Last week was a very busy week. I've spent over ten hours in the car, six of that was to and from Hannah's wedding.
Hannah and Clint married at the Renaissance Fair. A plus of going to the wedding was that we were able to go to the fair as well. I have to say, that it wasn't exactly what I thought it would be. While there was a lot of interesting things, I thought there would be more historical demonstrations or more actors to watch. However, I did have fun trying on some crowns.
Yes, I really liked this one. Maybe, someday, I'll buy it.
Rose and I had fun having a tea party and watching Persuasion together on Tuesday night. It was a great break from working late a couple of days straight on Kate's Dilemma.
Thursday, was one of those awesome days. Kelsey and I met up for lunch. We talked about the writer's conference that we are going to, the writers retreat that we are hosting, books, and what God is doing in our lives.
I stopped on my way home to admire a pretty amazing bluebonnet field.
Have I ever mentioned I like the way my skirts swirl? I try to act like a lady, but sometimes I indulge myself. Spinning in a field and watching the way my skirt flairs makes me happy.
What have you been up to this week?
Neither of my parents grew up in church. Their parents were nice people, who worked to create good, safe homes for their children. Yet, both my parents knew something was missing from their lives.
My Dad had a friend in high school that was a Christian. My dad had questions and a heart to find God, cultivated by many outdoor excursions he had though the Boy Scouts. This friend had the answers. One day, he gave Dad a tape (old technology) that had a gospel message. My dad accepted Christ.
My mom had a far more dramatic experience. She had a hunger for God since she had a cousin who died in a car accident when she was in her early teens, but couldn’t find answers. She did know that what she wanted to do was to be a wife and mom, something that her teachers always berated her for (ah, the sixties). When she moved to college, she met and married a man and had my beautiful and talented older sister Nicole. The marriage was not going well, but God used a friend to bring mom to church. Here, she found people who cared for others and loved each other. She asked this guy there what made them different. He and his friend took mom to lunch and explained the gospel. My mom found what her heart had been seeking, and she accepted it that day.
After her conversion, her marriage became horrible. Her husband was unfaithful and abusive. However, Mom felt very strongly that she was supposed to stay. One day she came to find her the apartment empty of everything except for divorce papers on the table. Her husband had left her for another woman.
Over the next few years, God worked in both my parents’ lives, moving them both to Dallas, healing my Mom’s heart, and preparing my Dad. Funny thing is, when they met, neither of them were very interested in marriage. They became friends as my Dad spent time with Nicole as part of a program at church for single-parent kids. Through that friendship and the counsel of friends, God moved my parents toward the understanding that He had called them together.
And so, my life began…
Sunday, I spent all day reading I finally finished reading Seasoning Your Words. I didn't love it, but it was okay.
While it had been a while since I had read the first book, reading the last two books in this series was awesome. As always, Rachel Starr Thomson blew me away. Reviews on these books coming soon.
So what I'm I reading now?
What are you reading?
Kate's Case Files #3, Kate's Dilemma, is being edited.
Yes, I and my red pen are hard at work. As is my amazing cover designer. This book should have a cover this coming week!
A Different Kind of Purpose is getting its first revision. I'm taking out the worst of the spelling mistakes. Yeah, I was watching a tv episode while I was working.
Today, I'm working on emails and thing related to Homeschooled Authors. I love this group so much, I wish I had more time to give it.
Last but not least...
I'm listening through the Brothers and Betrayal audiobook! It sounds amazing! I can't wait to share it with you.
Bonus:
Get a free short story on Kindle by clicking HERE
I needed the reminder this year that all things will be made new.
I'll be honest. I'm tired. I'm weary. I feel like my emotional and physical energy have been pushed toward my limit for far too long. My head might know that this is not true, that life is getting easier and I'm becoming stronger. However, there are times when I just want to lay on my pillow and weep, sleep, and spend the next day in bed doing nothing. I want to know that tasks are being accomplished without me. I want to know that the things I'm struggling with will be miraculously dealt with. I want the pain and suffering around me to stop. Easter reminded me that I should long for those things.
C.S. Lewis said that if we find ourselves with longings this world cannot satisfy, then it was obvious that we were made for another world. All the longings that I have are normal because sin has corrupted this world. This isn’t how it was supposed to be. The good news Easter reminds us of is that it won’t always be this way.
