Flawless?

There are times that a song touches me and says it all. I hope you'll see yourself in Mercy Me's song, Flawless.

Watch and listen to Flawless here.

My caption: Overwhelmed trying to do it all

So glad that through Christ, I'm flawless.

What would your caption be?

God, A Romantic?

Welcome to my sweet Christian friend and author, Patty Smith Hall! 

‘And the LORD GOD said, “It is not good than man should be alone; I will make a helpmeet for him.”’ Genesis 2:18 KJV

     Love! Romance! Commitment!

     And that’s just Genesis, folks!

     A lot of folks don’t know this but I almost gave up writing Christian romance years ago. It was after a published author I admired told me to stop writing ‘fluff’ and work on something that would bring honor to the Lord. The pain I felt at those words! I knew God had called me to write romance but I couldn’t help wondering if this author had a point. Were the books I was writing ‘fluff’ in God’s eyes?

     I looked no further than Genesis for the answer, and can now make a daring statement.

     Our God is a romantic.

     Let’s look at the facts. In the first two chapters of Genesis, the Lord worked a masterpiece. Light and darkness. Earth and sky. The seasons. Fully matured plants and fruits to sustain all the animals. And of course, man.

     You’d think that would be enough, wouldn’t you?

     But even in all that splendor, God saw a problem. Man was alone. Some folks might asked why God didn’t make Adam and Eve at the same time. After all, He knew man wouldn’t like being alone. Maybe God exposed man to solitude for a reason.

     Think about that first meeting. After having all the creatures of the earth brought before him, Adam must have felt an emptiness. Where would he find the one creature who would ease his loneliness, the one person he could share the paradise God had created.

     In that moment, the Lord stared into the soul of man and knew that his heart was ready. With just a thought, He put Adam to sleep. When he awakes, he’s not alone.

     “Adam, I have brought one more creature for you to name.”

     Do you think Adam’s heart fluttered in his throat the first time he saw the slope of Eve’s face? Was he breathless as he compared the woman’s soft curves to his hard angles. Or did he simply stare into her eyes and recognize her for what she truly was?

     The missing part of himself.

     Ah, romance!

     It’s hard to have a Christian marriage in today’s society. The world had made the sacred union between a man and a woman into something cheap and sordid. Cheap sex. Empty relationships. Changing partners.

     How sad!

     As an author of Christian romance, it’s my ministry to portray love and marriage through the filter of God’s Word. To give young women the honest truth behind a loving marriage, a union that includes God at it’s center. A life full of love and commitment.

     I can’t help it. I’m a romantic.

     Just like my Heavenly Father.

     

Now for Patty's newest release ...

She’s ready to take back her life . . .or what’s left of it.

After ten years of caring for her invalid grandfather, Kallie Huffman is ready to claim her life as her own. Taking a job in the laboratory of New Hope Community Hospital seems like a logic choice while she waits for her nursing license to be reinstated. That is until she meets Lab Director Jefferson Muster. Kind and intelligent, the handsome doctor is everything Kallie has ever wanted in a man. But what about having a life of her own?

He’s never needed anyone’s help. . .until now.

Patients are dying at New Hope Community Hospital, and Jeff needs help to discover the culprit before another family loses a loved one. When help comes in the person of Kallie Huffman, the walls Jeff has constructed around his heart after a family tragedy start to crumble. But Kallie craves a life on her own terms. Can two people shaped by heartache trust in a life long love?

Patty Smith-Hall is a multi-published author with Love Inspired Historical and Heartsong.  She currently serves as president of the ACFW-Atlanta chapter. She calls North Georgia her home which she shares with her husband of 30+ years, Danny; two gorgeous daughters and a future son-in-love. Her next release, New Hope Sweethearts is now available on Amazon.

Thanks for the great reminder of the One who established romantic love and for your witness to this through a marriage of more than thirty years. Keep writing His romance!

New Hope Sweethearts sounds like a definite to add to our to-be-read lists! 

Had you thought about God being a romantic? 

Pink Out Day

Today our school system had pink out day for breast cancer awareness. Many wore shirts with specific names. Others told of those they proudly wore pink for.

My breast cancer survivor heroine is my mama. She is a two-time survivor. I admire her for the strong Christian witness she was during those two bouts and has continued to be always.

I love you, mom!

Here we are at one of my book-signings. She is one of my biggest supporters. And I am one of her biggest fans!

Out of the Heart

Please welcome my author/friend and sister in Christ, Jennifer, as she opens her heart.

It’s when we’re squeezed that the gunk buried deep in our heart begins to seep out.

Moving has always been incredibly difficult for me. It makes me feel insecure and unsettled. I’m pretty sure that has to do with my experience with homelessness as a teenager. Needless to say, I don’t take those, “Honey, we’re moving” conversations well.

2012 was no exception. We were living in Kansas City, MO, at the time, had gotten plugged in to a great church, had made some awesome friends, and were forming relationships with a group of close-knit neighbors. My daughter was in her freshman year at the time, had made some special friends, and was doing well. Already talking and dreaming about our golden years, my husband and I were certain we’d spend the rest of our lives right there, in Kansas City.

So when my husband called one day to tell me he’d been offered another job in Omaha, a city three hours away, and that he felt he should take it, I was not happy. Nor was my daughter. She cried and begged us to say, and in that moment, I felt forced to choose between my husband and my daughter.

Though it killed me, I knew I had to choose my husband or we’d all lose.

Then the chaos started. The house-hunting trips, packing and unpacking suitcases, packing boxes, cleaning, staying in hotels, spending way too much money eating out.

My exhaustion level increased, as did my stress.

Then one afternoon, it happened. I was at the gas station, my mind spinning of all the things I needed to get done, my heart breaking as I watched our daughter grow increasingly depressed, when I received a harsh email.

