“In the quiet of my living room in 2018, my life was on the brink of collapse. I had reached the end of myself…In my weakest moment, as I laid on my living room sofa recovering from major surgery, the Holy Spirit spoke. It was a force so strong within me that it could not be ignored. ‘Get your Bible’…With what little strength I had, I obeyed. And as I opened the Word of God, something unexplainable happened. The moment my eyes fell upon the pages, I felt the weight of my past lift. The years of shame, pain and confusion began to unravel. It was as if heaven itself had opened, pouring out love, healing, and truth into the deepest parts of my soul…The words of Scripture were no longer just text on a page, they were alive, breathing life into my spirit, shattering the chains that had bound me for so long…The love of God consumed every broken part of me, mending what I thought was beyond repair.”*
–Excerpt from ‘Bearing my Cross’ by Linda Cochran.
Written by and photos by L. M. Land
Four Flint women came to the Gloria Coles Flint Public Library on May 27, 2025, to share their inspirational journeys via written media, otherwise known as ‘books’: Linda Cochran, Virginia Nolen, Brittany Mitchell (Isis Seraphis), and Tremaine Brown. Each lady came with messages of love for God, loving and caring for yourself as you a creation of God, living a God-inspired life and forgiveness. Each person expresses these concepts in different ways.
Linda Cochran began speaking by reading from her recent book, ‘Bearing my Cross: A Journey of Spiritual Awakening’. This powerful little book is “a lifeline for those facing life’s hardest battles…this book is a reminder that bearing your cross isn’t the end-it’s the beginning of your greatest victory.”
Cochran’s combines her personal human experience with Bible wisdom that will help your own journey through life struggles.
Throughout the book are ways to ‘align with God’s purpose’, and to help you get back on track if you stray (we are human, after all, and we will stray). Her three primary principles are repent daily, forgive quickly and love easily.
Each chapter ends with questions to reflect upon in your life, such as “Have you ever had a moment in your life where you felt God calling you closer to Him? How did you respond?”
Cochran also writes children’s books. “Always Pray” teaches children how to pray while playing, eating and helping others. It is also a simple and elegant reminder to adults that we can pray anywhere at any time of day as well.
These books, and many of her others, are available from many online sources.
Virginia Nolan has begun a magazine about a healthy lifestyle, ‘Start Healthy’, which includes 2 postcards. The current issue covers packing for a summer vacation, mental health, vacationing on Florida’s Emerald Coast, recipes and more.
Nolan became interested in nutrition as a young girl. She also brought some samples of her nutritious water- based drinks with her.
Articles from the Flint community are accepted for review.
Brittany Mitchell spoke about the most important thing there is: love.
“Love is the greatest gift we can give to anyone, it is the only thing.”
The inspiration for the program came because she wanted to overcome her ‘issues’. “I started with a very strong space of unforgiveness. And I was able to come out of that space.
“This handbook is so you can stand in front of a group of people and tell them how you went from ‘I can’t stand you’ to ‘I can’t live without you!” explained Mitchell.
Mitchell began journaling live on platforms like Facebook and TicToc, to keep herself honest and document her progress. “I had to go through self awareness. I had to look at myself in this situation, but I also had to look at myself through the other person’s position…I had to look at myself with the love of God…and learn self-forgiveness.”
The steps Mitchell developed worked. She found forgiveness, made amends and began building a new relationship with the person she could not forgive. A few months later he died suddenly.
Mitchell’s Self-love program handbook has been expanded in a new edition. A glossary of terms relative to self-love, journaling prompts and more photos for visual learners have been added. Also newly included are YouTube QR codes to see Mitchell read and talk about the exercises.
An audio book of the handbook is almost completed as well.
Tremaine Brown’s children’s book is called ‘The Golden Rule,’ and it is about being kind. The concept was written with her son when he was 7 years old; she now has a grandchild which inspired Brown to begin publishing.
Brown also drew the illustrations for the book.
She will be continuing to write and illustrate more children’s books in the future with similar positive concepts.
Brown also has journals to document your journey of faith, forgiveness, health or whatever you need to focus on to achieve a goal you are striving toward.
This event was sponsored by Terence Gundry.
*All book quotations are used with the permission of Linda Cochran. The quote above is from the chapter titled ‘The Encounter’.
