Meet Sunny

Hi there, I'm Sunny Shell and I'm an extremely grateful daughter of the LORD God Almighty.

I am a wife to a loving and godly man, whom God has filled with kindness, wisdom and much mercy. My husband is my best friend, and there's nothing anyone on this earth knows about me more than he does. He is my Second Love.

I'm blessed by God to be the Mama of two precious adult sons and a handful of spiritual daughters. My husband and I are currently visiting, praying, and patiently waiting on God's leading for where we will be able corporately worship our Savior and live out Romans 1:11-12.

My labors in the Lord have included: being a stay-at-home-wife/mom, teacher, exhorter, discipler, school volunteer (for nearly 20 years), a blogger and writer since 2008, serving in Women's Ministry for nearly 20 years, teaching Bible studies, writing/acting/directing skits for Children's and  Women's Ministry retreats, and discipling women and young girls from ages 11 and up. I've also taught and led family groups in Student Ministry, retreats and missions trips and am presently writing, "My Second Love: A Study of Biblical Submission and The Proverbs 31 Woman."

A bit about my marriage...
My marriage is beyond amazing right now, but it hasn't always been this way. My darling husband and I didn't start our marriage fully trusting God. In our immaturity, we were deceived into believing that we only had to trust God for the "big" things in life, and were smart enough to handle all the rest ourselves. Naturally, we discovered how beyond wrong we were as our marriage began to disintegrate right away.

The first three to five years were very strenuous and we nearly divorced within our first year of marriage.

Neither of us were raised in godly homes and had no concept of what a true and healthy biblical marriage (or family) looked like. After seriously contemplating divorce, we both agreed, that no matter how much we didn't like each other at times, we would choose to love each other all the time, just as Christ our God has loved us. Divorce was off the table and we would both pursue to honor and trust God in and for everything. It was still very difficult for both of us to die to ourselves and completely relinquish sinful habits, but by Christ's strength, we were able to rise above the ashes of our past and soar in the faith God has so graciously and abundantly granted us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

A bit about family...
Through this tumultuous time in our marriage, God taught us that we needed to be "clean slates" and throw out everything we'd known before and start afresh with Him. So we began to read and study Scripture as if our lives depended on it; because we finally realized that it did. We devoured any book, any magazine and any anything God brought our way to help us honor Him in all things and to raise our children in the love and admonition of the Lord so they would have what neither of us ever did; a family where love for Christ is preeminent.

A bit about parenting...
By God's grace we both strive to live our utmost for God's highest and teach our children the same. We've committed many sins and made many mistakes which we've apologized (and still do as more come to mind) to our children. Repenting to God and our children has been a continual conviction and practice of ours throughout their lives. This has been an essential part of our parenting so that we might always point them to the Cross of Christ and urge them to look only to Jesus for perfection and the fullness of joy.

Our youngest son is our prodigal who left for a couple of years and has now returned, but sadly, unrepentantly. But because we love the Lord Jesus, we've received him just as he is, as we pray for our Father to grant our precious boy the repentance that leads to saving faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.

A bit about my writing...
I am currently in the process of writing my first book, My Second Love which is a verse-by-verse study of biblical submission and the Proverbs 31 woman.  I used to write for Examiner.com with two columns: Christian Worldview (national) and Christian Marriage (local) and currently am a blogger at The Christian Post.

A bit about my heart...
I am one of many blessed and dearly loved children of God, who day by day, hope to see more of Jesus revealed in my life, than me. My greatest desire is for my life to be something beautiful to the Lord (Mark 14:6). I don't have any "great" plans or goals for my life. I just want to contribute any amount of joy and gladness to God and Father's heart, no matter how small that may be.

What do I write about? I write about living abandoned to Christ in marriage, biblical submission to all God-given authority, parenting, friendships, evangelism, and my often debilitating and very painful health issues for the past 15 years—all with the eternal, rich, and hope-filled perspective of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I try to keep it real, while keeping it pure, to keep it praiseworthy (Ephesians 4:29, Philippians 4:8-9)

I'd love for you to journey along with me as I share my life lessons, struggles and victories found only in Jesus. And I'd love to hear how God is growing you in your faith so that we might mutually be encouraged to press on (Rom 1:11-12).

Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments regarding faith, struggles (especially as a wife or Mama), or regarding any of my articles.

May God's grace and peace be multiplied to your spirit.

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