1 of 5
Jennifer Rothschild is sitting in a café booth sipping fruit tea and sharing about the "makeup incident"—as in the time she accidentally mixed up her eyeliner and lip liner. "Thankfully, my son, Clayton, said something to me before I greeted the world with red eyes and black lips," Jennifer explains with a laugh.
Jennifer, who's been blind since she was a teenager, admits she tells this story often, since one of the most frequent questions she fields from the women who hear her speak at retreats and conferences is who does her hair and makeup. They're duly impressed when she admits she does these things herself. But they don't know the half of it.
Besides being a hands-on mom to two sons, Clayton, 17, and Conner, 8, Jennifer also travels constantly to speak at women's conferences across the country, sustaining many bumps and bruises as she navigates countless new hotel rooms.
"I'm naturally more of an introvert, so I've had to learn to be brave," Jennifer explains. "Since I'm blind, it's easy for me to become fearful. But I'm unwilling to be governed by it. I've discovered courage is a choice."
Jennifer has been making that choice since she was 15, when she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, an incurable degenerative disease that slowly destroys the retina. Over the following two decades, light gave way to shadows. Today, at 43, Jennifer can detect only very bright light.
In college, Jennifer met Philip Rothschild, the man who's now her manager, traveling companion, and husband of 20 years. "Even though I couldn't see Philip, I could tell from the sound of his voice that he had a great smile," Jennifer says of their dating relationship.
As Jennifer lost her sight and navigated the worlds of wife and motherhood, she learned to lean on God in ways most sighted people don't—lessons she chronicled in her 2002 book, Lessons I Learned in the Dark, and in her 2006 follow-up, Lessons I Learned in the Light (both Multnomah). The books launched Jennifer's speaking ministry, and she now travels the country encouraging weary and hurting women that "it can be well with your soul even when it isn't well with your circumstances." Jennifer and Phil also founded WomensMinistry.net, an online source of ideas and encouragement for women's ministry leaders.
TCW recently caught up with Jennifer, fresh off an 18-city tour with the Women of Faith conferences as well as an appearance on The Dr. Phil Show, for a candid talk about healing, contentment, and what she calls her "tenacious faith" in God.
What do you mean by "tenacious faith"?
It's when you're unwilling to quit. When you have an unshakable trust in God and a loyal love for him. A lot of us love God, but few of us loyally love God. There's a deep satisfaction in life when you have loyalty toward God.
 E-mail this page   Print this article  Post a comment |
