In My Weakness

I’m a word girl. When I have to look at too many numbers, I go a bit cross-eyed. And I tend to make mistakes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to count and recount things because I couldn’t get the same answer twice. Even with a calculator! Of course most of those wranglings have been on my own, with no one the wiser. But on occasion my number sense (or lack of it) shows up in a more public domain and I find myself red-faced and apologizing profusely. 

Like this week, when I realized I’d miscounted on sending out contest entries to be judged. And I realized it on the day of the deadline. Half a dozen entries didn’t get to their judges until hours before I needed them back with scores and comments. Not good.  

Fortunately, all involved offered grace upon grace. So much so that it pricked a bit of guilt for my own grumblings over the inadvertent mistakes of others. It was a good reminder that we all have weaknesses, places in which we need the grace of others more often. That’s not a bad thing. It teaches me humility, though sometimes it feels like humiliation! And this time, I gained a new understanding of God’s power being perfected in my weakness. (2 Cor 12:9) I always thought that meant His strength in me would overcome the weakness. And sometimes it does mean that. But this week I recognized that He also shows Himself strong by the way others—brothers and sisters in Christ—respond to my weaknesses. How else but by the power of the Holy Spirit can a person be gracious in the face of others’ mistakes? 

So I will not berate myself for my weaknesses, though I do all I can to shore them up. For the Lord steps in and makes things right when my efforts fail, sometimes showing His power in me, sometimes in others. Maybe that’s why He gave me a chef and a math teacher as children! 

The North Avenue Irregulars

My kids grew up enjoying so many of the old live-action Disney movies. We have great memories of Davy Crockett, Mary Poppins, Swiss Family Robinson, Gus, The Apple Dumpling Gang and many more. Most of these we watched on videotape (remember those?), but I’ve tried to keep my eyes open for the DVD versions of some of our favorites. 

Recently, one of those popped up at a good price on one of my favorite DVD websites (Deepdiscount.com), so I bought it. Then the other evening, when my son and his girlfriend were trying to decide what movie to watch out our house, I mentioned that one. My son jumped on it. 

If you have never seen The North Avenue Irregulars, do yourself a favor and get a copy. It’s a hoot! An unlikely team of a pastor and six of his lady parishioners help bring down a gambling ring in their town. I’ve never watched without laughing. This time was no different. And yet it was. This time, I noticed something else in this obscure little film that our family loves: it has stellar story structure. 

It starts with good conflict that leads naturally into the main conflict. There are clear goals, clear obstacles, clear turning points in the story. I watched in amazement, having only remembered it as a funny story with great acting. I never imagined I’d sit through such an enjoyable story structure class! Makes me wonder what other blasts from the past I should re-watch.

A Sunday Psalm

Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
            --Psalm 37:5-6

Off My Desk

Since you are all probably sick of me complaining about how book #3 has eaten my lunch in the writing of it, you’ll all be glad to know that I got it off my desk on Wednesday. Yes, I finally hit send. I know it isn’t perfect, but it’s better than it was. It will be good to have another set of eyes to see all the weaknesses in the story. By the time I get it back, I’ll be ready to dive into it again. For now, I'm rejoicing in having it off my desk. I can breathe a sigh of relief!

The Mother Road by Jennifer AlLee

What do I love about Jennifer AlLee’s books? Her characters are so real. First The Pastor’s Wife. Now, The Mother Road. (And coming in the fall, A Wild Goose Chase Christmas.)

 

The Mother Road is the story of two estranged sisters who take to Route 66 on a road trip to visit their parents. Besides being 13 years apart in age and miles apart in education, career, and faith, the two woman have in common that both of their lives have taken turns they didn’t expect. Dealing with the fact that their mother has Alzheimer’s adds to the complications in their relationship. 

Like our real life relationships and situations, the issues Natalie and LIndsey face do not have easy solutions. But also like our real lives, the Lord provides others who give grace when things fall apart and support as they try to untangle the knots that bind them. 

The Mother Road is a great read I highly recommend. 

Happy (late) birthday, Aaron!

As we celebrated our risen Savior yesterday, our family also celebrated the birth of our first son. Nineteen years ago, God gifted us with our second Maundy Thursday baby, the second time in two years that we spent Easter in a newborn haze. So I love when the calendar rolls around so that one of our two spring babies gets to celebrate life on Easter! (Yes, spring is a busy birthday time at our house!)

Although a day late, I wanted to say happy birthday to my buddy, my little man who now towers above me! We couldn’t be more proud of the man he is becoming. It’s all by the grace of God. We love you, Aaron! 

