Terry Squires discusses her new book: I SEEK TRUTH

John, you know I've spent some time in the emergency room over the years. A couple minutes here and there I bet. Lots and lots of trips.

There's one that stands out to me. And I had taken Gracie over there and she was pretty sick. And you don't show up to the emergency room for not just having a good day. And the emergency rooms are kind of crazy places anyway.

And everything's just going at light speed and you show up and you're very disoriented. Well, there was this one smiling face that stuck her head in the room and just helped settle everything down. I'll never forget it. Her name is Terri Squires and she's on the phone with me today. A nurse there at the time and now she's gone on to become a wonderful author, speaker, television host, all of the above. And her new book is called I Seek Truth.

And it is talking to your Heavenly Father about finding truth in life, beautifully done and a comprehensive devotional that takes every book in the Bible and just kind of gives almost a 30,000 foot view of somebody struggling in their journey of faith to go through this. And so Terri, welcome to the show. How are you feeling? Hi, Peter. So good to be with you. Thank you for having me on the show today. I remember that day in the ER. Well, I remember most of our ER visits, but that one stood out.

I didn't know if you knew that I remembered it or not, but I know that's probably not the way you thought this would start off. But that was a banner moment for our friendship and you and your husband, Ted. And I just am very grateful for you.

It was just a kind word and you were just kind to us during a very difficult time. And thank you for that. Talk a little bit about this book and what prompted you to write this. Well, you know, I think truth is my heart. You know, I've been in the publishing world for a long time.

You know that. And I thought I was finished and then God took me on a journey a couple of years ago and took me to an unknown place. I was by myself a lot and He pulled me into His Word.

And my sweet friends used to be that Kay Arthur endorsed my book and we just bonded. And she challenged me and she said, Terry, I know you know the Bible, but do you study His Word? And I started thinking about that and I realized if I didn't understand something, I'd skim over it. And God doesn't want us to skim over His Word. He wants us to know His truth, every bit of it, all 66 books.

He wants us to know that. And so I started doing little segments. You might have seen them on Facebook and just little segments of seeking truth and studying. And then He put it on my heart to write, I seek truth. And Peter, I seek truth is not about me.

It's about all of us. The I in the I seek truth is about the reader. And so I wanted to encourage people to get back into His Word because we've taken God out of everything. And our world is so full of darkness and we need to get Him back into our lives. And so I started writing, I seek truth. And like you said, I go from Genesis to Revelation and just telling those sweet stories that He uses. And I always say, a lot of people say ordinary people.

I say extraordinary people because all of us are extraordinary. But He uses us to show His sovereignty, His power, His love, His mercy, His grace, His healing. And so I spent some time and the Lord gave me, I seek truth. Well as I was reading through it and I stopped at one of my favorite books in the Bible, and I know it's John's and it's the book of Job and how you went through Job and did this.

And I love the way you've done this because you do allow the first person of this, the way you wrote it, to kind of be all of our voices. And I saw that chapter heading of Job and it says you allow it to happen. And that's a hard thing for a lot of folks, particularly caregivers right now. And we struggle with that because we have to watch so much suffering. And you've watched in your medical career, you've watched suffering. And it's a difficult thing to watch and think, how does He allow this?

And He does this. Talk about you even just writing that chapter when you did that, because these are not insignificant words that you're putting down on this page. I've read a lot of devotionals.

I had a lot of people send me devotionals and want to talk about it on the air and things like that. This one though, you brought a different viewpoint to this that I really admire and respect and treasure with it. And you didn't get real flourishy with it. You didn't get real weird about it. Like some people just kind of just want to try to write a Christian Hallmark card or something. And you just brought a simple honesty to it. But when you wrote, just for this particular one of Job, tell me a little bit about writing that for you when you wrote that, you allow it to happen? Well, you know, you're right, in a sense, like you said, they're real. And there are all kinds of questions that we ask, God, why do you allow this to happen?

And if I can, I'm going to turn to that on Job. It's on page 51. Yeah. And I know, I know I'm right here. But you know, the thing is, is that the one thing about God, He is sovereign. And in Isaiah, He tells us that He allows things to happen. And it's to, and we, there are going to be times when we just will not know the answer to it. But God knows the answer. And He knows what you're going through to help that person or the next person. So it's so hard for us to understand why bad things happen to good people.

But you know what? God knew Job's heart. He knew that Job knew his truth.

He loved him. And no matter what, Job was going to be faithful. And so as we all go through our trials, that's what we need to do. We need to hang on to his promises that he is faithful. There's something good going to come out of it.

And we might not ever see it, but it will happen. And I also think about, in Luke, where I talk about the woman who was bleeding for 12 years, and she took a risk. She knew that she couldn't worship in the temple because she was unclean. And anyone who touched her would be unclean, and she had been sick for many, many years. But if only she could touch Jesus. And even Jesus would have been unclean if he would have touched her. But she knew that his healing touched just a little touch of his garment. You know, her faith was so strong that he would heal her, and he did. So these are all the devotions in I Seek Truth, or the hard questions that we all ask God. A brokenness, forgiveness, finding true love, hope, losing a loved one, going through a divorce, being betrayed by a friend.

