Carrie Stephens - Holy Guacamole: A Glorious Discovery of Your Undeniable Worth

I planned to skim this book enough for an endorsement, but COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! I cried, felt less alone, then challenged and excited about tapping into more joy amidst the mundane. My friend Carrie gets it, and through her anointed gift of putting words to truth, we get a big dose of refreshment and courage to live more alive every day.

Lynette Lewis, TEDx speaker, pastors wife, author of Climbing the Ladder in Stilettos

It has been a privilege to work with Carrie (and Morgan, her husband) in church planting, campus ministry, and world mission for over two decades. During this time, I have watched Carrie lead in the same way she writeswith faith, hope, love, and a unique sense of humor. I trust that this book will deepen your walk with Christ and challenge you to see your intrinsic value to God and His church. I am thankful for her voice.

Steve Murrell, President of Every Nation Churches & Ministries

Carrie Stephens uses humor and grace to help readers see themselves how Jesus sees themmessy, human, and oh-so-valuable. If youre looking for a whole lot of encouragementand a whole lot of laughtergrab this book, a notebook and a pen, and soak up the grace.

Erin MacPherson, author of 11 books including Put the Disciple into Discipline

This book is vulnerable, authentic, powerful, and hilarious. Each chapter is full of relatable Bible exposition, personal experience, and references for just about everything. Carrie puts them together in just the right portions, keeping her reader hooked as she captures life in all its beautiful messiness. Read it and draw encouragement from the fact that you too are Holy Guacamole.

Joseph Bonafacio, Lead Pastor of Victory Katipunan, Director of Every Nation Campus - Philippines

Holy Guacamole puts a fun spin on the real complexities of marriage, motherhood, and ministry. Carrie takes readers on a hilariously transparent journey, making space for the frustrations and joys that are sometimes hard to articulate. Read this book if, like us, youre navigating all of the weird places of lifes transitions and trying to discover where you fit in again.

Terry and Ashley Williams, Owners of The League Gym & Serial Entrepreneurs

Through absurd yet relatable metaphors, this book is filled with humor as fresh as a bowl of tableside guacamole. You wont even realize how many invaluable life lessons youve learned after youve spent the majority of this book rolling on the floor laughing. All jokes aside, if you admire an author with unparalleled humility and obedience to God, you need to read this.

Adrian Crawford, Founder of Engage Church and The New Rules Collective

Carrie gives a fully transparent, abundantly humorous, and extremely relatable account of her journey in life and leadership. I found myself going back and forth between laughing along and nodding my head with many of her experiences and revelations. If youve ever felt like an afterthought in Gods greater plan, or like your life is too mundane to matter, this book will bless you with a better truth.

Seth Trimmer, Lead Pastor Grace City Church

So much of this book resonated with deep longings of my heart that have been modestly tucked and back-burnered by the often misrepresented expectations that surround womanhood, leadership, and motherhoodespecially in the Church. Carries words cut right into the heart of what women in the church have all been thinking yet were too afraid, or perhaps ashamed, to voice aloud. Her words are spot onbold, unapologetic, yet also saturated with humility and grace.

As a 3rd-row pew observer of pastors wives for years, I always peered over at the back of First Lady heads, assuming they were surely walking Proverbs 31 women, carrying the entire How to be a Woman of God playbook in their back pocket. Carrie debunks this in a way I never knew I needed. Im grateful to see her humanness connect with my humanness. In Holy Guacamole, a part of me exhales, knowing that as women of God, we are all just being carried daily by the grace of Jesus. We are the Holy Guacamolenot the side rice and beanswe are worthy, invited, desired, and enough in Christ!

Tania Woods, Founder & Editor of Inkfully.com and the Inkfully Podcast

2020 by Carrie Stephens

Print ISBN 978-1-64352-299-9

eBook Editions:

Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-64352-571-6

Kindle and MobiPocket Edition (.prc) 978-1-64352-572-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted for commercial purposes, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without written permission of the publisher.

Churches and other noncommercial interests may reproduce portions of this book without the express written permission of Barbour Publishing, provided that the text does not exceed 500 words or 5 percent of the entire book, whichever is less, and that the text is not material quoted from another publisher. When reproducing text from this book, include the following credit line: From Holy Guacamole: A Glorious Discovery of Your Undeniable Worth, published by Barbour Publishing, Inc. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the H OLY B IBLE , N EW I NTERNATIONAL V ERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are from THE MESSAGE. Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover Art: Kristin Duran

Cover Design: Greg Jackson, Thinkpen Design

Published in association with Jessica Kirkland and the literary agency of Kirkland Media Management, LLC. P.O. Box 1539, Liberty, Texas 77575.

Published by Shiloh Run Press, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc., 1810 Barbour Drive, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.shilohrunpress.com

Our mission is to inspire the world with the life-changing message of the Bible.

Printed in the United States of America.

For everyone seeking a way through.

W hen one of my sons was a toddler, his temperament was something along the lines of unexpectedly unhinged. One afternoon he awoke from a nap desperate for something. He had no words back then, just strange babble that made no sense to my husband or me.

We frantically tried to figure out what he needed. We got him his favorite blanket. He continued screaming. We held him and spoke soothingly to him. He became more hysterical. We made him a sippy cup of chocolate milk. Full-out shrieking ensued, and he swatted the cup out of my hand like it was poison.