- Well, it started with aquestion from a magazine article.

"Can you tell your story in six words?"

Well, at first SheilaWalsh used words like,

Scottish, mom, loves Jesus, dogs,

but she didn't really think that was

an apt description of her life.

Finally, she arrivedat this six word story,

"Hold on and don't let go."

- [Narrator] Best-sellingauthor, Sheila Walsh says

if your life feelsmessy and out of control

with struggle after struggle,

she understands thosefeelings all too well.

- When you feel like you're slipping

or at the end of yourrope, I promise you this.

You're being held by theGod of the messer upper,

and he will never let you go.

- [Narrator] Sheila remindsus in her latest book,

"Holding On When You Want to Let Go"

that even though we facechallenges and heartaches,

God is always working and ourstories are not finished yet.

- Sheila joins us now via Skype.

Sheila, we all love it whenyou're back on the show.

Welcome.

- Thanks Terry, it's so lovely to see you.

- Well, as a former 700 Clubco-host, can you believe

that this organizationis turning 60 tomorrow?

- You know, it's amazing,only eternity will reveal

the impact of the life of this ministry,

it's just phenomenal.

- It really is, wellwe are looking forward

to celebrating tomorrow.

I wanna talk about your book,

"Holding On When You Want to Let Go".

You open with the CS Lewisquote, "It's easier to say

my tooth is aching thanmy heart is broken".

Why is it so hard for peopleto talk about their pain?

- I think because people feel,

particularly if you're abeliever, people think,

"Well, I shouldn't feel this way.

You know, I should be joyful,I should be peaceful."

But the reality is thatwe are still walking

through a broken planet.

I mean, there's so many things

that are not the way Godever intended them to be.

And I think that when we silenced,

when we're not able to talk,it actually gets worse.

You feel more afraid, more alone.

You feel like life iscompletely out of control.

- Well, the process ofunwrapping all of that,

goes on throughout life.

You write about some of the missing pieces

that have been put back in your life.

One of which was triggeredlast year after a FaceTime call

with your son, tell us what happened.

- Yeah, it was interesting.

My husband and I weretalking to Christian,

he's in graduate school, andBarry made a comment about,

"you know, you might beshouldn't wear your ball cap

on calls now, your classes are on zoom.

You should look professional.

And Christian was like,"No Dad, it's cool.

You know, I don't wannabe that, kind of...

I wanna be real. I want to be."

And that's all, they, kindof, went back and forth

for a little bit.

But it triggered somethingin me and I lost it.

You know, I was like, "Whyare you always like that?

Why are y'all so critical?"

So my son said, "I've gota paper to write, bye bye."

(laughing)

And Barry said, "Do you want to talk?"

And I said, "No."

And so he went upstairs andI fell to my knees, Terry.

And I just... with tearsrolling down my face,

asking the Lord, you know,

"What is it that I stillrespond to certain things?"

Because when our reactionis out of proportion

to what's actually happening,there is history attached.

And I realized, traced all the way back

to when I was younger, and Ifelt like I'll never be enough.

I'm not worth loving, I'm not good enough.

But you know what I've discovered?

I have discovered the liberating joy

of an old-fashioned wordand that is repentance.

I mean, it sounds likesomething that people yell out

in the streets, but it's a gift.

It's just this way I'vebeen able to, I mean,

that's what I did that night.

And repentance is not anemotion, it's an action.

It's turning around andwalking in a whole new way.

It's been very freeingand my husband and son

are very grateful.

(laughing)

- Well, for years, oneof your heartaches was

that you didn't knowwhere your dad was buried.

How did you fix thatmissing piece in your life?

- You know, when I wasgrowing up in Scotland,

we didn't talk about thingslike mental illness or suicide.

So, when my father committed suicide,

he was buried in an unmarkedgrave and we left the town.

And as a family, we nevertalked about it again.

And it was only when my momdied about three years ago,

and I saw her name engraved on the stone

with her mother and father

that everything inside of mescreamed, "Where's my dad?"

But, I thought I'm never gonna know

'cause my mom's gone now.

But my sister was staying withme maybe a year after that.

And one evening shelooked at me and she said,

"Sheila, is there anythingI could do for you?"

And it was an unusual question.

And I paused for a minute'cause I didn't want

to bring up bad memories.

But I said, "Do you thinkyou could help me find

where our father's buried?"

And she said, "Sheila, Iknow where he's buried.

I have the papers."

And so to be able for mysister and my brother and I,

to raise it, now, I know mydad's safely home with Jesus,

but just to be able to mark his life

and say how well loved he was.

And it reminded me ofthis one thing, Terry,

God is holding all themissing pieces of our story.

And he's not finished writing them yet.

- Yeah, not ever.

(laughing)

Well, this book is aboutholding on to hope.

What are some of thepromises of God that we need

to remember when we'regoing through tough times?

- You know, I thinkparticularly in the world

that we're living in, which is so crazy

and everybody's so mad witheach other and so polarized,

that I'd like to stand on the Word of God.

Every day, first thing,I go out on my balcony

and I read three Psalms out loud,

because it's good for my ears to hear

what my eyes are reading.

And it's like a declaration of,

"This is what's true,no matter how I feel."

But then I'll look at averse like Romans 8:38,

where Paul says, "I am convinced

that nothing can separateus from the love of God."

And the way he wrote that inthe present perfect tense,

it means I was convincedand I remain convinced.

You know, in Acts 9, he hasthis dramatic conversion.

I mean, if I saw therisen Christ like that,

I would be convinced.

But now when he's writingto the church in Rome,

it's almost 20 years later,he's been shipwrecked,

stoned, beaten, imprisoned,and he says to you and me,

"I was convinced and I remain convinced.

Nothing, not death, notdivorce, nothing can separate us

from the love of God in Christ."

- One of the things weneed to do to find that

is to tear down lies, andthere are things in our psyche

that all of us have bought the lie on.

How do you combat them?

- You know, I think Terry,I've started this new project.

It's called re-wallpaper your mind.

I remember when I waslittle, my mom wanted

to re-wallpaper one of the rooms

and the hardest part wasgetting the old wallpaper off.

You know, she'd steam itand do all sorts of stuff.

I believe, intentionally,that's what we need to do.

We need to scrape offall the lies of the enemy

and then re-wallpaper withthe truth of the Word of God.

Find the scriptures thatspeak to you and use those

to combat those lies every single day.

- Well, your book is full of such wisdom

in how to do all of that.

I want all of you whoare with us today to know

that there's so much more fromSheila in her brand new book.

It's called "Holding OnWhen You Want to Let Go",

clinging to hope when lifeseems to be falling apart

and it's available in stores nationwide.

Great to have you with us, Sheila.

Wish you were gonna be heretomorrow for the birthday.

- I know. Yay, go CBN!

(laughing)

- God bless you, it's a great book.

Thanks for being with us, today.