I grew up singing the hymn “Give Me the Bible,” but recently this song has taken on a new significance for me. I’m currently reading a book that discusses how most people in the Middle Ages did not have access to the Holy Scriptures. Since the December 2 incident, I have been depending so much on the Bible. Passages I’ve read before have taken on a whole new meaning now. I’m so grateful that I live in a day and age when I have the Bible in my own language! What a blessing!
Give me the Bible, holy message shining, Thy light shall guide me in the narrow way. Precept and promise, law and love combining, ‘Til night shall vanish in eternal day.
Amanda is the founder of Peace for the Storm and a survivor of the San Bernardino terrorist attack on December 2, 2015. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Biology at Southern Adventist University and her Master of Public Health degree in Global Health at Emory University. She is a Registered Environmental Health Specialist. Amanda loves reading, singing, playing the piano, traveling, snorkeling and going to art galleries. Her theme song is “Jesus is All the World to Me.”
Peace for the Storm has been up and running as a project for exactly one month today! And today, we’re launching our website–it’s still a bit under construction, but that just means we have lots in store! One of the main reasons we developed the website was to have a way to involve you, our readers, with the project. We would love to have you contribute to our project by sharing your favorite inspirational verses and hymns. Photographers–we’d love to have submissions from you as well! Head on over to the Submissions page to see what we’re looking for as far as our color scheme. We also want to make it easy for you to Pin, share and save our content through the website. In fact, several people have told us they have saved Peace for the Storm pictures to their phones or computers and used them as wallpapers, so guess what? We’re formatting some of our most popular posts as wallpapers! We only have a few at the moment, but keep an eye out for more coming soon on the Downloads page. We’re also beginning to share expanded content related to our daily images–devotional thoughts, guest posts, and even music links. So please bookmark our site and keep coming back!
We’re pretty excited about how well the project has taken off, and we’re so thankful for all the support everyone has shown, sharing our posts on Facebook and Instagram and even Pinterest (we just got going with that last week!). We’re nearing 600 followers on Facebook, and we’re just a bit over 200 on Instagram so far. We actually did not expect our following to grow this quickly, and we know that it is all due to God. But Peace for the Storm is not about likes and followers, in that it is a popularity contest or that we’re trying to drive numbers. It’s about spreading the message we feel God has given us… the message of hope and peace and encouragement in the middle of the chaos of life. It’s about joining together as believers (or non-believers looking for hope) as we wait for the day when all the pain and heartache in this world will one day be over and we will finally be with Him. We’re so glad you’ve decided to visit our site or follow us on social media, and we truly hope this project can be a blessing to you and to others you share it with!
We are so excited to share with this post “Hear My Cry,” a beautiful song written and performed by Judy Evenson, a personal friend of our family and an established recording artist. She sent us the song after we originally posted this image on social media, letting us know that she had written the song several years ago, but it had immediately come to mind when seeing the post. Click on the Play button below to listen to the beautiful melody and inspired words of this medley. Thank you for sharing, Judy! We hope you are blessed as we have been by listening to this song.
From the end of the earth I will cry to You. When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
— Psalms 61:2 (NKJV) —
Note: “Hiding in Thee,” used in part in “Hear My Cry,” is public domain, written by Ira David Sankey and William Orcutt Cushing.
Lindsey is Amanda’s younger sister and the graphic designer behind the Peace for the Storm images and website. Aside from their day jobs, she and her husband do freelance design at Gallerie Q. They both love God, family, friends, gardening, DIY projects and football.
As a blanket of snow covered many of our homes this weekend, our minds couldn’t help but think of the spiritual significance of snow. Even though I live in the South now (where we had flurries, and it still shut down schools), I’m a former New Englander. I have such a clear picture in my mind of the morning after a snowfall, waking up and looking outside my window to see the sun glistening like diamonds on an almost blindingly white blanket of snow covering the ground. Untouched. Perfect. The snow has covered the brown, dead grass beneath, and has turned the bleak world of winter into a scene of sparkling beauty. It seems magical, really.
But what David is pleading for here in the verse that inspired this hymn is not magic. It’s a miracle. We may have made a huge mistake or might be spiritually dead inside. But when that moment of repentance comes, when we awaken to the reality that we can’t do this on our own, and we need the Lord’s help, He is there to cover us in His love. He promises to wash our hearts of sin if we accept Him through the miracle of salvation, and in His eyes we will be as spotless as the snow.
Lindsey is Amanda’s younger sister and the graphic designer behind the Peace for the Storm images and website. Aside from their day jobs, she and her husband do freelance design at Gallerie Q. They both love God, family, friends, gardening, DIY projects and football.
This has always been one of my favorite verses in the Bible, for many reasons, but the meaning has never hit home quite as much as now, when my sister is still in such great need of healing. In so many ways. I wish more than anything I was able to be there, helping her, and that this burden would be lifted from her (or actually never would have happened to her). But sharing these Bible verses with her, and working on our project together–that’s the least I can do. So today I dedicate this verse and image to her. And we have the assurance, here in this verse, that God is going to take care of everything. I love you so much, Amanda!
“But to you who fear My name, the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings.”
Lindsey is Amanda’s younger sister and the graphic designer behind the Peace for the Storm images and website. Aside from their day jobs, she and her husband do freelance design at Gallerie Q. They both love God, family, friends, gardening, DIY projects and football.
In our Bible study this week, we talked about the urgency of Christ’s coming, and reflected on Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” We realized that one of the signs of a follower of Christ is that they have patience. Patience as we wait for His second coming, patience with our fellow believers, patience in God’s timing.
Right now, I’m personally faced with several decisions looming on the horizon. I don’t know the answers right now, and it’s difficult not to stress about what will happen. Sometimes I’m even scared. But this verse reminds us that patience and trust in God is everything. And if I lean on Him, He will strengthen my heart to face every outcome.
His timing is always perfect. “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord!”
Lindsey is Amanda’s younger sister and the graphic designer behind the Peace for the Storm images and website. Aside from their day jobs, she and her husband do freelance design at Gallerie Q. They both love God, family, friends, gardening, DIY projects and football.
Happy New Year, and welcome to Peace for the Storm! We’re so excited to start up this new project, beginning with these first 12 images. We’ll be starting out mainly on Instagram and Facebook for now, but we’ll also be launching the project on other social media networks like Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest in the next few days, so you can follow along wherever! We chose January 1 as the official start date because we hope that for you, like it is for us, the new year marks new beginnings and a fresh start on things. Peace for the Storm will be posting at least five times a week, so you can count on inspiration from God’s Word and beautiful passages from hymns appearing in your feed on a regular schedule. We think it’ll be a great daily reminder to keep God first and foremost in your life, and to thank Him for all the blessings He’s given us! Follow along today as we begin this exciting new journey of faith!
