. Which state is the best to live in?

When I was around 20, I married Darwin, and we go to Mount Olive Mennonite Church, where he was ordained deacon about eight years ago. We have six children, ages spanning 24 to 11. And we just recently, about two months ago, experienced our first child, our oldest daughter, getting married. So that feels like it has opened another chapter in our lives.

We live in a little farm at here. We have a different variety, a handful of animals: dogs, cats, some ducks, an old cow, a horse, and 10 million stink bugs, I think.

So most of my days are just being a normal mom duties. But I do enjoy doing some outside gardening. I'm in my happy spot if I'm outside. I enjoy flower gardening. I just got into the dahlia craze here about two years ago. I was determined I was not going to go and do that, but I ended up getting about three, four tubers from a friend. And now I probably own 100 tubers. So I'm hoping, yeah, if this keeps on, we'll soon have two berries.

I've always enjoyed writing as a schoolgirl. My favorite class always was the composition class in school. I journaled extensively as a girl. My diary was my best friend. This is where I poured out my frustrations, my highs, my lows. It all goes along with growing up. When I was 14, a good friend of mine introduced me to a writing class that was done through mail.

And so I thought this sounded like something I would really enjoy doing. So I took the aptitude test to see if I would pass for it. So when they called and offered it to me and said they would be glad to have me take the course, I was pretty excited. I'm grateful my mom paid for the course. It wasn't cheap 30 years ago, but I feel like that was the start of my writing life.

After I got married, writing sort of laid dormant for quite a number of years. And I still remember the day I was feeding my firstborn son, and I was looking to see, just checking to see what was on the yogurt I was feeding him. And I got me interested in food, and I was checking a bag of sugar to see how much was in the yogurt. And I feel like that was sort of the start of introducing me back into the writing world.

So yeah, that's a little bit about me there. Thank you for that. Okay. Now tell us a little bit of what was the catalyst behind the book and what was the process that brought the book to publication. I think you too had about 10 years into it.

We never dreamed when she was starting hers at the same time, this idea, I was approaching some publishers about mine. And yeah, it's been so fun how our writing paths never dreamed they would be published eventually a month from each other. But it's been really special. We go to church together, and we're also second cousins. So it's really fun to share this writing journey together.

I never dreamed my first book would be about puberty and menstruation. If anybody would have told me that, I know a friend, someone recently said, "It wasn't about food." I was like, "No, it actually wasn't."

But it sort of started when my oldest daughter was turning 10, and I knew I soon would need to give her her I knew she was soon going to start the changes that all girls go through. And I knew I'd need to give her some information she needed to know. I thought it might be easier to have a book to give her, maybe where it's simply written would be easier for her to just read and we could discuss it. But when I browsed through local bookstores, I felt like everything I found was either too much information or too crude of illustrations. I just didn't feel like I had anything that would be workable. And so I remember when the thought came to my mind, I was like, "Why don't you just write a book?"

And I'm thinking, "Oh, no. No, no thanks." And promptly dismissed it. But the thought just kept returning. My daughter kept getting older. And I started seriously thinking about it. So I thought, "Well, I'm not going to go to the work of writing it if no one would publish it." So the next step was I approached Leon Yoda from Christian Light at that time and gave him a general idea of what I had in mind. I said, "Would you even consider printing something like that?" And he said, "Absolutely." He said he feels like there would definitely be a need for that. And so I was like, "Well, if I have a publisher interested, I talked to other moms, and they said yes, they would love to have a resource like that for their girls."

So I felt like I didn't have any excuses left. There were some years where it felt like I didn't get a lot written because of just being busy with motherhood. And then as my children got older, I tried to pick up the pace, and I was like, "I really need to get this done." My third daughter was fast approaching, and I really wanted to have it for her. I was like, "The rate I'm going, it'll be done in time for any grandchildren."

So I actually was able to print it out and give it to my daughter to use sort of field test it on her to see what was confusing or any questions she would have. And in the meantime, I printed and emailed to friends. I emailed it to a midwife. I emailed it to grandmothers. I just wanted a lot of feedback from other moms, people who've been there, to read it for accuracy, to just get their feedback and feelings on it. Because I knew it was a really sensitive subject, and I knew it's a subject a lot of moms have different opinions on. And I wanted it to be something that all moms could feel like it would be safe that they could use.

