For years, Shona Renay thought she was simply another woman doing what needed to be done—raising children, working, making mistakes, and surviving circumstances she never expected to face.
In her new memoir, Run Your Race with Grace, Renay
tells the story of a quiet little girl who learned to watch from the edges, a
young woman who slowly disappeared inside the life she was trying to hold
together, and a mother who nearly lost herself while trying to protect her
family.
Growing up in Texas, Renay imagined a future built around
science, education, hard work and service. Instead, her path led through
betrayal, financial hardship, domestic violence, and the challenges of raising
four children while trying to hold her family together.
The defining moment came on February 18, 2000, when a
violent attack left Renay fighting for her life. During a profound near-death
experience, the pain and fear disappeared and were replaced by an overwhelming
sense of peace and God’s presence.
That experience permanently changed her understanding of
life, purpose, grace, and eternity.
But Run Your Race with Grace is not simply a story
about surviving trauma. It is a story about rebuilding—through motherhood,
forgiveness, faith, family, and the discovery that survival is not the only way
to live.
“For much of my life, I believed strength meant enduring
whatever came,” Renay says. “Grace taught me that survival was not the only way
to live.”
Written with honesty, humility, and hope, Run Your Race
with Grace reminds readers that a life can hold both brokenness and
blessing, sorrow and joy, and endings followed by unexpected beginnings. The
road may look nothing like the one originally planned, but every life has
meaning—and every person has a race worth running.
About the Author
Shona Renay is a wife, mother of four, grandmother,
engineer, Army veteran, and first-time author. Through her writing, she hopes
to remind others that life’s difficulties do not have the final word, healing
is possible, and no one runs their race alone.