WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Michaela Estruth: A-Z God Has Covered Me

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Author Michaela Estruth joins Siobhan Weed on WRFH to discuss her book A-Z God Has Covered Me: A Family Devotional. A-Z God Has Covered Me presents a verse for every letter of the alphabet and discusses each verse according to its literary, historical, and theological context. The family devotional offers the verses alone for children to visualize and memorize and a more in-depth analysis for parents to read aloud to the family.

This is Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM and I'm Chauvonne Weed. And joining me today's Michaela Astruth, graduate of Hillsdale College in the class of 2025. And she's now a reporter at The Lion and recently here to talk about her published devotional book, A to Z, God has covered me. Thank you so much for joining. It's so great to see you back on campus. Thank you for having me here. It's so great to be here. Truly. So I was reading on your substack, like just like the origin of the whole book, the story, the title of it. It's like this cool tradition that you have. with your mom of her putting you to bed, reading or like giving you passages that start with the letters of your name. Yep. Can you tell more about like how you kind of like wanting to remember this family tradition all of a sudden ended up in you having a published book? How does that work? Yes. Okay. So years in the process. I will say that. So my mom created even the title A to Z God has covered me. So at first it was just a little thing that she did with her kids, you know? Awesome. Your work was cut out for you. It was. I didn't, I really didn't have to do much. And she, I, I For as long as I can remember, would spell out my name every single night.

I could do it for you right now if you really wanted me to. Like, it is ingrained in me. It's kind of insane. But then she turned it into a Sunday school curriculum. That's when she came up with the title, A to Z God has covered me. So then all, like me, and then all my other classmates growing up with me memorized 26 verses of the Old and New Testament. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's awesome.

So, yeah. So I just had those in my brain because, you know, a kid's memory is really good. Learned alphabet and the Bible. Exactly. Two and one. I'm kidding me. It was so cool. Yeah. So then I come to Hillsdale and I wanted to go into radio and I am trying to figure out what to get involved in.

I'm talking to the radio manager then or whatever the senior leader is called. I forget their name. But her name was Rachel. And I was trying to come up with like a podcast feature-esque thing. Yeah. And I didn't feel like I was capable enough or like had enough to say to fill 20 minutes. That felt like a really long time. So I picked the five-minute podcast.

And then I just, I don't know. I just started thinking about those verses and was like, well, I know those. And then I could talk about them on this podcast. Like maybe that's a dumb idea, but it sounds kind of fun. Yeah. And then it loki worked out perfectly because there's 26 letters in the alphabet. There's roughly 13 weeks in a semester. Oh my goodness.

So I literally did one every Sunday. It was a sign. Yeah. It just was perfect. Yeah. And then a little bit more context on that. So my mom provided the verses. And then in high school, I went to a classical Christian school.

And my teacher, he taught me Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and then biblical interpretation. Okay. And in biblical interpretation, he taught this method of interpreting called grammatical historical method. Okay. So that's where you consider the verse within its context. So it basically fights or poses against taking a verse out of context.

Yeah. So you consider what chapter of a, and what book it's in. And that's its literary context. And then you consider its historical context, which is its author, its date, what was going on at the time, like Old Testament, New Testament, things like that. Historical literary theological context. is what subjects are involved. So like what other verses might apply. Yeah. And then I added application. So it was like, okay, how did this now apply to the reader? So I went through those three contexts and then how does this apply? So that became a five-minute podcast, my freshman year. I was also super afraid of just talking behind a mic. Here I am now. Yeah. Hashty growth. Like I go. Look at you. I know. I'm so proud. A couple years really does a lot. And guess what? You are going to fill 20 minutes today. I'm so excited. Who would have thought? Look at us go. But I was really worried.

about it when I was a freshman. So I wrote out every single word. And I would just read my transcripts for the five minutes. But then they were all just on my computer. And my mom kept saying, you should turn them into a book. And I was like, yeah, that's a ha ha, funny. And I would almost every year go back, find those transcripts, kind of edit them down and tweak them and be like, wow, freshman Michaela was a really bad writer.