So after I was thinking about seven years of writing, I finally took a deep breath and hit send to Christian Light with a finished manuscript. I finally have to just stop sometime. But I think that was the scariest thing I've ever did in my life.

Then it began a time of lots of patience. Christian Light came back and said, "Yes, they definitely would publish the book." So that was a pretty exciting moment. And then it took another year and a half or so for Hannah Lehigh to do some of the artwork, the majority of the illustrations.

And yeah, I never dreamed that when I first had this thought 10 years ago that, yeah, I would be holding it in my hand. And I just remember when the first time the box came in the mail and how exciting it was to unbox it and see 10 years' worth finally a reality in my hand.

It reminded me just a little bit of being pregnant for my children, and then you finally deliver, and it's so exciting. It feels like your child.

Good. Yeah. Thank you for that. And then now give us a little bit of a brief overview of how the book comes together. Sure. So the first several chapters, I focus mostly on the importance of how our body's growing, the importance of nutrition.

I'll talk about your different food groups and how they play a role in our bodies as we grow, and especially into motherhood. I talk about the importance of drinking water, getting good exercise. I talk about sleep, how beneficial it is, and sleep in our growing bodies.

We talk about skincare. Of course, all young girls usually face the embarrassment of pimples sometime or another. And so we talk a little bit on skincare, ways to treat your face for things. We also talk on hair, haircare.

And then I'll also go into about what is happening inside our bodies. And then, of course, when the hormones awaken and all the changes that will take place during puberty and what girls can expect, what they'll face. I talk about the purpose of all the different organs in the female body and what they play in our lives.

I have a chapter on PMS, what it is and how it affects us physically and emotionally, and different things you can do to try to relieve things like that. And then the last several chapters are definitely going into a lot of the deeper issues on the act of marriage and sexual immorality and things teenagers can face today, like sexting or becoming emotionally involved. It's hard to write about things like that. I wish we didn't have to write about things like that. But sadly, in this day and age, that is what can be things people can face. And then I end up the book on friends. I talk briefly about friendships, finding our identity, who we are.

I wrote so much about in my diary growing up. And so I went back and read some old diaries to sort of remember what those feelings were like. And struggling to accept ourselves, who we are, the way we are. Who are we really? What is our identity? And how can I does anybody really still love me? And all those emotions we can face as teenagers growing up.

You'll notice a little about the book. You'll see if I can find one here.

There are little boxes with a little hedgehog. I have to find myself here.

Let me see here. Those have little extra quotes. They might have tips on what we're talking about, information pertaining to the things that we're discussing. And then you'll also notice places where there is parchment-looking paper with little strips of the heart strips. Those usually contain what I at the end of each chapter, I have what we call girl chat.

And these often have questions and answers, questions that girls may think of or be asked, maybe discuss a little deeper, certain subjects that we talked about in that chapter, things that would pertain to anything that we may want to know more about in that chapter.

Some of the girl chat questions might retain about what to do if you're at a sleepover and you don't feel safe, or there's questions on maybe if you had an emotional involvement with a boy, what would be a good way to help get away from that, things along that line. You also see bold-faced words. There will be the main if I can find one here quickly, words in bold print. Here we go. Here's a few.

And then you will also then in the back, I have a glossary where those words will be so girls can easily find them and the meaning to go with them.

Very good. Thank you for that. And then how do you envision readers working through this? How do you moms with daughters doing the book all at once, splitting it in parts? Who is the book written for, geared towards?

Sure. Yeah. So my target age writing it was, I'd say, about 10 to 15. But I'd say the target window would be pretty much more between age 11 to 13-year-olds. Ideally, I think it'd be wonderful if moms and girls could read it together so that our daughter could read it and then discuss anything with the mom.

I have a friend whose daughter is 10, and she's going to have her read the first several chapters. She said she'll keep the book with her in her room, but they'll read the first several chapters. And then whenever her daughter gets a little older, she'll probably give it to her to finish the last several chapters then.

