Welcome to Faithfully Stepping!
Hi, my name is Amanda, and I am so glad you stopped by. I am a recovering perfectionist and sugar addict, a pastor’s wife, and a homeschool mom. I created Faithfully Stepping a few years ago. It’s not for those who have seen all their dreams come to fruition, who are killing it in life. This is a place of encouragement for the person whose life doesn’t look anything like they thought it would. Life has fallen apart around them, and they have been left to pick up the pieces. My passion is to help that person.
My life doesn’t look anything like I thought it would. I never dreamed I would be a pastor’s wife in the city. I certainly never saw myself homeschooling my children. I definitely didn’t foresee the struggles we would face in planting a church.
When my husband and I left a successful church in 2011 to start a church outside of Philadelphia, I dreamed of the large church we would have and the Christian school prospering at its side.
My reality looks nothing like my dream. We pastor a small church and barely manage to pay the bills, most of the time. God has taken me to the very end of my faith. I thought at times, my faith was gone. I felt as if I’d lost my faith, but I found it’s been there all along. It still exists because God still exists, and He never left me. He’s been there all along. He let me go through some circumstances to figure out if I really trust Him, to see if my faith really is strong enough. I had to be brought to the end of myself to find what’s been there all along- God and the people around me.
That’s why I write at my blog, Faithfully Stepping. My heart is to encourage others who need the encouragement to make it just one more day. If you need encouragement on your journey, you’ve come to the right place. Life is hard, and sometimes it knocks the ground out from beneath us. We have to choose to get back up again, put one foot in front of the other, and just take it one step at a time. Over time, we will look back and see that God got us through the days, weeks, months, and years.
Will you join me on the journey? It’s a journey of Faithfully Stepping.
**If you would like to know more about my story, I have written a book about it called The Hidden Pain: When You Fear God is No Longer Blessing Your Life. The Hidden Pain is available on Amazon.
More about me
1. I grew up in a pastor’s home
I am officially a PK- a pastor’s kid. I grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and my dad was the music and associate pastor at my church. So I basically lived at the church growing up. Whenever the doors were open, we were there. Some kids hate growing up in a pastor’s home, I thought it was great. I enjoyed being highly involved in ministry even at a young age and learned a lot that I use today as a pastor’s wife.
2. I am a pastor’s wife
My husband Matt and I planted a church in the greater Philadelphia area in 2011. It has been more difficult and harder than we ever could have imagined. We thought we would grow the church to 200 within the first year, but at five years, we were still only running about 40. God has used these years to chisel away our pride, our independence, and taught us to rely on Him much more. It’s still a learning process. I think the biggest thing I have learned is to just stay faithful and do what I know what God wants me to do and not to play the comparison game! There are churches that have started after us and are growing much faster than we are; but if we focus on that, we get really depressed. God has us in our own path, and I have to focus on that.
3. I am a homeschooling mom
I can’t believe sometimes that I homeschool my kids. I went to a private Christian school for all my school years and always said I would never homeschool my kids. God has a sense of humor, though. I am thoroughly enjoying it! I love teaching and have an elementary teaching degree. Don’t get me wrong, not every day is a walk in the park. But I enjoy escaping into our schoolroom and getting a front-row seat to watch my kids learn to read and discover the joy of learning.
4. I love all things learning
I love reading books, listening to podcasts, reading blogs, and learning new ideas and concepts. I try to spend time reading every day. I always have a growing list of new books that I hear about that I want to read. I find time to listen to podcasts when I am cleaning or doing dishes, when I am walking outside, or when I am driving. My husband used to hate to read, but over the years I have converted him! Now he loves to read!
5. I am an Author
One of the things that has completely surprised me is writing. As we struggled financially, I remember saying to Matt one day, “If I could find a way to make money reading, we would be rich.” I love reading and read a lot! I thought about that comment for a long time and finally decided to try writing a book. I wrote Red Rose Rising, my first fantasy book. I loved it. I have continued to write. You can check out my books on Amazon here.
6. Why I started Faithfully Stepping
There is so much power in words. The Bible is the ultimate culmination of the most powerful words. God uses words and people using words to transform people’s lives. It’s amazing– the power of words. In the most discouraging times of my life, God has used words to encourage my heart and help me to move forward. Sometimes its words from the Bible, sometimes its words from a book I am reading, other times its words from a podcast I am listening to, a blog I am reading, or from the pastor’s preaching. Words have the power to change people’s lives for the better. I want to simply use words to be an encouragement to other women on their journey of faith. Life is not always easy, and everybody needs a cheerleader– someone who says I know you can do it; I believe in you. That is what this blog is– the encouragement to keep faithfully stepping every day into what God has for you. I know you can do it because I know He has an incredible plan for your life!
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