Let's re-ram that. Like, that was horrible. Also, my sister is an artist. So the idea for a long time was her to make the photos and, like, paint them and all this stuff. Oh, lovely. Yeah, it was a family affair, really. It was a family affair. Yeah.

But she's also since then become a mom, very busy woman. Okay. And so can't paint 26 pages of artwork, like makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And so, I don't know, this year, I was just, I graduated last year in 25 and I have, I'm working a job and loving it, but I have more time than I don't have homework anymore, you know? So, like, I would sometimes on a free night, like, get home and, like, edit down the transcript. And I did all of this without telling my mom. Yeah.

I have a secret. And then was like thinking about do I pitch these publications, all this stuff. But that's another thing we can talk about. But publishing a book is A, really expensive and be like really hard to, you know, firms are just kind of failing. So I actually talked to a publisher that my dad knew. He was the puppeteer. He was helping me out. And the publisher was like, you can self-publish.

Like just uploaded to Amazon. It's really easy. And I was like, okay. So then the past, I guess, five months have been me editing it, working on it, creating the images. Yeah. And then uploading it. I was reading about like that specific historical process that you were talking about.

Yeah. Interpreting the Bible through that grammatical historical method. Yes. Was that something that your mom did and like talked through as she was like as you were younger? Or was that something that kind of just went on your radar from that high school class? And then like did you do most of that research for the radio script? Or was that like kind of in your own time? Yeah, great question.

Yeah. So it was mostly me pairing those two. So like the verses came from my mom. And then the method came from my high school teacher. And like I mean, my parents were very involved in our education. So, like, they knew what that method was because they were, like, quizzing us on it and we had to talk about it, you know. So that was really cool. And my whole family is kind of a bunch of nerds.

So we love talking about, you know, incredible. The scripture and how it applies. It's not a bad topic. Right. It's a really good thing to talk about, actually. So, like, more or less, like, she knew what I was talking about, but that was mostly from my high school teacher. And then, yeah, all of the, like, research behind that happened when I was producing the podcast. Like, I was doing that freshman year.

So I, it was kind of insane. Like, my Sundays were very structured. where I would go to church and then I'd get brunch. And it almost every Sunday was dedicated to this five-minute podcast. So I'd go to the library and then be researching and writing for this, like, whatever letter I was on. Yeah. And someday I could get it done like in a couple hours. And other days, it was like kind of down, you know, down late.

Like I'm going to the radio station at 9 p.m. to record because I got to get this up before Monday. Yeah. But yeah, you learned a lot. And I ended up, or I learned a lot and I ended up becoming a history major. So it was really cool to like the historical context was my favorite to research because it's not just the date and the author, but it's like what exactly is happening at that time. And what, especially in the Old Testament, like what is this scripture referring to? And I just love to see scriptural truths like embedded in history because even secular society acknowledges the historical facts. And so it's really cool to be like, yes.

And then Israel was a nation. And these were the kings. And other kings are talking about King David and, you know, other, you know, the Assyrians attacking and Sinakrab and like all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So I just loved it. I was like a geek. But anyway, so that all, all that work happened for the podcast.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I was wondering, obviously, so you kept this project from your mom. So like kind of an obvious like mentor editor was like kind of set aside because it was this surprise. So like did you have any one person or like group of people that you had help with as you were editing or like any specific mentor? Yeah.

Actually, what a good question. So I edited. edited. I think I went through it two, two or three times before I ever, like, created the pages. So basically, like, it was just a word doc and I was editing it. And then I eventually created it on Canva and, like, had downloaded the images that chat had made and then, like, would paste the text in. And then I started editing those. And sometimes it was even like, oh, too many lines. It doesn't fit on the page. So I have to cut out more sentences. So it was a lot of editing for a lot of months. But I was really worried, like, I didn't have anyone else looking at it. I love my community in Kansas City, but I

didn't feel like I could hand it to my editor at work and be like, hey, in your free time, can you please, you know, like scope through this? And the oodles of time that you have on your right. Exactly. And he's a dad of four. I was like, yeah, okay, that's not going to work. So I kept my dad in the loop. And what I ended up doing is from, I wanted to give it to my mom for Mother's Day. Yeah. And so I, um, on Amazon, you can upload the whole book and you have, it has to be nearly complete, but it will, I guess you could say Amazon will review it. And it's mostly just for like, do the pages fit the right size and like is everything is our thing's going to fall off is text and the right boundaries all the logistical stuff exactly yeah so once amazon approves it you can order