Or I feel like it's also a book that can stand alone. I tried to write it if there would be moms who feel a little shy about talking with their daughters. Maybe your mom never talked with you, and you don't know how to go about it, but you do want your girls to have information. You could easily give this book to them, and they could easily read it themselves.

I tried to write it in a very basic, easy-to-understand way where it gives basic information, but I feel like the information I tried to give would be basic information all girls should know by about the time they're 14. And then hopefully, it will open up the door to communication that they have any questions or they could ask and talk it over with someone else they would feel trustworthy to talk it with. I think we realize we all live in a different era of time than when I grew up and you grew up with information so easily to be had. And so I feel like I want to be the one telling my girls this information.

I don't want someone else to get that honor. And so a lot of moms ask, "What is a good age?" And I feel like we have to do it earlier in this day and age than what we would a few years ago.

It often feels like too early. But I feel like it can be a very if your daughter is one who is very curious, maybe she picks up on clues easily, she's one to connect the dots quicker, then I feel like she probably would need information in this book sooner rather than later. But if your daughter's more a little naive, lives in her own little quiet world, maybe it would be better to wait till she's a little older. So I think all moms know their daughters in sort of each decision they have to make on their own. I think where you live, maybe where your contacts are with your children could make a difference. We live back along lane in the woods with the deer.

So maybe it's feel a little bit safer waiting till they're older versus someone like you who would live in town where they're playing a lot with neighbor children, coming in contact with other types like that, then it maybe would be wise to have them know this kind of information sooner.

But there again, I feel like it's something that each person has their own bearing opinions on and have to decide for themselves. Yeah. That's one thing that really stood out to me when I read through the book is that you did a very good job of making it readable. And it's not at all dry. I didn't find that at all. I think that there would be a way that you could write it and be very boring, but it's not that way at all. It's beautifully done. The illustrations help add to that. And then the wording that you chose just really helps to enhance that. Yeah. For my girls, I told them, "You can go ahead and read the first five chapters, and then we'll talk through those chapters before you go on in the book."

And my girls are 12, and I think that they're at the perfect age for it. And I'm really thankful for a resource like this. So tell us what one of your favorite parts of the book is, either a favorite quote or chapter or maybe one that you had the most fun writing.

Oh, that could be a little hard to think. I was trying to think here when you asked Gina. Probably a favorite quote maybe is, "Wherever we are, we need the work of Jesus Christ in our lives." And that can be from the girl who lived the perfect life and also the girl who maybe made a lot of mistakes. And maybe she did a lot of things that she is embarrassed, shameful, and sad about. It doesn't matter which girl we would fall into. We all need that work of Jesus in our lives.

As far as the funnest chapter to write, I'm not sure. That would be a little hard. I had a lot of fun with the introduction. I sort of went back memories lane. That was sort of probably the easiest one to write just because it was just writing memories and not so much the research and things behind it to make sure I get it accurate.

Sounds good. Thank you for that. And then what is something that you would like to leave with your readers, or what is your heart for them? Sure. Yeah. So as you had mentioned, I wanted to make it beautiful. I wanted full-color illustration. When I very first talked to Christian Light, they were hesitant about going full-color. They thought maybe they weren't sure if moms would want to pay the extra price. But I said, "I remember what it was like to be a young girl and loving beauty and color." And so that was a lot of the heart behind the illustrations, just to find joy in it and to make something that is maybe not the easiest subject to talk about, feel more joyful or not as intimidating.

I would like moms and girls both to know that it is not something to be scared about. It's not a scary subject. It is a very important one. And it's something we are going to face. We've all, I'm sure, heard stories or know of girls personally who didn't know information. And because of that, maybe something happened or they made wrong choices or they had trauma in their lives. And I think we can spare our daughters so much if we equip them with information. We may feel like we're ruining their innocence or they're too young to know this type of thing.

But I think when we tell them about God's plan and purpose for their body and for the female and how beautifully it was created to do all that it needs to do, I think knowledge takes away that fear and that confusion, especially if a young girl is struggling to accept the changes that's happening in her body. I feel like truth and knowledge will take away what seems shameful or maybe dark and secretive.

