After spending most of my life pretending to have it all together so that God, and other people, would love me, I stopped wrestling with God and begun resting in Him. I embraced Him and He made me whole. He gave me a glimpse of shalom. 

I have always longed for a community in which it was acceptable to be honest about what it truly looks like to walk through life with Jesus.  Conversations between believers should be deep and genuine, not surface level catch phrases we are so used to throwing around (especially here in the South). None of us have it all together on our own and embracing that truth is so freeing.  

My wish is that Shalom Sisters will not just be a warm greeting, but a safe space for women to gather and be encouraged. As sisters in Christ, we need one another. We need one another in honest and vulnerable ways. We should be sharing our stories with one another, the good, the bad, and especially the ugly. We should be breaking bread, pouring wine, and spreading joy. 

Let's do those things here. Let's bring some shalom to our sisterhood.

At its core shalom is about experiencing the creation intent of God. Shalom is life as God intended it to be—life before sin and brokenness. Shalom is finding our way back into the garden where we were created to enjoy and experience God in His fullness as we 'walk with   Him in the cool of the day.' It is what our souls are really and truly longing for—deep communion and connection and intimacy with our God.  Jim Branch

Every time Jesus healed, forgave or called someone, we have a demonstration of shalom.  Eugene Peterson

Faith is so much more than words. It is a life of costly love toward God and toward each other. It creates the shalom, the peace and wholeness and health for which we were created and which only God's salvation can bring. John Wood

We share the shalom, that vibrant word of peace and wholeness spoken in the locked room on Resurrection night. Our empty nets are filled from the lake; the fire and food are prepared for us on the beach. Our inner healing moves to a deeper place.  Flora Slosson Wuellner

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it all in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. Romans 8:18-21 MSG. (Those "coming good times" is the full realization of the shalom. The world as God intended it).

The most profound yearning of the human spirit, which we try to fill with all sorts of inadequate substitutes, is the yearning for our completeness in the image of Christ.   M Robert Mullholland Jr.

Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living which we know we are passing by. Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.   Thomas Kelly

We strive for order, coherence, and wholeness in our lives. We want certainty. We long for shalom. Shalom is a peace that not only recalls all the pieces of one's life but sees how the parts fit together in a unified and glorious whole. Shalom involves rest and gratitude; it provides a balance and harmony where all things seem right.  Dan Allender