something called like an author proof or something like that before it's published so it's not live but i can see it on my author profile and have a proof copy sent to me so i had that sent to me before like early may and like within days of mother's day um because i knew i was going to see her it was like down to the wire. I remember that week. I was like, I got to get this done. Diamonds are made under pressure. Right. Exactly. But there were mistakes for sure. And so what I ended up doing is I had her unwrap it for Mother's Day, which was like a memory I'll have forever. She broke down like sobbing. She was so touched. She was really, really sweet. But I said, I actually really need your help, mom, because I've been looking at this for five months now and I'm really sick of reading it. Like I haven't even, the book is

published and I haven't read through it. I'm like, I just need some space from this right now. Yeah, for sure. But I was like, would you please go through and, like, edit? Because my mom was always my best editor in high school. And she would always, she's really good from little things like commas and punctuation to little details. Like, for example, she noticed that in some, for some of the verses, I listed the historical context first. And then other verses, I listed literary context first. And she was like, you should probably keep it all consistent. And like, this is what I like.

But she's also the most encouraging editor. She's like, do whatever you want. I'm so proud of you. And I'm like, thanks, mom. She's the best. So she actually edited my book before I published it. Yeah. Okay.

And then I made all her changes and I officially uploaded it and published it in June. Yeah. Okay. That's awesome. And again, congrats. Thank you. I was, this was kind of a question. I mean, honestly, as an undergrad student, this is something that I struggle with.

You were also an undergrad student. You wrote all these papers. And something for me, a fellow history major, is, you know, when you're working on a larger project. Yes. And it's been with you throughout the semester and you don't know when to end. Like, how did you know when to stop? What was that process like? How did you know when to just step away?

Because I think that's something that I would struggle with. I feel like you probably get this, like, because it's a great comparison with papers. Like, you just kind of reach a breaking point where you're like, I'm not going to be able to make this any better. Like, this is my best work. And you can just kind of feel this like resolve in your spirit, I guess you could say. Yeah. And so that was kind of where I was, I had a deadline. And that was really helpful.

Those help. Yeah. Really, really helpful. Because if I didn't have a deadline, like, I probably would have just let it drag out. out forever. And or even like my mom's birthday is in October. So I could have easily been like, oh, I'll just push it off till October. But I was like, no, I want to get this done. So I did Mother's Day. And then so the deadline was really helpful. And then, yeah, it was just like focusing and working really, really hard and then distancing myself from it for a little bit. So like I gave it to my mom for

Mother's Day. And I took, which I know obviously with papers, you don't really have the freedom to do this, but I took like a week break. Like I had to go on a work trip and I was like, I'm not looking at that for a week because I'd been looking on it like nearly every night. No, coming back with fresh eyes is super helpful. It was so helpful. So those were like the two main things I did. And then I don't know, I kind of just took the pressure off. Like it was really helpful talking to that publisher that my dad knew and set me up with because

he said, well, it just kind of depends on like what you want from this book. And what I wanted was I want to give this to my mom. Like this is her heritage. This is something that she did for her kids. And now like she does for her grandkids. It's like it's very much just like the Estreuth tradition kind of. Yeah. And I just wanted to do it because she'd been asking and I knew it would really touch her.

It wasn't to make money. It was like it's cool and it's fun to talk about. But like it wasn't to get my name out there or anything like that. So that really lowered the pressure. For sure. Like if there are mistakes, A, most people who are reading this know me and they'll be like gracious. Or B, like if someone summals upon it and it's like, this is dumb, it's like, okay. Like, sorry, you don't have to buy it.

Like, you know. So I don't know. And that's pretty rare for me. Like, I'm pretty much a perfectionist. So I just had to really take the pressure off and say, like, this is for my mom. I'm not trying to make a living at all or any sort of income off of it or make a name for myself. And so it really lowered the stakes.

