Michelle Booth is a mother, grandmother, author, and speaker.  She loves to lead Bible studies and enjoys mission trips around the world.  Michelle has a master’s degree in counseling and is currently a school counselor.  Her passion is to help women and children learn to trust God and thrive through whatever circumstances they face.  Do you want to understand what that kind of thriving looks like?  Read her story and sign up for the email list below.

Michelle Booth’s Story

Decisions From a Peanut Butter Jar

The realizations and decisions we make about God, our world, and our place in it, determine the course of our lives. I made my first and most profound decision because of a jar of peanut butter. I was about four and I met a boy my age pulling a wagon with a toddler whose hand was in a peanut butter jar. The boy told me their mom kicked them out of the house, and the peanut butter was the only food he could find for breakfast. For the first time, I realized that children didn’t always have their needs met and that some people lived in poverty. My little heart broke, and I have had a passion to help those in need ever since

Decisions From Fear and Decisions From Love

We later moved deep into the Santa Cruz mountains in a land with rattlesnakes, scorpions, and packs of wild dogs. It was also where my friend died in a fire because no one was able to rescue her. This is where I decided the world wasn’t safe and I have battled fear most of my life.  In my early teens, we moved to Mount Hermon Christian Conference Center. In this lush environment, I learned that God could make life beautiful, and that Christians could have a tremendous impact on the lives of others.  Years later, my parents lovingly gave me money to go to the Mount Hermon Christian Writers conference and I published my first book.

Decisions Made In Dumps

I made my next life-changing decision in the Tijuana dump. I met a mother who lived in that dump who couldn’t feed or educate her children. In that hot, smelly atmosphere, I decided to become a bilingual/cross-cultural teacher and go on mission trips in the summers.

Doctors’ Office Decisions

I have made some of my decisions in doctors’ offices. In college, my doctor told me I couldn’t be an athlete. I told him I could do anything I set my mind to and ended up on the rowing team at the University of California Davis. Several years later, a different doctor told me I had twins, and I decided my life would never take the easy route. Four years after that, I found that one baby at a time is relatively easy.

One of my more earth-shattering moments was in another medical office. My doctor told me that, because of my disease, I would go deaf in both ears. It was a deaf sentence. He also informed me that I would never have any equilibrium. That crushed my adventurous spirit of backpacking and cross-country skiing and even negated walking without holding on to something. Within a few months, my world crumbled around me in several other ways during a time I call my avalanche of grief. I decided God must have withdrawn His blessing from my life. I still attended church and taught Bible at a Christian school. I believed what I taught my students: God takes care of His children – just not me. This was my darkest time.

Deciding to Thrive

One day, while faced with a student in a mental health crisis I couldn’t solve, I decided to get my master’s in counseling. Then, in a college classroom, I came to understand that people could remake their trauma-based decisions and become able to thrive regardless of their past or current circumstances. As that understanding crystalized, I also knew that God would need to be part of that transformation. Over the next several years, God poured His love and peace into me. I found that he still blessed me even when life seemed bleak. I also discovered he could heal my heart and give me hope for the future regardless of my circumstances. I am still handi-abled (I dislike the terms handicapped and disabled) but manage life with a walker that also serves as a stroller.  I still have partial hearing in one ear, so I am on deaf row for now.

My next realization was at the Sacramento airport when my daughter dropped me off with my walker and two suitcases I couldn’t carry. I was to board a plane alone, hoping the missionaries would find me outside the Guatemala City airport. I realized then that I was still the same adventurous self, and that life was an obstacle course I would always manage to complete with God’s help.

I now thrive in the mountains of Northern California, where I work as a school counselor.  I love gardening and spending time with my children and five grandchildren. At this point in my life, my passion is to help women and children learn to reframe how they look at things, get God’s help, and thrive. I am hoping that you will be one of those women.