This Life is Real…and so are the Answers
Author of Women's Christian Fiction – This Is the Day!
Good Sunday morning to you! This week our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving here in America. We will gather together, family and friends, to remember and celebrate this day. This song is just a reminder of some of the things we should be thankful for in our lives. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pXzge4uhVs
What was once thought of as dysfunctional, seems to be coming more of the normal these days. This does sadden me. I believe God designed a very good system, and when we take different paths, situations become difficult and murky to travel through.
But we all take different paths from time to time, and none of us travel the straight and narrow. God knew this, and yet He still loves us. He allows us that different path, sometimes for years or a lifetime. When we fall, not once, but over and over, He is there. We only need to call on Him.
My key verse that I sign all my books with is, Psalm 118:24.
This is the verse that I call to mind each day that it’s difficult to get out of bed. It’s the verse that reminds me that I’m still here, and I have an opportunity once again, for at least that day to forge ahead and make better decisions for my life. One more day to rely on Him. There are days when I forget that verse…shove it to the back of my closet full of troubles. Days that I have to reclaim it several times. But the verse, and God are always there.
The tag-line I use for my writing is, This Life is Real…and so are the Answers. I write books about dysfunctional families. People that are struggling in their Christian walk. People that don’t always get it together and have a happy ending. Because that is not what life is about…and it certainly isn’t the Christian life. I should know…I’ve lived one for over 45 years now…and it hasn’t always been pretty. But the bottom line is, I know God is there, He has a plan for me and my life, and my hope is in heaven. And those truths are where all the answers lie.
This past week, the third book in the Rubyville series has been FREE as an ebook. Today is the last day of this promotion. This book has jumped around a bit on the lists, but it has stayed fairly constant around this all week: #21 in Dysfunctional Relationships.
At first I thought it strange based on me not listing it under keywords such as dysfunctional. I thought I had stuck with the christian fiction genre…and I talked about all that the other day in my post about algorithms. But the book is about marital abuse, and the struggles that mothers and daughters can have in their relationships. So it is categorized pretty well on Amazon. Being #21 isn’t too bad either. But more importantly, I want people to read it, and get answers for their own marriages, and relationships in families. And to remember that bitterness eats at your soul, and destroys the person that God designed you to be.
And that’s a tough lesson. It’s a lesson I’m still learning about, and an area I stay in constant pray over. It’s rather like pruning away all the dead branches after a long, frigid winter, and finding new growth.
I’m looking forward to that time of flourishing once again. Have a great week end!
When I think back on past mistakes in my life, there are some I wish I could change and live through again, making the correct decision. There are others that I see the need for me having to live through them in order for a lesson to be learned. And yes, I wish I could change my first decision, and do better, but I’m where I’m at now because I made it through that difficult experience. We all have those times in our lives.
The two examples above run very close together, but they do have some differences that set them apart. I think the biggest one that I’m going to focus on for the sake of this post, is the first example. Because it deals with guilt. The original sin, or mistake may be bad. But it’s the guilt we immerse ourselves in through the years that is more devastating to our souls. It can destroy us.
If we look at that first example, we can use a scenario. I will use a simple one, but you can place almost any sin/mistake into that. As a child, we decide to steal a candy bar while our parents are checking out at the store. We steal it because we were told that we couldn’t have it. We want it anyway. We may get away with it, and the guilt is there. Or we may not, and the guilt is there each time we think about how we let our parents down, and the impression we made on the store. But we make the decision to never steal again. We may wish for the rest of our lives that we could go back, and not steal the candy bar and have that mark on our record. But it probably doesn’t change our lives too drastically.
The scenario using the second example. We steal the candy bar, we may get away with it, or we may not. But instead of stopping the sin, we continue on. It may become more items stolen in a store, to a car that is stolen, or breaking into houses. The behavior is continued until you serve jail time. In this scene, the sin and wrong decisions may continue until the end of our life. We may become more bitter and angry. We may want to seek more ways to demonstrate those feelings. We harden our hearts.