A Sunday Resurrection Psalm

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

my body also will rest secure,

because You will not abandon me to the grave,

nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

You have made known to me the path of life;

You will fill me with joy in Your presence,

with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

        --Psalm 16:9-11

Considering the Cross (Again)

Many years ago, the reality of Jesus’ physical suffering on the cross hit me with a vengeance. It drove me to my knees and birthed a greater love in my heart for the One who took the punishment that should have been mine. That’s a huge thing for a girl who has an extremely low threshold of pain! Each year as we approach Good Friday, I again go to the foot of the cross in amazement of what Jesus would go through to save me, a sinner. 

But this year a new thought deepened that meditation. A couple of weeks ago we visited  my brother’s church to celebrate my niece’s and nephew’s baptism. Their pastor, Dr. Jeff Warren, spoke of the suffering of Jesus during the crucifixion, how His that horrific physical suffering paled in comparison to the spiritual suffering of being separated from the Father. The reality of that slammed into me like never before. 

Think about the mystery of that—the triune God separated for a moment in time, the Son forsaken by the Father. What kind of ripping apart did that cause? It makes my heart hurt and tears rise just to consider it such a thing with my finite mind. That, Dr. Warren asserted, was Jesus’ struggle in the garden, the reason He sweat drops of blood. Physical suffering would be hard, but Jesus had told His disciples not too much earlier not to fear those who could kill the body only. Yet to choose to hang on a cross and know that the sin laid upon Him would cause the Father to look away—that was the greater cup of suffering to bear. 

Dr. Warren’s thoughts, however, did not end there. It ended with the fact that Jesus endured that momentary separation from the Father so that we would never know that pain, never have to suffer that same way. We might suffer physical pain beyond what we think we can bear, but once we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, the Father will never leave us, never turn His face away. I don’t know about you, but that truth drives me farther than my knees. It drives me to lay my face to the ground in worship of my Savior. 

The Hosea Love Story

This series of videos was produced to lead into each of the 6 part sermon on the book of Hosea at Irving Bible Church. I know the young man who made the videos. I had no idea the Lord had gifted him in visual storytelling. Each clip is 2-3 minutes long, all scenes, no words. So powerful and so appropriate to remember as we look toward our remembrance of the purpose of and love behind Jesus's death and resurrection.

Take a quick 15 minutes and watch the whole series. I hope they touch you as deeply as they did me.

Promise Me This by Cathy Gohlke

Long ago, at the ACFW conference in 2008, I met Cathy Gohlke. She found me in a dark moment, full of tears. The Lord used her to encourage and comfort my heart—and also to change my direction back to writing the historical fiction I loved. I devoured her first two (Christy Award-winning!) books, William Henry is a Fine Name (Civil War Series #1) and I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires.

And then I waited. And waited. And signed my own contract. And waited some more. Finally, this past February, what I’d been waiting for arrived! A new Cathy Gohlke book in my mailbox!

Promise Me This is a sweeping saga of the best kind. Opening in 1912 with the maiden voyage of Titanic, it closes in mid-1919, the world thoroughly changed by war and influenza. But while it is a gripping story of characters caught up in circumstances beyond their control, Promise Me This also presents a beautiful picture of sacrifice and love, one that is particularly poignant as we begin the Passion week. Annie’s and Michael’s journeys on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean will not be quickly forgotten.

I highly recommend this book by this wonderful writer.

A Sunday Psalm

Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in You.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord,
for I hide myself in You.
Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God;
may Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
      --Psalm 143:8-10

Wrangling the Beast

This has been a week of full out editing on my 2013 release, with at least another week to go. Not easy, but fun. I like to see how the story and the characters come more clearly into focus. Once it is the best I can make it, I’ll send it to my editor, who will find other weakness that need to be strengthened. And I’m so grateful for that! 

I believe this is the most complex story I’ve tried to write in the past 12 years. Not easy to do in first person, but I though I considered third person with multiple point of view characters for this story, it still seemed to beg to be told from Sadie’s point of view. And so it goes. I humbly covet your prayers this coming week as I finish wrangling this sometimes thrashing beast into submission. 

21

My daughter turns 21 today. It isn’t that this makes me feel old, knowing I birthed my first child over two decades ago. It really doesn’t. In so many ways, I still feel 21 myself, even though I know I’m much older than that. :) 

So why is it that I’ve been ignoring this milestones birthday for my eldest child? I’m not sure, exactly. But whatever my hidden angst over my daughter’s birthday, I can truly say that I am amazed at all God has done in and through her. I never imagined when I held that little girl in my arms so very long ago—with her wailing to be out of my arms!—that the Lord would use her to effect such lasting change in my own faith and character. And I never imagined how tight a hold she would gain on my heart. 

