Stephanie Starr

Stephanie Starr spent the first 36 years of her life in the dark about the joy, freedom, and confidence that comes from life in Christ. Until that point, her carefully constructed life was built on a shaky foundation of self-sufficiency and a blinding personal worldview that eventually brought her to her knees in surrender.

Stephanie lived a charmed life growing up in Naperville, IL, with her close-knit family and long list of educational and extracurricular accomplishments providing all the love and security she needed. Early success and accolades gave Stephanie a false confidence in her own strength and abilities, and this perfectionist saw absolutely no need for a Savior. In fact, the God that Stephanie thought she knew was more of a “Celestial Police Officer”, waiting to unleash wrath and vengeance when she messed up. To her, the fear of God literally meant fearing a relationship with Him.

But once life started handing Stephanie more than she could handle, fixing problems in her own strength only increased the downward spiral. Trusting the wrong doctors with a mental illness diagnosis, starting a highly addictive prescription drug regimen, and looking for love in all the wrong places was the perfect storm to land this former good girl in the most unlikely of places – in the hospital, in rehab, and eventually, in jail.

When God had Stephanie in a checkmate in a padded solitary confinement cell, she finally surrendered her life to Christ and made space for His perfect love to manifest in her weakness. Stephanie says, “If my story can help even one person see the hope of Jesus Christ at their lowest point, then I consider all I have been through to be worth it.”

Calling her jail and addiction experience “the best thing she never wants to happen again”, Stephanie now uses her testimony to glorify God through prison ministry, serving those behind bars and their families with the love of Christ as they navigate through this delicate season of life. She also founded her blog, “Confident Hope Revealed in Him” as a source of encouragement, pointing people to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Stephanie is the proud mother of 11-year-old Harper, is currently pursuing a MA in Christian Ministry from North Park University and is working on a book based on her testimony.

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