But…we could decide during that first time in jail to get our act together. We could decide to change our life, and start making good decisions. We could use that time to grow spiritually, and reach others. If there is an opportunity to get out of jail and have a life again, we could be a better person because of the experiences we had during that difficult time.
Yes, I’m making this very simplistic, and with those scenarios we could go off in a million different ways. Because we are people, and each one of us is unique in how we deal with a situation.
The bottom line…we all make bad decisions, we all sin. The difference is how we each handle it, and how we travel down the paths we have to take for the rest of our lives. But if we live with guilt, and we continually live through those past mistakes and sins, over and over, we can’t heal. Guilt is something we do to ourselves.
While two of our children were at Cornerstone Bible Institute in Hot Springs, South Dakota, we had the opportunity to sit in on some of their classes over the years. One of the teachers had a way of really getting to the heart of something and nailing it. He made it very clear and easy to understand. I wrote down as many of his little quotes or quips, (and I don’t know if that is the correct terminology for his words,) as I could. This is one of them:
Those six little words really spoke to me. They reminded me to confess the sin in my life using :
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Then stop doing that sin, whatever it may be.
Then forget it. Don’t bring it back, reliving, going over, feeling guilty.
That verse says that God is faithful, He has forgiven us, and cleansed us from that sin. Us taking it back is not trusting Him.
I’m not saying that is easy. It takes faith, lots of prayer, and a mindset to go on, not looking back at what could have been. But I am thankful for the times in my life that although I wish I hadn’t made the decision, I came out on the other side a better, stronger person.
When I first began this blog in 2015, my goal was to write about me and my family, and light issues that would help my readers connect with me as a person. I didn’t want to bombard with just writing topics. For one thing, I don’t have a master’s degree in writing anything. I rely heavily on my editor to fix all that I do wrong. I don’t know much about branding or marketing. I go to others and read lots of other posts about it to broaden my knowledge base. And considering sales of my books…I have lots more to learn in those areas! 😉
So now, four years later…I’m still a little mired down in this blogging world. I read other sites that are really successful. I try to figure out what they are doing right, and what I’m doing wrong. I wonder if my scope of topics is too large, or the site just not interesting. I’ve even considered starting over, but what would my focus be?
Truth be told, my knowledge base is marriage and family. It’s what I’ve done for all of my adult life. Sunday, the 20th will be my husband and my 35th wedding anniversary. It’s one I’ve looked forward to. Others celebrate by going on a cruise, having another ceremony to rededicate their married lives, or going out for a nice dinner. I thought that by this time in our marriage, we would be doing the same. We won’t be. I think spam is on the menu this year.
My husband and five children have always been the world to me. It’s what I invested all my time in. Some may say that was crazy, and that I didn’t plan for the future. I always thought it was the best way to plan for our future together. But children grow up and have families of their own, they move away, and they make their own choices in life. I am no longer in control of all of that…and maybe I never really was.
So, here I sit at almost 55 years of age. This past year as been beyond difficult in so many ways. There are days when I feel as though the rug has been yanked out from under us, and we haven’t hit the floor yet. But when we do, it’s going to be bad. My faith has taken a serious hit, and there are more days than not that I would like to run away and be a different person.
This Life is Real…and so are the Answers. I truly believe that. None of us live in a fairy tale world with light and laughter, flowers and fun, around every corner. Many of us deal with darkness and tears, an inability to breathe because of all that has been dumped on us. The flowers in our lives are dead and crumbled, blowing away in the wind, and a smile is hard to summon.
I don’t have a master’s degree in anything. Just a lot of learning through difficult experiences. I try to share that in my books. In my books, there is an answer for that struggling character. Writing helps me work through all that has been allowed in my life. This blog has been a release for me to express all that bottles up…whether it be good or bad. I pray that my books reach people and the struggles they have in their lives. I pray they find an answer.
So for now, I’ll stick with what I’ve been doing here, and I welcome any suggestions to improve.
When life becomes difficult, we tend to focus on the problem and trying to solve it. When life seems hopeless, and not worth living, we try a multitude of things to ease the pain.