I love you, baby girl! Enjoy your  21^st birthday!

Paid Apps

Let me just start by saying I’m extremely frugal. I rarely pay for anything I can live without. (Of course there are times I say “cost be hanged” and get what I want, but that is very rare!)

Anyway, suffice it to say, this trait extends to the app store for my phone. I usually don’t even look at the paid apps! But at the recommendation of two people I trust implicitly (my husband and my best friend), I actually spent money on two apps—and I’ve never regretted either purchase.

PrayerMate—my husband told me about this app. It is a structured, yet fully customizable way to keep up with your prayer list. You can list requests to pray for everyday or categories to pray for every day, then specify how many of the requests in that category to pray for each day. (Then it scrolls through all of those things repeatedly over how ever many days it takes to cover them all.) The possibilities are endless. Plus, it is right with you all the time. Someone asks you to pray, you can put the request right on your list. You can lock it with a password if there is sensitive information. It is so convenient to log in whenever and wherever you are and remember who you want and need to pray for. It’s awesome! Cost: $2.99

MotivatedMoms—my BFF knows how much I hate to clean house. Almost as much as I hate to cook. But at the first of this year, I knew I had to somehow get a handle on things. She suggested this app. The price made me balk—especially when I realized they make you buy it again each year. But after using it for the past three and a half months, I think it’s a steal! Much cheaper than a housekeeper! :) 

Motivated Moms is a to do list (Yes, another one.), but it is focused on the house. Not only does it have daily tasks listed (yes, you can delete the ones that don’t apply to you and add ones that do), but the beauty of this app lies in the weekly and occasional tasks that get assigned a day— you know, the stuff you never actually remember to do. (Again, you can add, delete, or change a to do date.) With this app, not only have my bathrooms, floors, and kitchen stayed relatively clean on a weekly basis, but I find it now takes less time to do those tasks because I haven’t let things get out of hand. Also, I’ve done things I would never have done--like clean various shelves in the fridge or wipe down the kitchen cabinets or the front and top of the washer and dryer. I confess, I rarely do everything listed on a day, but each task I get done is more than would have happened on my own, so I don’t worry too much about the rest. I know some of those occasional tasks will come back around again and I’ll have another chance. I generally work hard to get most of the daily and weekly tasks done on any given day. And once I’ve marked off most of that day’s tasks, I then mark off the one task called “house” on my TeuxDeux list. (You’ve gotta love cascading lists—the generality on the main list and a more detailed list to mark off elsewhere! And all of my list apps are grouped in the same folder on my phone.) Cost: $9.99 That’s for the year, but well worth it. 

There you go. The two apps that pried open my wallet! What about you? Do you use any paid apps that are worth every hard-earned cent? Let me know about them, too! 

A Sunday Psalm

Sing to Him, sing praise to Him;
tell of all His wonderful acts.
Glory in His holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Look to the Lord and His strength;
seek His face always.
        --Psalm 105:2-4

Visiting Another Blog Today

Hey y'all--

I'm blogging today at my friend L.A. Freeland's blog.

Come on over and visit!

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

For a long time I’ve heard friends talk about the BBC version of Elizabeth Gaskill’s novel  North and South. When I found it at Costco (bundled with Cranford, which I love, and another Gaskell story, Wives and Daughters, I decided it would be worth getting. After all, my husband and I find ourselves at home alone a lot lately and we always love a good BBC period drama!

Oh. My. Goodness. It was like a cross between Jane Austen and Charles Dickens—two of my favorites! A bit on the depressing side, but for me a couple of scenes rivaled the understated romance in the old version of Persuasion (Amanda Root and Ciaran HInds), which melts my heart every time. 

As I did the first time I saw Cranford, I searched out the actual novel of North and South, which I found free for my kindle. The book may or may not live up to the movie. We’ll see. But this is definitely one I will watch over and over again!

Kindle Bargains!

Wings of a Dream and some of my other favorite Bethany House historical novels are $2.99 on Kindle, for a limited time!  See the titles below!

A Sunday Psalm

When I am afraid, I will trust in You.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust;
I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
         --Psalm 56:3-4

Pioneer Literary Club

I got to visit with the ladies at the Pioneer Literary Club in Kerens, TX, on Thursday afternoon. Such a fun time! Here are a few pictures.