A Word for Women

11/09/2025

Dear Christian sisters! I (Karen Spiegelberg) would love your encouragement as I embark on a campaign to be the next mayor of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Please follow my page Karen Spiegelberg . Your steadfast prayers during this time would be an incredible blessing...

09/23/2025

We, Karen Spiegelberg and Christine Wentzel, founders of A Word for Women, are thankful for the first 12 years of an active ministry with over 4K followers. We are also thankful for the last 4 years of continued engagement in our page and website as we have thoughtfully and prayerfully pivoted in a different direction. You may still view our many devotions and videos indefinitely. Also, please visit www.timeofgrace.org, our now faithful partner-- for daily devotions, videos, media resources, and so much more! We are blessed to be a part of Time of Grace as contributing writers. As always, you are in our prayers as you continue on your faith journey!

The mission of Time of Grace is to point people to what matters most: Jesus. Using a variety of media (television, radio, podcasts, print publications, and digital), Time of Grace teaches tough topics in an approachable and relatable way, accessible in multiple languages, making the Bible clear and....

01/01/2023

Happy New Year! Pop on over to Time of Grace ministry, and read these grace moments pieces every morning to jumpstart your day in Christ Jesus. God's blessings to each of you as you walk by faith, not by sight into the new year!

Time of Grace connects people to God’s grace—his love, glory, and power—so they realize the temporary things of life don’t satisfy. However, through Jesus we have access to the eternal God—right now and forever.

10/18/2022

GRACE MOMENTS:
God always answers by Christine Wentzel

The news headline read, “Answered prayers!” Does that well-intentioned declaration really testify to the completely awesome work of God? Or does it lead someone to question why his or her prayers “weren’t answered”?

We Christians say it all the time for good reason. We are ecstatic over divine love coming to our rescue. It’s fuel for our faith. It’s validation to our witness. It’s proof of God’s personal care in our lives.

But for a fellow Christian who is struggling in his or her wait (and even the unbelieving public watching us under a microscope), we can testify that the fuel, validation, and proof also come with a closed door or a command for patience. God does his best work behind the scenes of our understanding.

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:12).

Let’s have the headlines read, “God always answers!” This is a statement of our sure hope that God hears every single prayer from his children. He answers every one with a yes; no; or, “I have something better.” It’s the yeses we crave, because we think we know what’s best, especially when in crisis mode. But if we truly trust that only God knows best, that he is passionately invested in our well-being, then we will rest in his “silence” with the support of our family and friends.
https://timeofgrace.org/god-always-answers/

Time of Grace connects people to God’s grace—his love, glory, and power—so they realize the temporary things of life don’t satisfy. However, through Jesus we have access to the eternal God—right now and forever.

07/30/2022

Facebook friends: What’s the point? By Diana Kerr
Happy Friendship Day! You get one guess who created this holiday—yep, Hallmark! Shocking.
Sorry, Hallmark, but I have no plans to send your greeting cards to my friends today. There are just way too many: 1,337 to be exact.
I’m talking about my Facebook friends. Yes, I know, that seems like an excessive amount. Honestly, I actually know all those people.
Still, that is way too many friends to maintain relationships with, which makes you wonder, what’s the point of all those Facebook friends? Most people’s instinctive answer would be, “To keep in touch.” But is that really our goal?
Have you realized how easy it is to let the devil suck you into comparison on social media and in wanting to make yourself look good? Envy, jealousy, pride, and boastfulness all show up so easily, tainting our friendships in real life and online.
For me personally, it takes conscious effort to use social media as a tool for good instead—for encouraging and for sharing my faith. When you’re about to post something on Facebook for your friends to see, ask yourself why you’re doing it. Are you doing this to build people up or to bring them down? To encourage and inspire or to make them feel jealous or lesser than you? “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).
Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information visit www.timeofgrace.org

Photo by Sam Manns on Unsplash

07/17/2022

Nine a Day by Karen Maio
Experts recommend eating nine servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Yes, you read that correctly, nine! Ugh, I’m full just thinking about it!
This brings to mind nine “super fruits”, if you will, and no, I’m not talking about acai berries or pomegranates. These fruits are characteristics of the Holy Spirit’s active presence in our lives. They are gifts of our loving God. Only faith in Christ can save us, but faith is never alone. It shows itself in love and thanks for the grace that God has shown us in our salvation won by Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.” Galatians 5:22-23

