Olivia Puccini  is a wife, mom, author, and Missionary.

There was a faint knock on the screen door. My mother rolled over in bed and felt herself sink into the depression that had laid her there. Her husband had left her for another woman. At the door waited her childhood best friend, an Armenian named Lucille, who followed God’s voice and drove thousands of miles to stand at her door.

In the midst of my mother’s divorce, Lucille introduced her to the hope of Christ. She stopped waiting for her husband to walk through the rusty screen door; instead, she waited for God to do what he promised and help her live.

Joy and peace is worn in our eyes; it radiates from our skin. Everyone who saw my mother felt the difference – even my father. Drawn to her, the arms of his mistress were no longer inviting. My parents remarried and I was their first child.

I landed in Lucille’s country, Armenia, as a missionary with my parents’ story branded in my identity. I want to be like Lucille – taking a risk to transform a life. I want to be like my mother – allowing God’s joy to be so palpable, even the wayward cannot help but run toward it.

How might the power of God help you flourish?