Faith-Based Testimonies: Healing, Letting Go & Finding Peace
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: the first layer
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
Always Looking for Love - Infatuation - Divorce
Happiness was wrapped up in having a love story. That search led to infatuation, heartbreak, and the end of a 20-year marriage.
But God wasn’t done with me.
This is a story of healing after divorce - learning to let go and finding peace through faith.
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
A Seeking Life, A Found Soul:
The Beginning of Something Bigger Living
For years, I was striving to feel whole -
in relationships, my body, my work, and motherhood - yet still felt empty and unsettled.
What I didn’t realize was I wasn’t lacking love.
I was missing peace.
This is a deeper testimony of healing -learning to stop striving, find identity and purpose, and experience lasting peace through God.
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
DENISE'S TESTIMONY: More to the story
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
There's more to your story.
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
The best is yet to come . . .
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
NEW TESTIMONY COMING SOON!
Keep going and growing.
DENISE's TESTIMONY: The first layer, July 2024
A FAILED QUEST FOR LOVE: THE END WAS JUST THE BEGINNING
For as long as I can remember, I wanted a love story.
Having a man in my life felt like the key to living fully.
In my high school senior yearbook, when asked about my future goals, I wrote: “To find true love and happiness” as if true love was a prerequisite for happiness - and happiness was something outside of me, waiting to be found and captured.
For years - through my teens and well into adulthood -
I tried to manufacture that love story, that coveted prize I believed would finally make me whole.
It was a recipe for confusion and hurt…
not just for me, but for the men I cast into a role
they were never meant to fulfill.
Thankfully, through God’s grace and mercy,
those days are behind me.
The Breaking Point
The most obvious catalyst for change was painful -
a divorce after 20 years of marriage.
But the truth is, it went deeper than that.
Something within me - at my core - felt empty and fragile.
When 2020 hit, with both COVID and divorce,
everything seemed to unravel.
And yet… transformation began.
From the Floor to Freedom
I went from crying on my closet floor -
completely lost, immobile, and heartbroken -
to living with peace, joy, and a deep sense of freedom.
I came to truly know that Something Bigger -
for me, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit -
was present, loving me, and guiding my life.
What Changed
This transformation didn’t happen overnight.
It began simply, with listening. A friend sent me a link to Pastor Steven Furtick's sermon The Prison of Offense. I returned to Elevation Church for sermons each week and took one step at a time into a deep, reflective soul-searching journey.
But real change required more than the powerful inspiration Pastors Steven and Holly Furtick shared.
Real change required action.
I had to make intentional shifts - small but significant - changing how I thought, how I responded, and how I experienced my life.
The Process
Those actions became the foundation for something more.
They are shared in the interactive journal:
Something Bigger Living: Actions & Mindsets for Spiritual Growth and an Unconditionally Happy Life
A New Beginning
Years later, I can say this:
Not only did I heal from divorce -
I received what I had been searching for all along:
Peace
Wholeness
Freedom
This was the first layer of my testimony, lessons learned from an unfulfilled desire for partnership and love. But, there was more to the story.
Denise's Testimony: More to the story, 2026
A Seeking Life, A Soul Found
For most of my life, I was searching.
I thought I was searching for love -
a person, a relationship, a story that would finally make everything feel complete.
But underneath that, I was searching for something deeper:
To feel chosen.
To feel safe.
To feel like I was whole - and that my life made sense.
The Way I Lived
I didn’t know I was searching.
I just thought I was driven.
I moved through life with intention and effort.
I showed up.
I worked hard.
I built a career I was proud of.
I became a mother—one of the greatest gifts of my life.
From the outside, many things looked “right.”
But internally, something still felt unsettled.
I was constantly trying to hold everything together -
to be enough in every role,
to do the right things,
to create a life that would finally feel whole.
And that striving didn’t stay in one place.
It showed up everywhere.
In relationships:
I tried to manufacture stability -
to create romance,
to hold onto connection,
to author a love story I believed would finally bring me peace.
In how I saw my body:
I tried to control it -
to create a body I thought would bring confidence and worth.
There were seasons of over-exercising, under-eating,
and obsession with numbers - macros, weight, clothing size.
At times, it crossed into patterns I’m not proud of.
In my career:
I said yes to everything -
every project, every opportunity.
Late nights, over-preparing, pushing beyond what was needed -
believing that if I just did more, gave more, proved more,
I would finally feel secure.
In motherhood:
I poured myself out in every direction -
team manager, booster club president, organizer, planner.
Showing up fully -
but also, in ways I didn’t fully recognize at the time,
trying to compensate for the hurt my children experienced
in a home that was breaking.
And underneath it all was the same belief:
If I could just get this right… then everything would feel okay.
The Quiet Truth
Even in moments of success…
even in moments of love…
There was a quiet emptiness I couldn’t fully explain.
I was:
striving more than resting
managing more than living
searching more than trusting
I didn’t have language for it then.
I just kept going.
The Unraveling
Life has a way of bringing truth to the surface.
For me, it came through loss, change, and disruption -
including the end of a 20-year marriage.
At the same time, the COVID pandemic left the world uncertain.
Everything familiar was shifting.
And I reached a point where I could no longer push forward
the way I had before.
Painful patterns had to stop.
I found myself on my closet floor -
heartbroken, exhausted, and completely undone.
What I Didn’t Expect
I thought that moment - on my closet floor - meant everything was falling apart.
But it was actually where something began.
Not quickly.
Not all at once.
But slowly, quietly, something within me started to change.
What I Found, What Found Me
I didn’t find a new relationship.
I didn’t find a perfect plan.
I found Something Bigger.
For me, that is God - Jesus - and the Holy Spirit.
Not as an idea.
Not as something distant.
But as a real, present, guiding relationship.
What I Didn’t Fully See Yet
Even as I began to heal…
even as I started to experience moments of peace…
the deeper patterns were still there.
I was no longer on the floor -
but I was still searching.
Still looking, in quieter ways, for something outside of me to complete what felt unfinished within.
It showed up again:
In relationships -
still hoping connection would bring clarity or fulfillment.
In my body -
still managing, still measuring, still trying to feel “enough.”
In my work -
still overextending, still proving, still tying worth to output.
In motherhood -
still giving, still carrying, still trying to make up for what felt broken.
I had experienced healing.
But I hadn’t yet experienced full freedom.
The Deeper Shift
That awareness didn’t come all at once.
It came through my relationship with God.
Through sitting with Him.
Through being still.
Through allowing truth to surface - gently, over time.
I began to see something I hadn’t seen before:
I wasn’t just searching for love.
I was trying to create a sense of wholeness
in places that were never meant to hold it.
Living It Out
What changed wasn’t my circumstances.
It was how I saw and experienced my life.
I began to:
release the need to control outcomes
stop defining myself through relationships, roles, or results
trust that I was already held, even in uncertainty
experience peace that didn’t depend on everything going right
And most importantly -
I began to sit with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
To lay my brokenness down.
To be still long enough to receive love, comfort, and guidance.
I didn’t step out of life.
But I stopped trying to use life
to fill what only God could.
Where I Am Now
My life isn’t perfect.
But it is grounded.
There is a steadiness now -
a sense of peace, clarity, and trust that wasn’t there before.
Not because everything changed around me -
but because something changed within me.
As a mother, I show up with presence and gentleness.
In my work, I move with alignment.
In my life, I feel more freedom.
And in all of it, I know:
I am not alone.
I am not striving to become enough.
I am already chosen and held.
I am a precious child of God, and that is everything.
