A Q&A Interview with Maz O’Callaghan

This month’s guest blog is a powerful Q&A interview with Australian native Marian “Maz” O’Callaghan. Born into a loving family and raised in Canberra, Australia, the trajectory of Maz’s life was forever changed at the age of 10 years old.  During her teen years, she became entrenched in a life of drugs, alcohol addiction and prostitution. 

By Missy Rolfe - flower truck owner,
author of Lena’s Zinnias children’s book

Have you ever just felt blocked or like barricades are in your way when you’ve tried something?  I know I have.  But over the past year, “suddenly” something amazing happened in my life when I intentionally partnered with God.  I still can’t believe how something ‘planted in my heart’ long ago is now in full bloom!

By Julie Keltonic
Sweet Armenia baklava bakery founder

You can either build your own kingdom, promote yourself, think about yourself, post the perfect pictures, gain the followers, make the sales, get the invitations, position yourself in the center of the world’s world, or you can “throw yourself into the work of the Master, confident that nothing that you do for Him is a waste of time or effort.” (1 Corinthians 15:58 MSG).

A Q&A Interview with corporate executive Jess Smith

I was introduced to Jess Smith listening to an episode of Hannah Holbrook’s MEANT FOR GOOD podcast. I love her perspective and intentionality to empower others in living out their gifts, talents and calling. It resonated with me because it’s one of the reasons I created the GAMG stories platform: To celebrate girlfriends living out their gifts, talents and calling!

A Q&A interview with Hannah Holbrook,
singer-songwriter, musician & “Meant For Good” podcast host

There is a reason why Jesus told Peter to forgive “seventy times seven.” It shows just how important the practice of forgiveness is! We may not realize how carrying offenses toward someone is weighing us down in life…until we let go of unforgiveness we’ve been carrying. In a recent conversation with singer-songwriter and podcaster Hannah Holbrook, she shared with me her life-changing story of healing from the wounds of long-held offenses.

By Rachel Hale, singer-songwriter
and “Hale’s Kitchen” creator

It felt like a prison sentence. The COVID-19 pandemic hit while I was in ministry school. A Stay-at-home order was issued, and a face mask requirement went into effect. Though I understand the need for such unusual measures in a pandemic, it had an emotional impact that I am only just now being able to process. I was suddenly “locked down,” no longer feeling seen or heard.

By Phyllis (Robertson) Thomas,
daughter of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson

The best, worst Christmas gift I’ve ever received started innocently enough in 2017. My oldest son, Grant, had told his girlfriend, Julie (now my daughter-in law) that he was interested in learning more about his family genealogy. Being the kind and thoughtful person that Julie is, she surprised Grant with an Ancestry DNA kit for a Christmas gift. Little did she know, that creative gift idea almost ruined Christmas that year! 

By Ciara McDonald

As the year 2020 comes to a close, I’ve been thinking about how this has been a year of fear and worry for so many people. It has become my focus to wage war against worry! We need to know who our enemy is, and how to recognize his tricks that can steal our peace. Here are some ways I have experienced worry and fear threatening to steal my/my family’s peace:

By Melissa Doll,
Honeybee Ministries Iowa founder

We’re living in a pandemic. A pandemic of FEAR. Fear in households, fear in culture, fear in speaking up for what is true and right and good. In my opinion, fear sucks the lifeblood from many hearts, posing the greatest threat to peace. How I Became a Fear Slayer: For years, my greatest fear was losing a child to death.

WOW!!! What a blessing it has been for me to be able to feature so many girlfriend guest bloggers on this #GAMGstories platform over the past 2 ½ years!  Ever since the God and My Girlfriends song was released on Reba McEntire’s Dove and Grammy-winning album in 2017, I knew I wanted to create a sharing space that embodies the message of this song I wrote with Marcia Ramirez and Patricia Conroy.

By Tia McGraff - singer-songwriter/artist
& author of “Jake the Road Dawg” children’s book

The Greeks and Romans believed the “Dog Days of Summer” were a time of bad luck and catastrophe. For me, it reminds me of a particular day in August when a terrifying dog bite on my face taught me the gift of mercy. I was five years old. Mom was a 7th grade-school teacher, and my dad worked in a factory.

A Q&A Interview with Kelly Wegner,
co-owner of Authentically American

This is the month of celebrating our country’s independence and our freedom. The perfect time to sit down with an entrepreneur girlfriend who co-founded a “distinctly American” business with her husband who is a military veteran, and learn the story behind its special cause and mission. Though small in size, Dean and Kelly Wegner’s “Authentically American” business is making a big impact. It has been featured in Forbes Magazine, on Fox & Friends, Yahoo Finance and other media outlets.

By Val Petty, author of
”Designed for Joy” book

I’ve always been a girl who loves to celebrate, but the older I got and the more “adulting” I did, I found that my spark of joy was gone. As I was rounding the corner towards 40 years old, I was really struggling. I knew my Bible and I had been in church for my entire life. I prayed about everything, and I had seen God work miracles in my life in the past.

By Megan DeJarnett

At the beginning of every year, I ask God for a word. A word meaning, something planted in my heart by Him that I can always come back to and know it’s part of His plan for my life. Here’s the word I received for 2020: BE DILIGENT. Let’s rewind back to the start of 2019. God put a BIG dream in my heart, out of nowhere.

By Stacy Case, News Journalist

For nearly 30 years, God has blessed me with a daily front row seat to history. Though I know I fall short, He made me and called me to be a daily documentarian of triumph over tribulation, good versus evil and His almighty power to oversee it all.

By Hailey Frazier,
H. Lane Design founder

When I was a little girl, I believed in fairy tales even though I did not live in one. I remember placing a photo cutout of a beautiful model under my pillow, then praying and asking God to make me beautiful so that I could be loved.

By Michaela Lemonis, singer-songwriter,
multi-instrumentalist

It was during my Bible study time that I came across the story of the woman who received healing in Mark 5:25-34. Growing up in church I was very familiar with her story, but that particular morning, it was as if I was reading it for the first time and I was overwhelmed at her faith.

By Caitlyn Fisher, Junior ambassador -
Songs for Sound Foundation

Even to this day, I can’t fathom the emotions that must have bubbled up inside of my mother like an overflowing pot of water, filling her mind with fear and her heart with a tug-of-war of questions that begged for answers. At the young age of 8, I remember believing that this diagnosis provided me a sense of uniqueness…