What if we concentrated more on being thankful for what is?
Some days the words to this song ring very true. As a human, I’m on a constant treadmill of making ends meet, and the day-to-day struggle of life in this world. It can be very exhausting at times!
This song is a gentle reminder to those of us that believe our home is in heaven, our hope is in heaven. A reminder that this daily life is but for a time.
Yesterday, I saw something that made me think. I will probably repeat it wrong, but you’ll get the general idea. It’s so true!
Spoiler Alert! I’ve heard the end of the story, and it will be okay!
Here’s some Jim Reeves for you on your Sunday. Have a good one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ndMZqT6i4I
Trials and tribulations seem to clump together. Rather like a large boulder in the middle of a merrily chirping stream. The water still rushes past, swirling around that stone for a few moments before gurgling merrily along. This is the same with life. Our lives are that water, and the tests the boulder. Life will continue on at some point. We may be a little bruised and battered, but we go on.
Please pray for our grandchildren if the thought passes through your mind. They have all been struggling with colds, although I don’t think any have had the flu. This past week, two of the sisters spent the night at the hospital due to RSV. They came home today. Now the youngest, just a little over a week old is at the hospital, and she will be there overnight for observation.
It is scary watching your child struggling with sickness. Even more so when it involves a hospital visit, or surgery. I have been there more times than I want to think about. It makes you want to snatch them away, to protect them, and take on all that they have to endure. After all, you are stronger, able to understand all that is happening. Their little bodies and minds aren’t able to take it all in. I hurt for those families that have had children diagnosed with cancer, and diseases that their little bodies have had to fight off. It takes a parent to the limits of where no parent ever wants to go.
I don’t fully understand why these kind of trials and tribulations are allowed in our lives. I really don’t want to face them. I want to be swept down that stream, gurgling merrily along as the blue sky smiles down at me.
That little stream rushes to the ocean, and is stronger in the end. So are we. And this too shall pass.
When in doubt, I go to Jim Reeves and his melodious voice.
Our memories mean more and more to us as we grow older. I see this every day. It amazes me what the mind can recall. I pray your memories are indeed precious and beautiful this Sunday morning. Have a wonderful week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMGtWkJgdIM
This life we live is uncertain, filled with obstacles, lost expectations of our youth, and a lot of ‘just getting by’. Life is a journey that each of us has been given, and it is also a gift. Along with the struggles, and the not-so-good days, there is hope, and there is joy.
I’ve always loved the words to this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n3iLXHzX9k
It was written by Ira F. Stanphill in 1950, during a very difficult time in his own life. From what I could find, his wife left him to pursue a career of her own, at the zenith of his. If any of you know of different facts, or more, please share. I always enjoy learning more about a person. Mr. Stanphill wrote this song out of the pain, betrayal and loss he was experiencing at that time, and you can feel it.
So many items in this life are unknowns. We don’t know what the day will hold, we don’t know if any of us will be here tomorrow. But we do have today, and we can rejoice and take comfort in that. Make your Sunday… today, a good one.
It is the second of January, 2018!
So of course I’m going to write the obligatory post about my New Year resolutions. They wouldn’t be New Year resolutions unless they included health topics. You know the ones…diet, exercise, getting more sleep, etc. This photo makes me think of health, and being refreshed. Can’t you just smell those oranges?
A few years ago I was going to the gym faithfully. Every, single, day, except Sunday. I went around eleven in the morning when it wasn’t so crowded, after my morning chores were accomplished. The first of January saw an influx of new gym memberships, or at least people using them. Around March, the excitement would start to die down a bit. Just human behavior.
My list:
But my view will be more like this one, here in Kansas:
I wish each of you a Blessed 2018. I pray health, financial security, and great relationships for you. And when each of those areas comes under testing, and is stretched to its limit this year…because they will…I pray God’s peace for you, and the strength He gives to bear the difficult times in our lives.
Philippians 4:4-11 – King James Version
4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
5 Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity.
11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Happy New Year!
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana
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