Faith Q&A with Truthfully, Michelle
Michelle is the woman behind Truthfully, Michelle, a blog and online ministry for young women (ages 18-30) to encourage faith in girls after truth. You can easily catch her holding a warm cup of Milo, snuggled up with a good book, passionately talking about faith and being the first one to laugh at someone’s joke!
I love the community that comes with being a part of the body of Christ. It’s so encouraging to do the faith journey with people who bring you even closer to God.
“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17
Together we celebrate our wins, mourn our losses and challenge each other to grow. One recent connection I have made and I’m so grateful for, is with a fellow blogger-in-faith, Michelle Ling of Truthfully, Michelle. I’ve been inspired by reading Michelle’s blog and want to share some of that inspiration with you today. So, Michelle and I have collaborated to bring you this faith based Q&A. Be encouraged in your faith whilst getting to know Michelle!
If you could describe yourself in 3 words, what would they be?
Ooooo, I find this question super hard! Because there are no words that I can use that would always be accurate to describe me! But in general, I would opt for passionate, creative and people-orientated.
What was the inspiration behind starting Truthfully, Michelle?
I really wanted to create an inclusive, loving space for girls (young women ages 18-30) to dive deep into their faith. From the shapes, the colours and the fonts that you see to the actual content of the site, I wanted Truthfully, Michelle to be one that sparked laughter, joy, beauty and creativity at every turn, while pointing everything to Jesus!
I also really love people! They always have such beautiful stories, and they were all made to be so unique! I really love the idea for Truthfully, Michelle to be a place where girls can come together to read the testimonies/stories of other girls just like them and be encouraged in their relationship with God. I really look forward to laughing alongside other truth-loving girls who want to live that set-apart life for Jesus.
So if there is anyone who has a story that you would love to share about your faith journey, please visit here to submit your story! I would love to hear from you!
Do you have a favourite Bible verse? If so, what is it and why is it a favourite?
I have so many! But I think at the moment, I love Isaiah 55:8-9! I love it because it is a reminder that our God knows all things, He sees all things and so His way is so much higher and better than mine. And Romans 8:28 says that God works for the good of those who love Him, so I can rest assured that even if things don’t go the way I imagined that it would, I am reminded that He knows and He will always be for me and not against me!
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” | Isaiah 55:8-9
What has God taught you from failure and disappointment?
Perfection is an idol. I think that so many girls (and guys!) struggle with perfectionism. I definitely did. We always think, “if only I had this” or “if only I could achieve that” then everything would be great! But I think that this is a slippery slope! Jesus was literally the definition of perfection and yet the world still rejected Him. The world rejected perfection, so even if we were to become perfect, we would face that same treatment too! So one thing that God has really shown me through failure and disappointment is that our identity should never rest upon how ‘perfect’ we can be, but rather on the full security of His promises!
You might like also like this blog post + free devotional: How to Find Your Identity in Christ
What is the main way God speaks to you?
There are so many ways that the Lord reveals Himself to me. I think the most important thing is to be able to recognise His voice. And the only real way we can recognise His voice is through spending time to get to know Him better! I recognise His voice speaking to me through the peace that He gives to my heart when I am faced with a difficult situation and I hear Him talking to me through scripture in the Bible – often it is to reveal a very important truth about Himself, or to gently encourage or convict me about something! These two are definitely the main ways that the Lord speaks to me, but I have experienced dreams where God has spoken to me – although I do caution about this, because we should always cross-check what we believe God is speaking to us about with the His truth that can be found within the pages of the Bible!
What has God taught you through waiting?
I think that waiting doesn’t come naturally to people. We like to see things happen and we like to see things happen now. Even though we all desire for good things to happen, we don’t necessarily have that patience to wait for good things to come. So, I think that one of the things that God has really taught me through seasons of waiting is to patiently, but actively listen to His voice. And He has shown me that even in seasons of waiting, it isn’t an excuse to do nothing, because no matter the season, the day, the hour or the second, our God is always moving. There are things we can still do to prepare during our season of waiting so that we can better serve Him when we are finally called out of our season of waiting!
What have you learned from your family, your church, your friendships, and your critics?
There are so many things that all these wonderful people in my life have shown me, but I’ll just keep it to one each!
My family has shown me the closest thing to God’s unconditional love for me, right here on earth! I love how people in my family can all be so different from one another, and yet, still have so much love for each other!
My church has shown me the importance of being surrounded by a community of other believers – and I have a really soft spot for ‘older’ women discipling ‘younger women’, I think discipleship is so special!
My friendships with so many amazing girls have taught me how sweet and special each individual relationship is! I love that we can go through life together and journey through the embarrassing things together – and still laugh about it later on simply because we journeyed through it together!
As for people who might be called critics, I think that constructive criticism is always good – God wants us to grow, and so being lovingly convicted is never a bad thing. But for people who have said/done things to hurt you, I think that what I have really learned is that only hurt people hurt people! So a lot of grace can be given to others when I remember that.
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Written by Oyelola
Oyelola is a freelance writer based in Sydney, Australia. When not writing for clients, she shares her musings from life with Jesus through He Speaks, I Write. Beyond writing, she enjoys throwing back a frothy matcha latte, bushwalks with friends and curling up with a good book.
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