Paula Rinehart - Strong Women, Soft Hearts: A Womans Guide to Cultivating a Wise Heart and a Passionate Life

More Praise for Strong Women, Soft Hearts

Paula Rinehart has written The Sacred Romance for women, a message that should be shouted from the housetops. The secret of a joyful, victorious life lies not in ten steps, but in allowing our hearts to be drenched and softened with the love of Jesus. It is only then that we can become the strong women He longs for us to be. I dont recommend many books on my website, but Strong Women, Soft Hearts made the list.

Dee Brestin
Co-author of Falling In LoveWith Jesus, with Kathy Troccoli

This past fall I had the pleasure of taking 100 women on a journey through Strong Women, Soft Hearts.... What an effective tool I found it to be as we explored the ways our hearts become separated from our heads on our journey through life. The study of this book has had a great impact on our women. It is a highly readable, well-integrated, user-friendly approach to key issues in every womans life.

Maureen Donohue
Director of Womens Ministries Grace Fellowship Church Timonium, Md.

Strong Women, Soft Hearts is a wonderful resource for women to journey inside and survey the landscape of a womans heart. We have used this book with women and couples to give both the man and woman tremendous insight into the nature of a womans heart. For women, it gives validation and confirmation that how God made them is a good thing! Though not written for men, this book offers men a wide and clear window to look through to see and discover the truth that a woman is wonderfully and fearfully made.

Steve and Gwen Smith
Co-Founders of the Potters Inn Ministry

We used Strong Women, Soft Hearts with senior women here at Vanderbilt. I wish I could describe how much God has used this book in their lives. They are realizing how they allowed their deepest desires to be imprisoned by their fears. Each woman has made significant steps in recognizing their fears and allowing the Lord to transform them into women of freedom. Your message is melting away the callouses weve placed around our hearts and awakening us to the abundant life we have in Christ.

Beth Randolph
Campus Crusade for Christ Vanderbilt University

When I first read Strong Women, Soft Hearts, I felt like Paula Rinehart had known and documented the work God had been doing in my life. God had been bringing my heart into greater freedom as I took steps in trusting Him, vulnerability, and removing masks. As I reread the book, Im not only reminded of the love and freedom God has for me but I am challenged afresh to stop exchanging and stifling God-given passion and vitality for busyness and efficiency. I recommend this to women of any age or spiritual maturity.

Carla Chapman
Campus Crusade for Christ University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

For those of us longing to press on toward deeper levels of spiritual maturity without losing our childlike hearts, this wise, mentoring book-friend will lead you toward wholeness and balance. I give Strong Women, Soft Hearts my personal vote for best new book of the year!

Becky Freeman
National speaker and best-selling author of Worms in My Tea

2001 Paula Rinehart

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Many of the names used in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of those individuals.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1977.

Other Scripture references are from the following sources:

The Amplified Bible (AV), The Lockman Foundation 1954, 1958, 1987.

The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG), 1993. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

The New King James Version (NKJV), 1979, 1980, 1982, 1992 Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers.

ISBN 978-1-4185-1892-9 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rinehart, Paula.

Strong women, soft hearts / Paula Rinehart.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8499-1674-8

ISBN 978-0-8499-0997-9 (rpkg)

1. Middle aged womenReligious life. 2. Christian womenReligious life. I. Title.

BV4579.5 .R54 2001

248.8'43dc21

2001026138

10 11 12 13 14 EPAC 24 23 22 21 20

In memory of Brent Curtis, who first encouraged me in this journey of the heart.

CONTENTS

F or all the aloneness entailed in writing a book, there are so many people who influence both the author and the outcome. My special thanks for the contributions of the following people:

I am especially grateful to a small host of women who have shared their stories with me and in doing so, taught me more than they know. And to my colleagues, Dr. Peter van Dyck, Maria Lemons Wood, Bill Venable, and Jennifer Ennis.

To Jennifer Ennis, Virginia Huth, Eleanor Nagy, Connally Gillam, Dana Kozlarek, Ruth Brooks, and Sally Breedlove, my thanks for offering insight and helpful critique on various parts of this book.

To lifelong friends who serve with the Navigators, I am grateful for all they taught me of the privilege of knowing Christ and of having a life shaped by him.

To Maggie and Bob Wynne, for the generous use of their home in Montreat, North Carolina, a wonderful setting in which to write.

To Brennan Manning, for the gift of his spiritual direction and his encouragement to drink deeply at the well of Gods love.

To Pam Monroe, for her willingness to share the wisdom she gained through such a dark and lonely time.

To Mark Sweeney and Laura Kendall at Word Publishing, for their confidence in this project.

To my mother, Polly Corn who has long modeled for me such a consistent example of strength.

And always, to my husband, Stacy, and our two children, Allison and Brady, my gratitude for encouraging and enduring a wife and mother who retreats for long hours to write.

THE JOURNEY
OF THE HEART

In the end, it doesnt matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplisheda life without heart is not worth living. For out of this wellspring of our soul flow all true caring and all meaningful work, all real worship and all sacrifice.

BRENT CURTIS AND JOHN ELDREDGE

For all of a sudden when I saw those lights, I said to myself, Ivy, this is your life, this is your real life, and you are living it. Your life is not going to start later. This is it, it is now. Its funny how a person can be so busy that they forget this is it. This is my life.