And it was like, my mom's going to love this no matter what. And if there are, you know, things that could be better, she won't care. Yeah. That was kind of how I did it. Yeah, that's so cool. I, like, actually, kind of along those lines is, so you're saying that basically, like the people that you want this to get to is your family. That's such a beautiful thing to like put this project together for your family. Yeah. But like I mean, it is on Amazon. So there are going to be

people who are going to stumble upon it. Maybe they'll hear about it from this show and want to go buy the book. Who do you envision the reader being? How would you want people to use it? Or how do you see them kind of like taking advantage of it for their prayer life? Yeah, yeah. You can see on the titles called I titled the subtitle, a family devotional. Because I want it to be very family central. I don't know if other families did this. But like growing up, we did a lot of reading. together as a family. So like my dad read Narnia out loud and like we would just sit and listen and half the time we like really didn't like it because we were kids and being annoying. But now I like look back at that and see that as such valuable time. And so that's kind of what I hope it to be is like a

family sitting down together or like at least a parent with a child. But it really is kind of adaptable to all ages. So like if you look at the book, there's the each verse page just has the letter and the verse. And so like for example, I have a niece and a nephew and my they're both two and under. My nephew's turning three this summer, but then my niece is not, she just turned one. So like, can't read. Matt, my, my nephew can, like, kind of get a sense of what's going on, but he can't read, right? And so, like, I'm excited. I'm actually going to see them soon. And I'm really excited to see, like, how he engages with it. But I can see it very much being, like, the pictures and the images and, like, the verses, probably. Yeah. Because he can see the big letter and be like, oh, A, and all we

like sheep and, like, look at the sheep and, like, you know, and so it'll be a lot more like my sister talking to him about the sheep and the shepherd and how like Jesus is our good shepherd, that kind of stuff. She's not going to read my writing to him. Like he's will not scare. But like hopefully for kids who are, you know, five to eight, they might be able to read it to themselves or at least parts of it and ask questions about it. And then like nine to 12 year olds can do the same thing and kind of like get excited and spark by that historical context and investigate their own or like dive into other verses and be

like, wait, what else was going on? Because, like, obviously, it's only 26 verses. Like, I didn't do that for the entire Bible. But then they can hopefully take the method and apply it to other contexts as they start diving into scripture of their own. So it's kind of like, I wanted it to be adaptable for kids of all ages. But definitely, like, a parent with a child sitting down and reading it and then using it however the child sees fit, which is kind of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. It's a book for all ages. I hope so. That's incredible. This is something you actually kind of already like talked about it just brief. the whole like editing publishing process. And you are also writing on your substack about how, yeah, you have this newfound deep respect for people who publish and write for a living. Yes. What were some of those challenges that you had to kind of get through? What was that like? Yeah. Definitely just like being tired. I don't understand how, I mean, people who work full time and then especially parents who I know a lot of moms and dads who like are writing a book and they have little kids at home. And I'm like, when do you have time to do this? Like I live alone. I have, I have time between like six and 10 when I go to bed to like have dinner and then sit down with my book for a

couple hours and ended it. I have no idea if or when I'll author another book, but I'm like really, I just really admire the people who do that all the time because I was exhausted after 6pm. I had worked all day, had dinner. And then this is so embarrassing. But like I'm like falling asleep as I'm editing my book because I'm just really tired and it's been a long week or I was traveling or whatever. Yeah. So I was like, I just can't even imagine how people who do this when they have kids in their home. So I think just like a grown humility and respect for authors and yeah, just like the love of writing. And I think I love writing so much. Like that's what got me into journalism. I love the craft and that's what kept me doing it. I also love editing. And I can now

understand why there are a lot of really accomplished people that I hope this doesn't come off as prideful because I don't mean it like that. But like a lot of the times books sell because of the name, You know, so like, for example, like J.D. Vance. Like, he just released a book. Like, everyone knows about his book because he's the vice president of the United States, right? But, like, he had to take the time to, like, put in the effort and write it as a dad of three or now four, I think, soon. And just, like, also running the U.S. Like, I just can't even imagine that. But anyways, I digress. My point is, like, I would only, I can't imagine doing this if I didn't love writing. Like, and I, maybe Vance does love to write. But, like, the reason I do it is because, because of the love of the craft. And I just can't imagine having the motivation to do it with all of the other busy distractions of life if you don't love the craft. For me, writing is kind of like mental processing

or just like it's a release. It's not stressful. And if it was stressful, I would never have done it. Yeah, exactly. That makes sense. Yeah. So that was also kind of, again, finally, an answer to your question.

