Beautiful Hearted Women of the Bible

Craig von Buseck: What motivated you to write this book on creative mother-daughter devotions?

Linsey Driskill: My girls were five years old, and I had this ‘aha moment’ when my daughter, Gracie, said she was reading the princess stories. They wanted to dress up like princesses, and that’s all fine and fun, but I thought, “I would love them to want to imitate women of the Bible who love the Lord and love others, and have a heart to seek Jesus.” The next morning, the idea of a book called Beautiful Hearted Women of the Bible came to my mind.

CVB: Wow.

Linsey: I’m a former teacher, so I love questions and interaction as you read, especially for this young age group. As I tried to read longer books to them, I found they would be disengaged sometimes when it was just me reading to them since they were younger, unless I interjected questions. I thought, well, what if I interjected reflective and imaginative questions within the stories to hold the attention of six- to ten-year-olds? There are a lot of tween resources, but not as many for younger kids to really get them engaged – especially about women in the Bible.

Having been a teacher and loving creativity, I wanted to go a step further and include a ‘daughters in action’ prompt and also a fun activity. I had so much fun doing them with my kids and I feel like it really helped bring the stories to life. It’s a sweet and important season for our kids to teach them what it looks like to love the Lord and to love others. I have a big heart to want to live on purpose for the Lord, especially when teaching our kids what that looks like.

CVB: I really like the title. You don’t often hear the phrase ‘beautiful hearted women.’ What does that mean in terms of these Bible characters?

Linsey: I wanted to use that title because the Lord is so focused on inner beauty and our culture tends to be focused on outward. I wanted the book to reflect the Lord’s heart and how He looks at the inside before the outside. I wanted to look at women in the Bible who were imperfect, as we all are, but who were motivated to love the Lord and love others.

That’s what I try to teach my kids. God’s not looking for someone who’s perfect. None of us are. I wanted to show them women who we can look up to who sought the Lord.

CVB: How did you decide on which of the beautifully hearted women of the Bible that you would focus on?

Linsey: I literally went one page at a time in my Bible and looked at every single woman in the Bible. I chose women who were inspirational, who may have struggled but were able to overcome. I wanted the reader to be able to learn a lesson from their story.

Sarah, for example, had a hard time trusting at first that she was going to have a child. Then she was mean to Hagar, a woman who was able to have a child. One of the reflective questions I asked was, “If you’ve mistreated somebody, what’s a way you can work it out?” I start with that kind of reflective thinking, but then I share how Sarah ended up choosing to trust the Lord. As a result, she grew in faith as recorded in Scripture.

Read Linsey’s devotional about Sarah here.

I think it is super inspirational when Hannah is crying because someone’s mistreating her, but what does she do about it? She cries out to the Lord. Then I ask, “What can you do when you’re upset?” I tried to focus on those women who we can learn from.

CVB: What makes a book like this powerful is the application to our own lives. Who are some of the other characters that stood out to you?

Linsey: I think Rahab is a good example. She was someone who greatly struggled in the beginning, but she chose to not give in. She chose to stand up for the men of God who were following Him. The Lord ended up saving her, and Jesus was born through her family line. It’s super inspiring to me that God uses such imperfect people. I also mentioned the faith of Deborah.

CVB: Deborah is amazing.

Linsey: Yeah. I love her heart. When another leader, Barak, was afraid, she spoke confidently of God’s word. She walked with Him and had the fear of the Lord. We can learn a lot from someone like her. God chose to raise her up and Deborah rose to the challenge.

Read Linsey’s devotional about Deborah here.

In this book I have a big focus on small moments. I talk about Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice and how they invested in him one moment at a time by sharing Scripture. Look at what Timothy ended up doing. He was like a brother to Paul, and he became the pastor of the church in Ephesus. So many people came to Jesus because of him. Why? He came to know the Lord because of his mother, Eunice, who came to know the Lord because of her mother, Lois.

It’s not always some huge thing we need to do. It’s taking small moments to show what it looks like to love the Lord, to love others, and to love our children. I believe that is where the truth settles in our hearts and becomes more alive.

CVB: Yeah, absolutely. Have you gone through all of these devotions with your own children?

Linsey: We’ve gone through it several times as I was creating it and now again when it was published. I have one activity to still do that we’ll be getting to in the next few weeks. One of the fun activities in the devotion about Mary focusing on humility is called ‘the ring and run,’ which is about giving in secret. We created an awesome gift bag, and we wrote reasons why we loved our friends. Then we dressed in disguise, went to our friend’s door, dropped the bag, rang the doorbell, and we ran! We had the best time!

When we discussed Mary, the mother of Jesus, we talked about how she was a humble woman of God and how the Lord chose her. With Sarah, the wife of Abraham, the creative fun is creating edible model of the land they traveled. We used marshmallows for hills and lollipops for trees. We’ve done that one like three times.

CVB: Yeah, I want to do that one myself!

Linsey: The devotion of the persistent widow was also super powerful. We wrote journals back and forth throughout the week with praters to focus on being persistent in prayer. There was so much in my daughter’s heart that she poured out through her journal that she wanted me to pray for, and then her prayers for me were just so sweet. A child’s prayers are so beautiful.

CVB: Each has a Words for your Heart Verse, a story, then questions, a prayer, something you call ‘daughters in action’, and a creative fun. What do you mean by ‘daughters in action?’

Linsey: It was originally called ‘faith in action,’ but my daughter said that was too boring. She suggested we call it ‘daughters an action.’

CVB: Well, yay! Good suggestion.

Linsey: I don’t just like learning and then not following through. So ‘daughters in action’ was a way to show our daughters how to put our words to action. Don’t just learn about the desperate woman who was sick, and how the Lord healed her, but bring a toy or game to a child who is sick in the hospital. We brought a game to a boy who has been fighting leukemia. It’s natural for all of us to think me, me, me, but this is a great example of faith in action. We’re doing this to care for people and to do our best to follow through on what God asks us to do.

CVB: What do you hope mothers and daughters will walk away with after they’ve gone through these devotions?

Linsey: I hope moms and daughters will walk away with a deeper connection with each other and a deeper connection with Jesus – while loving other people together. It is so easy to get caught up in being busy and fast paced. My heart’s desire is to encourage moms and daughters to slow down and to take time together. I have to go out of my way to make sure I do take that time. This devotional allows you to take that time. I encourage readers to slow down and connect with the Lord and one another – to look outside yourself and to learn what it looks like to make a difference in the world for Jesus.

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