Barb Roose is a speaker and author who is passionate about teaching women to live beautifully strong and courageous so that they experience God's great adventure of faith and purpose for their lives.

She is a Bible teacher who loves following God more than anything else. Rather than teaching audiences to follow God to get what they want, Barb inspires audiences to discover that God is all that they truly need!

Barb is the author of many Bible studies including Surrendered: Letting Go and Living Like Jesus_ and _Stronger Than Stress and multiple books.

Barb lives in NW Ohio and is proud mother of three adult children. Whenever possible, Barb prefers to eat dessert first.

SOCIAL MEDIA INFO

Website: https://www.barbroose.com

Facebook author page: https://facebook.com/barbararoose

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbroose

Welcome to 12 Minute Converse with Jesus Believers.

God chose first to have a conversation with us, his creation.

Our prayer is that this listening space brings growth and transforms your life forever.

Praise God for you, Barb.

Hello, good afternoon from Northwest Ohio.

How are you, Angle?

I am as excellent as can be.

Born and bred, or did you move there eventually?

I was born in Ohio, so I'm a Midwestern girl through and through.

And so I started off on one side of Ohio, and now I live on the other side of the state.

Which side do you prefer?

You know what?

Whatever side is currently home.

How about we deal with that?

In all things, we're going to be content.

Tell me about that mindset and how necessary that is for your success and for the things that you've accomplished.

I have always loved Matthew chapter 6.

At the end of that chapter, there's just this conversation about God's provision.

If he takes care of the flowers, he will take care of you.

And really this conversation of how present God is with us in each moment.

That we seek the kingdom of God above all else, and everything is added to us.

And then the last part is, don't worry about tomorrow.

And so there's this both and.

In one hand, wherever I am at, if I keep my eyes on God, I'm exactly where I need to be.

And in the next part, whatever happens in the future, I'll just leave that in God's hands.

So where I've been, God was with me there.

Where I'm at now, God is with me here, so I'm fine.

And it's been working out good.

This formula has worked to your benefit, has it?

When my children grew up and left home, there was a few minutes where I thought about, should I move somewhere else?

I finally had that choice, and I realized that I could.

But where I was at, I had everything I needed with God.

How many children do you have?

I have three.

They are ages 33 down to 25.

And a U.S. Army officer, a preschool teacher, and an intensive care nurse.

Wow.

What a mix.

Wow.

What a mix, yes.

Did the books come after they left, or did you do the books while they were growing up?

So it was towards the end.

My very first book came out when my oldest graduated from college.

And it wasn't planned this way.

It's just kind of the timing that God allowed.

Everyone was kind of off and starting to make their way in the world and friends.

And it opened up spaces for me to have just more time to think and pray.

And I feel like it seems like when God just said, okay, you've got some bandwidth.

So I have been a full-time traditionally published author for the last 11 years.

So I think then my first book would have come out when my youngest was 15.

What was the name of that book?

That book actually just celebrated its 11th anniversary in March of 2026.

It was titled Enough Already, Winning Your Ugly Struggle with Beauty.

And that was birthed out of all the years I worked on staff at my church for 14 years.

And I was overseeing spiritual growth and development.

I'm from large church world.

So we had a very large church, around 8,000, 10,000 people while I was there.

And I often would receive questions or concerns from women who loved Jesus, but they struggled with what they saw in the mirror.

And so the premise of that book was if you give women 30 seconds in a mirror, they will tell you everything that's wrong with them.

And the book itself was about how we could see God's goodness, His beauty, and His blessing in every part of how He created us.

As life evolved from being that teacher, is that something that you've continued doing after the 14-year stint in the big church?

Yes, I am a Bible teacher.

So God's assignment for me over these last 11 years is for me to teach God's Word.

I teach at women's conferences, leadership events, retreats, any place where we can crack open the Bible and we can see the truth of God's Word and how to live that out in our lives.

One of the things I love to say is that God has a great adventure of faith and purpose for each one of our lives.

When teachers get into living life and learning and teaching, I've seen seasons appear where there are themes.

Have you had that experience?

And if so, is there a theme for this year that you're seeing popping up?

Well, my continuous theme, continuous, in my Stronger Than Stress book talks about it, and also I wrote a previous book named the theme, and it's surrender.

It is the giving over to God because surrender is our only path to peace.

And that has been a constant theme of my life.

I say that particularly as women, and I think this may apply to men, but in a little different way.

There's three things we want.

We want to protect what we love.

We want to fix what's broken.

And we want to keep everyone and everything on track.

And those three things that we deeply desire, those have been at the core of my heart in my life.

But the thing is, is that many of those circumstances have been out of my control.

So no matter what season I'm in, it is definitely the question of what is in my hands and what must stay in God's hands.

So surrender is that perpetual theme.

What are tips or suggestions you give to someone as they attempt to surrender to the things that I can't change?

What should they first do?

So the first is a question.

And the question is, what is it that hasn't been working in your life?

Maybe it's a relationship.

Maybe it's a family situation, jobs.

But what have you been trying to force?

What have you been trying to fix?

And no matter how hard you try, it's not working.

That's the first thing.

The second is, is are you tired of wearing yourself out by trying to do it?

And if the answer to that question is yes, then Engle, the prayer that I teach all over, and it's in Stronger Than Stress.

It's a prayer that I've been praying in my life for over a decade.

It is very short.

Are you ready for this prayer?

Go for it.

So it is the surrendered prayer, friends.

It is simply, God, I can't.

But you can.

And I will let you.

The very first spiritual practice we tackle is the practice of surrender.

And that is the title of the chapter.

God, I can't.

But you can.

And I will let you.

And this, friends, isn't giving up on your situation.

You don't have to give up on it.

And you don't have to give in to hopelessness.

But this prayer is a very short, concise way of you placing into God's hands what only He can handle.

And He will give you His peace in exchange.

Five years from today, you're listening to this conversation.

What's a message you'd leave for the future, Barb?

Engle, I'm so glad you asked this.

I write a letter to myself every February.

And it's a letter forward to myself.

And in that letter, there's something that every year, and I just say to myself, Barb, keep trusting God and keep being gentle and take care of yourself each day.

Barb, this has been a great pleasure, one I treasure.

Thank you for being on What is Inspired by 12 Minute Convoys.