Like there wasn't as much stress with uploading it to Amazon because it was something of my own that I just loved doing. And so it was way more exciting. And again, I had already, yeah, exactly. I had taken the pressure off. So it was just like, well, I really love this. And here we go. Yeah, there we go. It's fun. Yeah. Awesome. Press the send button. Yeah. That's so cool. Yeah. That's literally. Sometimes you just got to. No, exactly. Yeah. I was wondering, like, what are some of your favorite entries? Do you have any that, like, really you just resonate with in a special way or anything like that? Or were any that, like, really struck you in a different way than

they had before as you were editing them? Yeah. Sure. Okay. So it's, it's really, it's really. really hard for me to separate like all 26 verses from the ones that I grew up saying. Yeah, your name. Exactly. And so those ones will always be the most precious. Even I think like if I hadn't done that, I might be able to be like, oh, I really like verse V or whatever. Yeah. But actually verse V is kind of intense. So maybe not. But I'll say too from my name and like even going through my childhood and then also just like this past year, those two have become even more like encouraging to me. So M is my sheep, listen to my voice. And I've just always loved the shepherd imagery with the sheep. I've been referencing that even on this podcast. Like that I think,

and I think it's because it's M and it starts my name. And so that has just always been a beautiful image to me and something that I've clung to. Kind of side note. But like before, when I came to know the Lord, like before doing the asking Jesus into my heart, quote unquote, if you want to say it like that, which is what I did. My dad sang the song to me, and it was about the 99 sheep and the one lost one. And it, yeah, it was just a song that I don't even know where he heard it, but he sang it every night. And so when he sang that song to me, and then I said, like, I don't want to be lost.

I want to come to know Jesus. And that's how I came. He, like, led me through that prayer. And that's where I say, like, I came to know the Lord. So, again, the sheep imagery has always just been super precious to me. So it was that, like, my conversion moment, if you call it that. And then, like, the M, my sheep listened to. my voice. Yeah. And yeah, just like I would say in a year postgrad, postgrad is like kind of a big

wake up call. Like it's really, it's a great year, but it is so much pruning and so much learning. And like some hard trials and some scary like honestly like the Lord calling you out on the water like Peter like walking on the water like, I don't really know if I can do this God. And you like, no, you can. Like why do you doubt? Like trust me, I'm here. And so just like discerning about hearing his voice and knowing that I'm his. was a huge comfort throughout this year. And even as I was editing this, seeing the way he had led me

because I like picked up and dropped down in a place that I didn't know anyone. And I love it, but like I had no idea what it was doing. So that was a big verse for me, a really big comfort. And then the other one is H, which is he makes me lie down in green pastures. And that's from Psalm 23.

So very well known to a lot of people. But it just was kind of like a calming of the soul and like a rest. that I think I had been, I mean, Hillsdale very busy, and I was also just kind of in a very unsettled stage, I guess you could say. And so reaching a city that I knew nothing about before, I'm in Kansas City, I love it. And like having a new job and everything being completely new and foreign, but yet feeling utter peace and like utter rest.

That has just been a verse that continually has come up when I think about, oh, this is silly. but like, I'm like, if I were to do a post on Instagram, it's almost like I would title it. He makes me lie down in green pastures because it just the fields there. I know the sun's silly, but like it's country roads. It's field. It's Missouri. It's rural.

And I like love the sunset every single day. Like it's just the best. Yeah. So that verse especially has just been like, wow, the Lord has been so faithful. So those are the two verses I would say that come to mine immediately. But they're both in my name, which kind of makes sense. Well, thank you so much for joining. Absolutely.

You're incredible. Yeah. Anytime, truly. Our guest has been Michaela Astruth, and I'm Chauvonne Weed on Radio Freehillsill 101.1.7 FM.