I blinked, read it again…

And then, did something I’d soon come to regret: I popped off an angry, unChrist-like retort.

The Holy Spirit within me immediately pricked my spirit, urging me to send an apology, which I did. But the damage had been done, because words, once released, can’t be taken back.

Especially when they’re sent via email. Those kinds of words can be shared all over cyberspace, which is what happened in this case. I found out the next day while eating lunch with my depressed daughter, my husband, and our realtor.

At first I was angry. Then I was mortified. And then came the shame. Because I knew better. I’m a child of grace assigned to reveal God’s grace, and my words hadn’t done that. In fact, they’d done the opposite.

That night, as the rest of my family lay sleeping in our hotel room, I cried out to God, asking Him to help me practice more self-restraint when upset. Because honestly, I felt incapable at that moment of being anything but stressed and edgy.

Not receiving much of a response, I grabbed the Bible in the bedside drawer and flipped it open, randomly, to Matthew 15:18 “⁸But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you.”

Immediately, an old wound I’d suppressed for years rose to the surface, and I knew. The clarity was so overwhelming, it could only have come from God. I had some deep wounds in my heart that hadn’t been dealt with, and my stressful circumstances were squeezing them to the surface, impacting everything I did and said.

With tears streaming my face, I closed my eyes and confessed my anger and bitterness, bitterness I hadn’t been aware I’d harbored, and asked God to clean my heart.

Tammy Kuhn, the heroine in Intertwined, faces a similar realization, and God uses the same verse to penetrate through her bitterness to her wounded heart beneath. So that He can bring her freedom.

Which is why He squeezes us in the first place, because without the squeezing, we might never realize our need for healing.

What about you? Has God brought you to a tough place only to use it as an opportunity to bring you freedom or emotional healing? Share your examples with us in the comments below, because we can all learn from and encourage one another.

Here is information about Jennifer and the book she references. 

 Jennifer Slattery writes soul-stirring fiction for New Hope Publishers, a publishing house passionate about bringing God’s healing grace and truth to the hopeless. She also writes for Crosswalk.com, Internet Café Devotions, and the group blog, Faith-filled Friends. When not writing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband.

Visit with Jennifer online at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud.com and connect with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte

Intertwined:

Abandoned by her husband for another woman, Tammy Kuhn, an organ procurement coordinator often finds herself in tense and bitter moments. After an altercation with a doctor, she is fighting to keep her job and her sanity when one late night she encounters her old flame Nick. She walks right into his moment of facing an unthinkable tragedy. Because they both have learned to find eternal purposes in every event and encounter, it doesn’t take long to discover that their lives are intertwined but the ICU is no place for romance….or is it? Could this be where life begins again?

Intertwined, part of New Hope Publisher’s contemporary fiction line, is a great reminder of how God can turn our greatest tragedies and failures into beautiful acts of love and grace. Readers will fall in love with the realistic characters and enjoy the combination of depth, heart-felt emotion and humor that makes Jennifer’s novels so appealing. Readers will be inspired to find God in every moment and encounter in their own lives!

Buy it:

CBD: http://www.christianbook.com/intertwined-a-contemporary-romance-novel/jennifer-slattery/9781596694439/pd/694430?event=ESRCN

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Intertwined-Jennifer-Slattery/dp/1596694432/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/intertwined-jennifer-slattery/1121268293?ean=9781596694439

Brooke's Debut Novel

Welcome Brooke Cox! She's sharing about her debut novel, Deadly Doll. 

 I have been writing or “making up” stories before I could write. As a small child, I would hand a pencil and paper to my relatives and ask them to write my stories down. To be honest, I got the idea of “making up” stories from my “Peanuts” books. I was fascinated by Snoopy typing out stories on his typewriter. As a teenager, I used to keep a lamp on the wall next to my bed and I would stay up at night reading and writing.

After I met my future husband Tim, I quit writing. I was busy working and going to college and then marrying and being a mother. One day I was watching my daughter Sara play and I remembered how I used to love to make-up stories. I picked my pen back up and the words flowed.  I realized my writing was a calling from God. I’ve been writing and honing my writing skills ever since. By the way, Sara is now out of college and married.

Being the little oddball in my family inspired me to write “Deadly Doll.” I wanted to show others that it was okay not be like everybody else. And I wanted the main character, Brooksie, to use her uniqueness to solve a family mystery that nobody else in her family had the imagination or daring to do. 

I have 3 themes I hope people get from “Deadly Doll.” The first one is to be the person Jesus designed you to be for His purpose. The only One you should worry about pleasing is Him. Second, there’s more to being a Christian than sitting on the pew. Third, everybody is carrying their own cross/pain in life. Keep that in mind as you encounter others.

Adventurous twelve-year old Brooksie discovered a hidden room in her grandparent’s attic. She opened up an old hat box and found her mother’s favorite childhood doll wrapped up inside. Brooksie’s great-grandfather sent it from Alaska and it was believed to have burned in the trash pile years ago. After showing it to her father, he takes it from her. A few days later he was murdered and the doll becomes a faded memory until it reappeared six years later after a freak accident. What was it about the doll that people kept hiding it? Could finding the doll have played a part in her dad’s murder? If the doll had remained hidden would he still be alive? Brooksie and her best friend Darlene delve deep into the doll mystery which has them learning about a past that Brooksie never knew existed. 

Along the way, Brooksie’s thirst for adventure and acceptance has the girls stumbling on the edge of danger. What shocking family secrets might she find and could they change her life? Will she finally understand why God made her so different from the rest of her family and will it draw her closer to Him? Can Brooksie finally accept who she is? 

Sounds like a must read and a definite addition to our to-be-read lists!