Sheila Dougal

This picture is my a thousand-word image of where most of what I write about comes from.

I’m the girl on the left and those men on either side of me are the souls God has entrusted to me to love.  The man on the far right is my husband of 26 years, James. Towering over all of us on the far left is our 17 year old son Connor. And the handsome blonde to my right is our 15 year old son, Ryland.

Why I write

My husband and I married when I was 19 and he was 21.  About three months into our marriage I realized I was in an “even if” marriage.

1 Peter 3 gives specific hope and instructions for a Christian wife, “even if” she’s married to an unbelieving man.  We’ll have been married for 25 years this September and it hasn’t been easy.  Through these hard years God has exposed my heart, torn down my idols, and used this marriage to purify and strengthen my hope in Jesus.  I write here about my hope in Jesus through my hard marriage mostly so that when I forget (I do that almost every day) I can look at these words and remember the hope Christ has stirred up in me and hold fast in faith another day.

Raising two sons in an “even if” marriage is hard.  Being a parent is hard period, but being a mom who wants to raise her sons to hope in Jesus and not themselves, while married to their dad who wants to raise his sons to be successful by the world’s standards is hard plus some.  I’ve dubbed it being a Timothy Mom in years past.

Timothy was Paul’s son in the Lord, but Timothy’s biological dad was an unbeliever, and it was Timothy’s mom and grandma whose genuine faith in Christ drew Timothy to believe also.

I often feel like all the odds are against me as a mom who wants her sons to love and follow Jesus.  But being in this hard set of circumstances has caused me to realize that belief in Christ that saves is a miracle.  It’s not about odds, it’s about faith and that’s a gift that only God can give.

But whether it’s about marriage or motherhood or my work as a nurse, my focus here is the hope I’ve found in Christ. Much meditation on scripture combined with the fiery trials of an “even-if” marriage and motherhood against-the-odds has produced most of my writings.

I’ve dabbled in poetry and short stories too over the years and occasionally I post some of those here.  Recently I’ve begun reaching out to online magazines and ministries to offer essays and poems as a guest contributor. Currently you can find three of my articles at Desiring God, two at Morning by Morning and one at Revive Our Hearts True Woman Blog.

Some about me

I’m an easily distracted woman who often doesn’t finish what she starts, and usually tries to cram too much into a sentence and a day.  I recently discovered the Enneagram and took the Myers-Briggs type evaluation.  I’m a 9w1 and an INJF (and that apparently means my personality type makes up only 1% of the population… which may contribute to my feelings of being a sojourner).  I recently completed the online RN to BSN program at Grand Canyon University with intentions to finish my FNP there when my sons graduate from high school. I feel nursing is a ministry God has given me and I have prayers and plans for how I could use the years after my sons leave this home to minister to others in Jesus’ name as nurse practitioner.

A few years ago I ran a registered dairy goat farm and started a little hobby business making goat milk soap.  Now that I’ve completed my BSN I’ve returned to making soap. Our soaps can be found online at Goats Make Soap Co., and at the Hilton Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix, AZ.

My husband and I find common ground in exercise- recently obstacle racing together. We also both really enjoy history and finding old things.

I serve as the Kids Ministry Director at my church and write discussion questions and curriculum for our kids ministry for our network of churches.  I love my local church, Valley Life Surprise, and usually sob every Sunday mostly because I feel the weight of my circumstances, have tasted the goodness of God, love a Savior I have never seen, remember the hard things, fight depression and desperately want my husband and sons to worship this Jesus with me.

Thanks for visiting my site. I hope you’re encouraged by what you read here.