Flowers Find a Way: Special Audio Preview of Amber’s New Devotional

 Instead of our regular live coffee chat this week, we're thrilled to share something special - the audio introduction and first chapter from Amber's new devotional, "Flowers Find a Way: Resilient Blooms of Relentless Faith." Settle in with your favorite beverage as you listen to "A Legacy in Petals" (the introduction) and "The Defiance of Holy Blooms" (Day One). This preview captures the heart of Amber's 30-day devotional about finding hope and growth in difficult circumstances. Through the metaphor of flowers pushing through concrete, Amber explores how we can maintain our softness and authenticity while breaking through life's hardest moments. As she shares in the book, "The concrete doesn't stand a chance against a flower that refuses to stay buried." 

Coffee Chat Live with Amber & Lisa will return next week, but we hope this audio excerpt provides encouragement and a meaningful preview of what the full devotional offers. 📖 "Flowers Find a Way" is available now in print wherever books are sold. Get $3 off by following the Flowers Find a Way link at coffeechatladies.com☕ We'd love to hear what resonated with you from this preview! 

Thank you for taking the time to like, subscribe, share, and comment. Visit leadingladies.life to find out more. Also, follow @leadingladieslife on social. Amber & Lisa are authors of the multi-award-winning book, Leading Ladies: Discover Your God-Grown Strategy for Success, which dives into the power of community and empowering women of faith to rise up and make a difference, using our gifts and faith to shine brightly in the world. Watch the Facebook Live edition on our YouTube Channel @coffeechatladies .

Transcript

 Flowers Find a Way: Resilient Blooms of Relentless Faith. A 30-day devotional by Amber Weigand-Buckley.



Dedication.

For Philip, Saffron, Imogen, and Penelope—who have watched me bloom, wilt, and bloom again and continue to love me through it.

To the memory of my college advisor Shirley Shedd, whose belief in my potential as a young journalist planted seeds of confidence that continue to bloom long after she's gone—her legacy lives on through each student she encouraged...including me...proving that when we speak life into others, our impact outlives us.

For my messy bun and stretch pants tribe—the flowers in my bouquet who embrace all my authentic quirks and love me because of them.

For all who find themselves pushing through pavement, reaching for the light: May you find your way to bloom, not despite your circumstances, but through them...

...you are seen...you are known... you are completely loved...you are never alone...

. ..For the Master Gardener, who sees beauty in the wildflowers and purpose in the weeds. You lavish me with good things.

...To my Great Pyrenees pups Stanley and Stuart—you are my everyday God-sent dandelion fluff...

barefacedjournals...

God over every sprout of promise

over unexpected weeds that bloom beautiful purple flowers

i'm going to trust you to do only what you can do

because that's what you've done through all my yesterdays

and what you've written out in the promises of all of my tomorrows...

Introduction: A Legacy in Petals

I find myself staring at every flower I find in concrete, wondering what stories it could tell. What elements did it have to push through to get to where it is now? How can some of them keep standing tall right in the middle of the road, not even flinching with the zoom of the traffic?

There's something almost defiant about it—this fragile wisp of life breaking through what should be impenetrable. It's amazing that it keeps its softness no matter how much resistance it has come against in its short life. It doesn't ask permission.

It doesn't wait for perfect conditions. It simply finds a crack, a sliver of possibility, and reaches for the light.

This collection of my reflection moments, much like those haphazard flowers, isn't filled with polished, perfect spiritual insights. These devotions were born from pictures that continue to hold my memory—experiences I've walked through that rooted something stronger in me. Throughout, I'm including some of my journal moments, poems, and verses—raw seeds of my conversations with God that helped me realize there was potential behind adversity. They weren't written from a place of having it all figured out, but from conversations between me—a perfectly imperfect barefacedgirl and the God who loves me...

I've never been good at keeping up appearances. The makeup, the masks, the pretending—it's exhausting. And honestly? God doesn't need me to be polished.

He meets me in my barefaced moments, when I'm completely unfiltered, without pretense. Just me and Him, authentic and real.

My journey with mental health, through ministry disappointments, family struggles, and spiritual doubts has taught me this: flowers find a way. Not because they're stronger than concrete, but because they're persistent. They keep reaching, keep growing, keep seeking the light until they see a way to the surface and take a leap in that direction. You won't find three easy steps to a perfect faith here.

These are honest reflections from someone who has felt the weight of the concrete and decided to bloom anyway.

Someone who has discovered that God doesn't just meet us in our strength but grows His strength through our weakness. He wants us to give Him a chance to do just that. You will also find some intentional and unintentional typos, so it will be like a scavenger hunt of imperfect words coming from a perfectly imperfect girl—and in many ways probably a lot like you.

