Monday, November 29, 2010

Interview with Author Angie Smith

New to Mom Seriously? Welcome! You'll find tons of great parenting articles, homeschooling encouragement, and every day, a Mom's Tip of the Day. Enjoy!

Many of you are already well-acquainted with Angie Smith and her blog, Bring the Rain. I was blessed to meet Angie through a feature I wrote for ParentLife magazine's December issue (now available!). Angie is a homeschooling mom, a gifted writer/blogger, and a follower of Christ. She and her husband Todd (of the CCM group Selah) followed Christ through the difficult pregnancy and death of their daughter, Audrey Caroline, just a few years ago. Through this tragedy, Angie became one acquainted with Christ's sufferings, and she speaks with the hope, compassion, and wisdom that comes after such a trial in her new book, I Will Carry You: The Sacred Dance of Grief and Joy. I so enjoyed my interview with Angie! There wasn't room in the article for everything we talked about, so I saved this portion of the interview exclusively for my Mom Seriously readers. Angie is a gal who will provoke your desire for a deeper walk with the Lord.


MS: You know, Angie, in your book you write about how much the suffering you have experienced has caused you to grow into a deeper and richer walk with Christ. I think most Christians understand that suffering has huge benefits in the long run, but most of us don't ever think about asking God for suffering. We don't ask God to make life more difficult in order to become stronger in our faith. That is really the opposite of what we ask from God.

Angie Smith
Angie: It is a profound thing to invite suffering. I do believe God wants us to be in line with His will. When there are times of suffering that come into our lives, we recognize that it is time to give Him glory. That's when we say to God, I’m willing to be your servant. If this suffering is what it takes to make the soil rich, then bring the rain.

MS: Do you see a movement in and among today's generation of Christians who are willing to take more risks when it comes to life as a follower of Christ?

Angie: I do feel that, in general, there is a movement in my generation and younger who are stepping out in faith, who don’t necessarily fit into the perfect, happy life. This is a community of believers who are rising up to say that, if you’re going to God to be your aspirin, then you’re missing the entire point of Christianity. For instance, I recently met a girl named Katie who ministers in Africa. She's adopted 18 children. She's only 21! Hers is not a "religion" that is a pretty, sitting-in-church-with hymnals, present-out-of-duty kind of thing. If you’re a follower of Christ, you’re in good company if you’re choosing to put yourself in a situation that isn’t pretty, or safe, or easy.

MS: You have four daughters here on earth, three of whom experienced your baby Audrey Caroline's brief life with you. Your book shares the many ways that you and Todd helped your girls connect with and know their baby sister. Time will tell the many ways Audrey's life will affect them, but how do you think going through the rain has affected the way you parent and pray for them?

Angie: I really hope that God will fill the gaps that I know that I am leaving in my parenting. I feel like I know my daughters' hearts, and they have such beautiful, innocent love for the Lord. My prayer for them is that they will continue to grow into women who will ask for rain and be at peace with whatever God has for them. To stand up for whatever He calls them to, even if it isn’t popular.


You can read more about Angie, her story, and how she and her family grew when God brought the rain in the December issue of ParentLife magazine! I'm also excited to announce that you'll be hearing a lot more from Angie when she takes over the Mom's Life column in ParentLife beginning in March 2011! You can't imagine how thrilled I am that my 8+ years as a columnist for ParentLife are sandwiched between Beth Moore and Angie Smith!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! (PLEASE NOTE: CONTEST IS CLOSED)

Rebecca
Don't miss any great parenting info: Subscribe to my daily email newsletter! Click HERE.

7 comments:

Tanya said...

Angie said, "I really hope that God will fill the gaps that I know that I am leaving in my parenting."

This is an area I need to work on. I know it is true in my head, but my heart has a hard time letting go of the mommy-guilt that sets in when I fall short. I will always fall short. Thankfully there is One who will never fall short for my children.

Mama Bear said...

I love Parent Life magazine - it is a great to have a Christian resource for parenting children God's way

Unknown said...

I love your blog and it would be AWESOME to win a subscription to such a great magazine!

Unknown said...

I love Angie Smith! So sad to see you go but excited for what's to come. I saw it in this past month's magazine the other day. Love you!

Rebecca Ingram Powell said...

Tanya--beautifully said! I think we all deal with mommy guilt...Thanks for the encouragement!

MamaBear--I agree! PL is the only one of its kind and I love it too!

Caroline--THANKS!

Jenifer--You are sweet! It's been a great season writing for PL. I had been praying that the Lord would just put the perfect person in place to carry on, and He really did!

Jen H said...

I would absolutely love this magazine, like many others I hadn't heard about this. What a great resource this would be to help me in my struggle of raising my children in this crazy world. I can use all the help I can get to help me raise them in a good strong Christian environment. THANK YOU for this opportunity!

Melissa@Simply Mel said...

LOVE Angie Smith. She is such and inspiration! And beautiful inside and out to boot :o)

I too would love to win a subscription to ParentLife. Sounds like a wonderful magazine. I'd never heard of it either. How sad!

mmietzner@comcast.net

simplymelsblog.com

Related Posts with Thumbnails