What do you do when life looks nothing like you planned despite doing everything “right”?
For Stacey Chadwick, a life coach, hairstylist, and mother of four, 2023 brought unimaginable heartache. Within the span of a year, she lost both her father and brother. The grief was deep. The disruption was real. And yet, faith remained.
In our conversation on the Divine Disruptors YouTube series, Stacey shared how her relationship with God shifted through loss, how spiritual practices grounded her, and how she found peace in unexpected ways. Her story is a testament to how God meets us, especially in our most disrupted seasons.
Stacey’s faith has always been central in her life. Raised in a Christ-centered home, she describes faith as one of her spiritual gifts. But even with a strong foundation, grief shook her.
When her dad died suddenly in December 2023, Stacey found herself asking questions she never thought she would. “I’d been doing all the things,” she said. “Scriptures. Prayer. Conference talks. But now he’s gone. What was all of it for?”
She wasn’t angry at God but she was heartbroken. And even the most familiar spiritual routines like reading scripture, listening to conference talks- they all felt very heavy.
It was then that she discovered something important: sometimes, stepping back is also an act of faith.
Stacey found solace in a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Songs Sung and Unsung”, which gave her permission to grieve without guilt. “He reminded me that sometimes we don’t feel the song. And that’s okay.”
Instead of pushing through in the same way, she leaned into what she calls her “PJ’S”—prayer, journaling, and scripture. These habits, established in her childhood, became quiet anchors that tethered her back to God, not through performance, but in presence.
Her morning routine of waking up before her children, sitting in stillness, writing, and reading became a sanctuary.
As Stacey processed her grief, she began asking deeper questions about her purpose. She was working a stable job at her children’s school when a conversation with her aunt (and a whisper from her late father) nudged her back to coaching.
“My dad always believed in me,” she said. “He valued my work and always saw potential in what I was doing. I knew, if he were here, he’d want me to go back to what lights me up.”
So, she did. She stepped away from the safe and stepped into the unknown, again.
Stacey now runs She Lives in Harmony, a coaching practice that helps women find connection between body, spirit, and home. Her work combines faith, wellness, and emotional support- back to the things that has deeply shaped her own journey.
One of the most tender parts of Stacey’s story is how she returned to doing hair after stepping away for a time. Once viewed as superficial, hairstyling is now sacred, a healing art that allows her to help women see their God-given beauty.
“It’s my art form,” she shared. “I don’t create beauty. God already did. I just help bring it forward.”
It’s this integration of faith, beauty, healing that makes her work so impactful.
Stacey’s story reminds us that grief doesn’t have to destroy us. It can redirect us.
God doesn’t always speak in lightning bolts or grand visions. Sometimes, He whispers through the voice of a parent, the ache of a morning, or the sacred silence of stillness.
If you’re walking through a hard season, know this: you’re not behind. You’re being aligned.
And as Stacey beautifully put it, “We find what we’re looking for. If I look for God, He’s there.”
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