And it makes God's plan and purpose for girls something beautiful and something that will glorify Him instead of something shameful and unknown. I often think about we equip our girls to try to prepare them for homemaking. We teach them how to bake. We teach them how to do laundry.

We help teach them maybe how to garden in a can so they know those things for older in life. So why wouldn't we also want to teach our daughters about the most important things, about the facts of life, about God's design for our changing bodies, prepare them for adulthood, possibly marriage, prepare them for motherhood? I had to think about and Titus, how he talks about the older generation teaching the younger. And I think this definitely could fall into that same kind of information as well. So my best recommendation would be to definitely pray about it a lot. Pray that God gives you the right timing. He helps you to know when your daughter needs this information.

Maybe pray for courage if you need to open this conversation with her. And pray that if there is anything happening or she's hearing it from the wrong source, that God would alert you to that and that God would help you to know. Sometimes He has amazing ways of answering these kinds of prayers.

Most of all, I'd just say God bless all the mothers and girls out there. We're all on this journey together. I hope God can use this resource to bring honor and glory to Him. We're all amazingly created in His image, and we're all precious daughters of His. So yeah, my prayer is that God would be close to everybody as every girl's going to walk this journey.

Thank you for that. Okay. Then I want to just read a little bit out of the book here as we close up the discussion on every girl's journey. And the paragraph I want to read says, "To make good choices as a young girl, develop an unwavering faith in God and be fully committed to Him. When we live for ourselves, we make decisions that feel good for us or make us happy. But when we live for God, we make choices that will draw us closer to Him." And then jumping down just a little bit, "The world can be a scary place even for adults, but we take courage in knowing God is in control and has a special purpose for each of us.

The Bible has many examples of brave girls. Miriam watched over Moses' basket in the river, saving his life. The little maid served Naaman, bravely witnessing of her faith to Him, which led to his being healed.

Esther left her uncle, becoming a queen and saved her people from being killed. Take courage from these biblical girls. Embrace this journey of change as you become a lovely young woman inside and out." And I know that that's Gina's heart too, is that this would be just a little tool in helping the girls to grow up in a lovely way, in a way that shows the beauty that God has designed for us as sisters to portray. And then I also like your paraphrase that you have on page 44 of Ephesians 1:4-7 and Romans 11:36. And it says, "God chose me as His daughter before He even created the world. Through Jesus Christ, I'm adopted into His family as holy and without blame.

God planned it this way and takes pleasure in it. I praise God for the glorious grace He has given to me, the one He loves. I praise God for the redemption and forgiveness of sins He has offered me through Jesus' blood. Everything in my life comes from God, and I exist only by His power and to bring Him glory. All glory to God, my Father, forever."

So thank you, Gina, for all the work that I'm sorry, read, Gina, for all the work that you put into this book. And I know that it will be a powerful tool for lots of mothers and young girls as well.

So okay, we're going to transition now into a time of Q&A. And you can ask Gina and read, Gina, any of the questions that you have about these books or even about some of the things that they said. They had a lot of good insights for us just in how we as sisters should conduct ourselves. And so as you think of questions, you can turn on your video and unmute yourself and ask your questions, or you can submit them through the chat.

There's a chat button at the bottom of your Zoom window, and you can submit them there as well. And one of us as admins will ask the questions for you. So what questions do you have? I'll open it up here. Well, hello. I guess somebody has to go first. Is my mic working? Yes, we can hear you. Hi, my name is Becky, and I've very much enjoyed Regina Rosenberry's book. And of course, hearing about Gina Martens makes me want to read that one too.

So 10, 15 years ago, I very much wished for a book like Every Girl's Journey. So I actually wrote my own book too. It only got handed out among friends. I wrote it very plainly, very explicitly for some special needs, somewhat mentally limited adopted girls that have challenging behaviors. And so I wrote it very, very clearly for them. And one of the questions I got asked was, "Why do we need something in writing? Shouldn't it be good enough for us moms to just talk with our girls?" What would you say about that, Gina?