We've all experienced it. And I'm just praying that I Seek Truth will just encourage the reader that, yes, I'm going to seek truth too. And that God is sovereign, he loves us, and he wants you to know everything about him. Well, I like what you've done with this, in that you've gone through—a lot of times people just throw out the top 40 of Scripture at you when you're going through stuff, and I've never particularly cared for that. When you go through the things that Gracie and I have gone through for as long as we've gone through them, you've pretty much run the whole line of platitudes that are offered by the Christian folks. And in this one, you went through the entire Bible. I mean, you even went into Leviticus, and not an easy book to go through. I mean, every book. And you brought out something that is unique and deeply personal and meaningful.

And every chapter starts off with you, as you were dressing. Oh, did you notice? Well, of course I noticed. Don't let the looks fool you, Terri. I'm not stupid.

Don't let the looks fool you. No, wait, wait, wait, wait, Peter. Did you notice that there is one that doesn't? No, I didn't notice that. Now I do feel stupid, John.

No, no, no. Yeah, you tipped your hand there, bud. Actually, you're right, though.

Every single one starts out as you are or you see or you know, but there's one, and I did it on purpose. Oh, I see it now. But in all fairness, I just got this on Thursday.

So in all fairness. Well, it just released. It just released on the 12th, so it's brand new out there, and it is 90 devotions.

So you're right, I went through 66 books, but some of the larger books I had to write more on, like Isaiah or John or Genesis, so... But there is one... Well, I love that about it, and I thank you for doing this, I thank you for just stopping by to share this. Now, I've got to ask you... She had something she was trying to tell you there, Peter. Oh, I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. I'm sorry, I couldn't hear. Sorry about that. I don't know. I lost my train of thought.

Go ahead, Peter. Well, we get derailed up here a lot ourselves, but it's... I wanted to switch gears a little bit with you and ask you in just a little bit of time I have left. You've seen a lot of folks come into the emergency room in the hospital in your career, and a lot of people are now stepping into that role as caregivers, and they are clueless on it. Just as a kind of a... Just the kind of the way you did with Gracie and I just to... That day was so difficult for us. What are some things, just some practical things you would offer? Because you brought a lot of your nursing to this.

I can tell that you do this. This is a very gentle book for people. It goes very deep into painful things, but it's a gentle book. Just the way you care for folks and the way you cared for us. What are some things that you would just say to people who are just now stepping into that role and having to go back and forth to emergency rooms and so forth as a way just of encouragement to them and some practical things they can do to prepare for that? The theme of kind of today's show is to be a little bit more prepared on things.

What are some things that just kind of stick out in your mind? Well, I think you never know what is going to happen in the ER. So once you walk in, you know, I would say ask a lot of questions and... Well, a lot of people are afraid to ask questions.

They get intimidated in there and they're afraid. So that may sound very basic, but that's an important thing to do. No, they need to ask questions. They need to know what medications they're getting, why are they going to have this test, and if they can't remember it, record it on your iPhone or write it down and ask the doctor and ask the nurse, why are you doing this? We love to explain to the patients and the families what is going on and if you have a care...a nurse or someone that isn't doing that, you need to let her know that you need to know what is going on with your loved one. It's important to know, because a lot of people do come in.

They're upset. They don't know what's going on and so they need to be prepared to ask a lot of questions of what tests, what medications and why. I remember becoming a caregiver when I was very young. I was 22 years old when I started entering into this world with Gracie and I was afraid to ask questions. I was afraid to question a surgeon or even a nurse.

By the way, that doesn't last terribly long in a kind of a situation like we have, but it was there. I think about how many people are afraid of that and are bashful about it or intimidated by it. These are your words as a professional who's done this, please ask the questions. Folks listening to this, please ask questions. About medications, why they're taking that medication. If you don't feel good about something, then let them know. If something doesn't feel right or a test doesn't feel right, if you need a second opinion, get that second opinion. I'm going to stop right there because I think that is the best thing you can do is to help caregivers become more assertive. I've said for years on this show, don't underestimate caregiver authority.

You may not know the science of what's going on with your loved one, but you know them and that's important. The book is called I Seek Truth by Terry Squires. Terry, can people get it anywhere?

They can get it anywhere, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Christian bookstores. What about the best way to contact you if people want to have you come and be a speaker or whatever, what's the best way they could do that? ISeekTruth.com.

ISeekTruth.com. My friend Terry Squires, thank you for dropping by. Thank you for taking care of us in the ER so many years ago and thank you for taking care of Ted. Thank you, Peter. We love you guys. All right, listen, this is Hope for the Caregiver. This is the nation's number one show for the family caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated.

I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me but over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people.

On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies and with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie and I am standing with hope.