I've divided these devotions into four paths we all walk in our spiritual journey:

Pushing Through Pavement — When life feels like it's buried you under a parking lot of problems, God gives us the stubborn hope to keep pushing upward.

Revived from the Root Up — Getting honest about what feeds our souls and having the courage to cut away the stuff that's just taking up space.

Soaking Up the Sun — Real talk about life struggles, especially the times when God feels a million miles away—but isn't.

Wildflowers Need to Wander — Embracing fresh callings, unexpected joy, and the beautiful ways God transforms our journey.

So, whether you're feeling buried or beginning to break through, I invite you to join me in these reflections. Let's cultivate relentless faith together, one resilient bloom at a time.

Section One: Pushing Through Pavement

Cultivating Determined Blooms

When circumstances seem impossible to break through, God gives us the persistence to push upward toward His light.

Day One: The Defiance of Holy Blooms

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [John 1:5, New International Version]

I'm pretty sure I have dandelion DNA, as I've always been drawn to these persistent blooms simply because they refuse to stay where they're told. Maybe it's because I know what it feels like to be pushed into the corner, overlooked, and labeled as something that is too flawed or "out there" to be acceptable. Or maybe it's because I recognize and relate to the holy defiance in their journey—pushing through darkness toward light, no matter the cost.

No matter what others may see whether they judge the blooms as worthy or not. All that yellow headstrong beauty is pushed out through its boldness to overcome.

This is why I love to stop and look at blooms pushing their way through the pavement. Their silent persistence inspires my own journey forward, as witnessing determination in nature strengthens my own resolve.

I've spent most of my life searching for cracks—those narrow spaces where light filters through darkness. When I face resistance or darkness, I intentionally look upward toward the light I know is there. This deliberate focus on hope encourages me to lift my head even in the most confining, challenging situations. And beautiful girl, I want you to understand this truth, too.

Breaking is the essential life spark—the birthplace for any seed that blooms.

Those breaking periods, no matter if it is a mess of my own making, that's where I should take heart, not shame, because that's where Father's light shines the brightest. That's where he wants to shine—through our humanness.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "If you can't fly, then run; if you can't run, then walk; if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." Those flowers that don't give up when they hit resistance—they adapt, finding another route, another crack, another possibility.

Like the nature of the bones and dirt of the human condition, we aren't meant to be perfect. We're made to be real—cracked, broken vessels that somehow still hold the light. And in that beautiful contradiction lies our greatest purpose: to be so authentically ourselves, so honestly broken, that when God's light shines through us, no one mistakes the source of the glow.

This truth becomes most visible to me when I encounter wildflowers growing in impossible places—between sidewalk cracks, in the gravel by railroad tracks, or through a tiny opening in a rock face. These aren't carefully cultivated garden blooms with ideal soil and regular watering. These are determined little warriors, making beauty where beauty shouldn't be possible. Their persistence reminds me that God specializes in bringing life to the most barren places.

The flower doesn't breakthrough because it has some special superpower—it breaks through because it simply cannot help but reach for the light.

That's what it was made for. That's what we were made for too. This divine design within us reflects the truth that John's gospel articulates so beautifully: the light always shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to extinguish it. No matter how hot the concrete, how heavy the burden, light finds a way to break through.

This is the story God has been writing since creation—light speaking into darkness, life emerging from void, order from chaos. He continues to write this story in our lives. When we face our own concrete barriers — the diagnoses, the losses, the rejections, the disappointments—we carry within us the same divine DNA that says, "Reach for the light anyway."

So, when you're feeling buried under the weight of expectations, crushed by circumstances beyond your control, remember the dandelion. Remember its holy defiance, its silent persistence. And know that you, too, can push through what seems impenetrable, not because you're stronger than your obstacles, but because you were designed to seek the light.

The concrete doesn't stand a chance against a flower that refuses to stay buried.

And neither do your circumstances when you let your soul do what it was created to do—reach persistently, defiantly, hopefully toward the God who made you.

Prayer: Father, thank you for your light always shining in the darkness that cannot be overcome. Help me to embrace the holy defiance of a flower breaking through concrete—not because I'm stronger than my obstacles, but because I'm drawn to your light. When I feel overlooked or pushed aside, remind me that darkness has no power over the light you've placed within me. In Jesus's name, Amen.

Growing Forward: Sowing the Seed

Today, find a flower growing in an unlikely place (through concrete, in a rocky area, etc.). Take a photo or simply pause to observe it. Let it remind you of your own capacity to reach for light in difficult circumstances.

This concludes Day One of Flowers Find a Way, available now wherever books are sold. Follow the "Flowers Find A Way" link at coffeechatladies.com for $3 off this title.