On Good Friday, I was blessed to celebrate Easter together. All my siblings and I got to take this fun picture:
Our family had an awesome time together on Easter. My brother, who is working nights, was unable to join us as he was sleeping.
The world recently celebrated international women's day. I know there is a women's history month and there have been some pretty big women's movements of late like #metoo and the like. There has been a lot of talk about the bravery of women. Here are some of the women I've seen other people recently call brave:
- Someone gets the spotlight because they were yet another victim sexually abuse
- A star comes out that they are gay
- A woman writes a blog post about how she is ditching a moral standard, and it goes viral
- A woman calls herself brave for leaving a selfish (or narcissistic) husband and her friends pat her on the back and cheer
Some of the things I listed are not outright wrong things. However, I think that the people who have been the bravest I know have been the people who chose a harder path, one that didn't bring them any public applause. These are the women I would like to honor today.
Monica
It may be a bit cliche to put my mother on this list, but there is a good reason for this. You see, there are some women that the more I got to know them, the most disenchanted I became. The longer I live, the more in awe I stand of my mother. My mom was raised in a non-christian home with a verbally abusive father. While she shared a bond with her, her mother was bitter, and her advice was shallow or left her to figure out things on her own. While they stayed married, their marriage wasn't a good one. Her parents were emotionally distant from each other and their children.
At eighteen, she went off to school, and nineteen she married a guy that was everything her mother taught her to look for who ended up being abusive and cheated on her. At twenty she had a child that both her husband and her parents had told her to get rid of. She became a Christian at twenty-one and felt God had called her to stay in her increasingly difficult marriage. At twenty-two, her husband left her for another woman and divorced my mother.
Does all of this make my mother a brave woman? No, what she is now is what makes her brave. My mother bears many emotional scars from all she has been through. Yet, I have never heard her use them as an excuse for her behavior, not once. I have listened to many women talk about how they can't help how they react because of such-and-such a thing happened to them. My mother, while I know that some things that she did, especially in my early childhood, might have been from those scares, she never let them be an excuse.
I would love to go on, but I think that I will end it there.
Gloria
Gloria is a woman few people outside my corner of the world were privileged to know. I didn’t know her until I worked elections, but she became a dear friend, and her memory is still a powerful force in my life, even though she went to heaven in 2012. She was always smiling, always looking at the bright side of things, and even though I saw two women who also worked with me say harsh things toward her, she always had a gentle answer to turn them away. She was always talking about her blessings. It wasn’t until we were working our second election together that I found out how brave this woman was.
Gloria lived in constant pain. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was going on, at least with the limited testing her insurance would allow. She had grown up in the house with an alcoholic father who abused her mother. Her husband, before he came to a saving faith, had also struggled with alcoholism and verbal abuse. She had a daughter she took to the doctor, the doctor said she was overreacting, and the daughter died in her arms that night. Her life was far from a bed of roses. Yet, she was always smiling, always looking for ways to bless people, and always talking about the goodness of God. I’m still humbled by this woman’s example of a life so wholly surrendered to the father that she forgave those who had wronged her from the heart and lived life with a smile, even as Leukemia tore at her body in the last days.
When mothers gather around at church, they will often recite the problems of their children. In a world that keeps repeating that motherhood is hard and pretty much the worst job ever, these two and others like them (ahem like my mom) refuse to play that game. Yes, they are honest that being a mom isn't all fun and games, but they take joy in it. Most of what they talk about are the good, the fun, and the poignant moments of being a mommy. In a world that pressures them to be negative about their job, they remain honest but positive.
Elisabeth, Lea, and others like them
As I talked about on Valentine’s day, being single has been a little harder the last few months. Yet, I have older sisters in the faith that I have watched for the last few years. They are honest about their longings, disappointments, and tears. Yet, they refuse to give up their ideals. They still pursue God with passion. They don’t see their singleness as a broken promise, but as God’s best for them even when it doesn’t feel like it. In a culture that looks down on those who don’t have a significant other, these ladies are the truly brave ones. I pray that I can follow their example, as they follow Christ.
These are truly brave women. They live their lives, unseen by the world, quietly doing what God has called them to. The news media doesn't show up to get their story. There isn't a hashtag celebrating their daily courage to live counterculture. In fact, there are many who mock them, criticize their choices, and try to shame them.
Who are the brave women in your life?
