By Linda Evans Shepherd & Amber Weigand Buckley
I was seven years old, and I can still feel my small hand tucked into my father’s strong one.
We had walked down to the bottom of the hill on the old farm where he grew up, to watch a spring bubble right out of the grass. Its song was quiet—endless ripples trickling into the stream between two hills.
I looked up at my dad. “Where does the water come from?”
He smiled. “God is its source.”
I’ve never forgotten that answer.
Because it turns out God is the source of so many things—creativity, wonder, love, courage, words. He is the hidden spring beneath everything we do. And the busier life gets, the more we need to remember from whom our refreshing comes.
That’s what Leading Hearts is about. Every writer, speaker, and ministry leader in these pages is a brook fed from that same hidden source—His presence alive in us, flowing out into the world through stories, books, talks, and lives surrendered to Him.
This August issue is full of those stories.
You’ll find authors sharing hard-won wisdom, fresh books worthy of your shelves and your heart, and testimonies that remind us God is still at work. My own piece in this issue traces a thirty-year-old seed I’d forgotten I had planted—and the handshake that proved God hadn’t.
Whether you’re a bookseller, a writer, a speaker, or simply someone hungry to grow in Christ — welcome. There’s something here for you.
With Joy,
Linda
I need to confess something:
I’ve given up trying to walk in purpose—and it’s the most freedom I’ve ever been given.
Everyone talks about finding your mission statement, your five-year plan, your call, like it’s a destination you arrive at once you’ve done enough soul-searching. I chased that purpose for years.
It wasn’t until I threw the whole chase away—stopped waiting for someone else to define who I was, and started asking one question instead—that things shifted.
I sat down with the Father, notepad in one hand, coffee in the other, and asked Him: who am I?
How did you put me together? Why did you wire my neurodivergent brain to run in every direction at once? That’s when my voice started to emerge. Struggle became just as holy as the polished, put-together words we call sacred.
Not one or the other. Both—the mess and the flourishing standing on the same holy ground.
We quote Ephesians 2:10 constantly. in advance—I can feel those words pop up like a teleprompter when I think of doing hard things. But workmanship isn’t a job title, it’s a wiring diagram.
He designed the works around the DNA He’d already built into me.
I didn’t find who I was by asking God what my purpose was. I found it by taking purpose off my GPS and digging into what He says about me—not the list of things I don’t measure up to, but who I am as His fully-equipped girl.
I pray this issue of Leading Hearts encourages you to sink into the God- designed wiring of everything you already are, and trust Him with everything you think you lack.
Love,
Amber
