How Kay Arthur Introduced Me to My Wife and My Daughter

Honoring the life of a woman of faith who gave me the most important women in my life

Yesterday, the world lost a giant in the faith. Kay Arthur—Bible teacher, author, founder of Precept Ministries International, and tireless disciple-maker—entered the presence of the Savior she loved, studied, and taught about for decades.

If you’ve ever held a Precept workbook in your hand, wrestled through a passage with one of her inductive Bible studies, or heard her voice call a generation to greater reverence for God’s Word, you’ve felt the ripple effect of a life wholly surrendered.

But Kay’s impact on my life wasn’t merely ripples, it was tsunamis. And it had nothing to do with Bible study.

Kay Making the Way for Me to Meet My Wife

I first met Kay when working for Logos Bible Software. I was in my early thirties and had just moved from publisher relations to ministry relations, and I was given Precept Ministries as an assignment to put our software into their leadership’s hands (and laptops) and provide training in the use of the product. That meant flying out to Chattanooga, Tennessee from company headquarters in Bellingham, Washington multiple times a year.

During that time of my life, I had sheepishly surrendered to attempt to date through an online Christian dating site back in the concept’s infancy. And since I was traveling frequently to Tennessee, I opened my search results to potential matches there. After getting matches in the 50-60% range, I opened my weekly email to find an 83% match in Nashville; a woman in Christian publishing that grew up less than an hour away from me in Oregon.

My wife Hayley.

Kay Making the Way for Me to Meet My Daughter

We got married within a year and, in our first year of marriage, Hayley had been asked to speak on the Women of Faith tour and our company, Hungry Planet, had been asked to help produce and promote a future tour for teen girls that would be called The Revolve Tour.

After a number of appearances on the tour that year, we were blindsided when representatives of WoF told Hayley that she was “using too much Bible” and that it was supposed to be “a spiritual spa weekend” and that they were parting ways with us.

Shellshocked, I knew that Hayley needed a kind of comfort that I couldn’t give. Providentially, I remembered that Precept was having a marriage conference that weekend and I said to her, “Let’s drive to Chattanooga and see Aunt Kay.”

When we arrived, the great staff there greeted us and we joined mid-session and waded through all the folks waiting to meet their Bible teaching hero. When Kay saw us, she rushed over, hugged us both around the neck, and expressed her surprise and joy that we were there since we were supposed to be on tour. That’s when Hayley tearfully shared the bad news. What Kay said next provided a healing balm to my wife:

“Oh honey, they fired me too for the same reason!”

All of the sudden, a wave of peace overtook my wife. She was in legendary company for all the right reasons. That’s when Kay, speaking a mile a minute with that signature boundless energy and passion, said that she was taking her leadership staff on a tour of the Holy Land where she would teach their way through it and she invited both of us to come along now that our schedules opened up…

“…especially before the baby comes.”

Hayley and I quickly looked at each other, barely listening to what she said after that, and then she was whisked away to her next responsibility at the conference.

We left Precept shortly after that conversation and, on our drive home to Nashville, said to each other, “What was THAT all about?” We weren’t trying and, with both of us in our late thirties, were resigned to probably not have any kids. But in that moment of befuddled laughter at “Crazy Aunt Kay,” we said to each other,

“Do you want to?”

“I don’t know, do you?”

And ten months later, I met my daughter Addison because of one true woman of faith.

Kay Making the Way for Everyone to Know God’s Word

Kay didn’t just teach the Bible—she ignited a fire in others to know it for themselves. In an age of bite-sized theology and secondhand spirituality, she insisted on something better. Something deeper. She believed every believer could handle the Word with their own hands, not just listen from a distance.

Her own story was one of redemption and resolve. From personal pain and brokenness, Kay rose—not to build a platform, but to exalt the name of Jesus and invite others to sit at His feet. And she did it with conviction, courage, and a heart full of love for God and people.

She trained leaders. She raised up teachers. She opened the door of study to women and men all over the world who once thought the Bible was too complicated or too far out of reach. Her studies didn’t just inform; they transformed.

Today, we don’t just mourn her passing—we celebrate her impact. Kay Arthur finished her race well. She held nothing back. Her life was a poured-out offering, and countless lives were changed because of it.

As Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7 (NET):

“I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”

May we honor her not only with words of tribute but with lives of obedience—lives that reflect the same reverence for Scripture and the same passion for Jesus that marked her own.

Thank you, Kay, for teaching us not just how to read the Bible, but how to live it.

Thank you, Kay, for giving me the great women of faith in my life.

Your legacy continues every time someone opens the Word and dares to believe they can understand it—because you told them they could.