1. Love – We love because Jesus first loved us, by giving his life for us on the cross, and loving others like Jesus did – unconditionally.
2. Joy – This isn’t a “yippee!” excited happiness. That runs out rather quickly when based on worldly sources. Rather, it is an inexpressible gladness that comes from knowing that through faith in Christ, we are saved and heaven is ours.
3. Peace – While a little more “me” time might be hoped for, this peace is the comfort in knowing that God’s mercy and forgiveness are already yours. It knows that God is in control of everything in our lives.
4. Patience - By nature, we are not very good at being patient. Here we can model our God. He shows his patience – his “long suffering” – in righteous judgment. By his example, we can imitate patience with others without lashing out in anger or pay back. God, grant us patience this minute!
5. Kindness – Squelch self-centeredness and reflect our love of God and all that he has done for us by being nice to others.
6. Goodness – Similar to kindness, goodness is giving with no selfish motivation. It is a Godly trait that we too can be good to others so that they might see the goodness of the Lord through us.
7. Faithfulness – Just as God is faithful in His promises, we strive to remain faithful to God. Faithfulness is about integrity and devotion to Christ and others.
8. Gentleness – Meekness is choosing to defer to others, forgiving others, correcting with kindness; it is not being a “marshmallow” or a “doormat”.
9. Self-control – This isn’t necessarily about saying “no” to a piece of cheesecake, but saying “no” to the attacks of a sinful nature.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with your love so that we may love others. Thank you for the salvation won by Jesus. May it ever be the source of our peace and joy. May it lead us to be kind, gentle, and patient with others, and always faithful to you. Help us have greater self-control over our sinful natures. We praise you for the grace you’ve shown us through Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.


Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

07/10/2022

You’ll Pay! Really? by Julie Luetke
My husband and I were in Walmart. We got to chatting with the man ahead of us in the check-out line. The person in front of him had a full cart and was having trouble so it took a long time. Once the man we chatted with checked out we felt like friends. He kept talking to us as we checked out our 5-6 small items. The bill was about $20. Before we could pay, he stepped in and paid for us. We had never done anything for this man that he should feel obligated to pay for our items. We had no reason to expect anyone to pay for us. We had the money in hand fully ready to pay.
I am guessing the loss of his $20 was not enough to feel for long. Not that the man would have to be wealthy, but a $20 bill passes in and out of our hands fast and often. It won’t make or break us. Still, it was a very kind thing to do and we appreciated it. I think of it every time I enter Walmart.
Being the recipients of this man’s generosity was a first for us. The surprise of it, the generosity from a stranger, the kindness... all makes me smile and fill me with warm thankfulness.
Unfortunately, I often take Jesus’ payment for my sin for granted. The debt I have incurred is larger than any dollar amount imaginable, and it keeps growing!
We have done nothing to earn or expect Jesus to jump in and redeem us. Jesus is no stranger, He is our brother. His love is endless. When He paid for our sin it was not painless and God knew it wouldn’t be. It cost God the Father His only Son; God the Son his life blood. God the Spirit rushes in to give us faith to believe it so we can spend eternity in heaven with the God of love, Father, Son and Spirit.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 EHV


Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

07/01/2022

Traveling through God's Love Story to us!

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

06/16/2022

The Potter's Vision

Photo by Belle Co

06/12/2022

Today by: April CooperDid you open your eyes this morning with extreme excitement for the day to unfold? Is there something fun on your agenda that you have ...

05/29/2022

Light my Fire! by Christine Wentzel
Forgive me Jesus for I find myself in a valley of spiritual weariness. Usually this happens because I lost sight of Easter (or as I like to call it, Resurrection Day). Easter is every day. It's the morning I wake up to everyday to stand outside the empty burial tomb alongside Mary Magdalene and hear my risen Savior call our names. Close your eyes and stand there with us. Ah, the Holy Spirit is stoking the fire... "Speak [Lord], for your servant is listening."
My triumphant King of Kings points me to His ascension and the day He gifted His Spirit’s power, like tongues of fire, on the heads of His people. That lit a blaze no one will ever douse-not with any amount of loathing and mockery, banishment and shunning or torture and death. Those first witnesses to the living God ate and breathed spiritual endurance despite their fears, weariness, and the world's attempts to force its will on them. Spiritual weariness? “Get behind me, Satan!”
They ravenously fed on the Bread of Life as the Holy Spirit opened their minds to remember, to believe and to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They continually met together, hugged, cried, laughed, and sang worshipful songs with each other. The Holy Comforter gave them the power to pray without ceasing, and give of whatever they had to encourage and sustain each other in their daily lives and growing God’s Kingdom. Today no amount of digital technology can replace the physicality of it. We need each other to hang on to!
Just as Christ warned, the dying world still seethes with hatred for Him. We need to keep the company of our family in Christ so we can encourage one another as our risen Savior instructed, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Time to shake the blues, I'm pretty fired up. So fired up that I'm willing to die for it? With a little help from my friends, I pray so. By the grace of my God who died first in my place? I promised so.

Photo by James Wheeler on Unsplash