Michele Hayes-Grisham

I attribute my success to my faith in God and perseverance with His help and guidance. When I was bedridden for a year when I was 34, I was crying out to God, asking to end my life because I felt like dead weight and useless to my family. But, when you draw near to God, He draws near to you, and the Holy Spirit told me that every value I had was still there, that I could still listen and love and hug. Even with my health problems and 14 autoimmune diseases, I can benefit others because God made me an encourager, and that's what I want to do. After losing our second daughter in the 8th month of my pregnancy, God let me see her in Heaven, so that I would know that she is well, she is loved, and she knows I love her and she loves me. When I kept asking for another child, the Holy Spirit told me He would put many children in front of me to love. It's now been dozens of children. I always pray for those divine appointments where Mama Michele can help someone in some way. Being a preemie and puny person who thought I had no value, I learned that when you draw near to God and work in your strengths, you see wonderful things happen.

The best advice I received was to take a spiritual gifts assessment test. I was like so many people who think they don't have any spiritual gift, that they're just shy and quiet. But when you take that test and see in black and white what God probably created you to do, and you start working in that area, you see your value, you start working in your strengths, and you see wonderful things happen. That assessment helped me discover that my strongest spiritual gift was encouragement, and once I knew that and started working in that area, everything changed. You can take a Spiritual Gifts Assessment Test at the website: mintools.com

I encourage young women entering this industry to discover and work within their strengths, such as through a Spiritual Gifts or Career Aptitude Assessment Test. Understanding your unique abilities helps you contribute with confidence and purpose. Just as importantly, know your value and use it to encourage and uplift others with authenticity and sincerity. Jesus taught us, "Love God and love others."

The biggest challenge right now is that there are so many rights being taken away from us. Some places will no longer let anything religious be posted. They're calling it freedom from religion instead of freedom of religion; saying they don't want anything religious in the schools or courthouses. This minority is beginning to control what we thought were self-evident things that our nation was founded on. That's why I wrote 'How to Show God You Love Him!" about the Ten Commandments and the Fruit of the Spirit, because we can no longer post those in some places, and it's so important for people to realize there is a right and wrong. I've even had a few posts that Facebook didn't post, and I did get thrown into Facebook jail a couple of times. What we were founded on is being taken away, and when you study the Constitution and understand why they wrote it the way they did, you realize how thoughtful and how much time and effort they put into making it unique. There's a reason why everybody wants to come to the United States, and we just take that for granted.

The most important values to me are faith and being of service to others. I believe that even with my health problems and 14 autoimmune diseases, I can still benefit others because God made me an encourager. I've learned that every value God put inside of you is still there, and you can still listen and love and hug, even when you're struggling. I always pray for divine appointments so I can help someone in some way. In the morning when I listen to and read my devotionals, I think about who would this bless, who needs to hear this message. I still have peace, joy, and contentment every day despite my challenges, and I want to share how I found that so other people can have it, too. Why have money unless it's benefiting somebody? The wonderful comments I get from people when I give my books away make me wish more people could have that encouragement. The only way to have peace, joy, and contentment in this life is to know that Jesus is your Savior and He paid the price for your sins. When you know Heaven is waiting for you at the end of your life of love and service, then the chaos is bearable.