You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 2Corinthians 3:2-3
If you’re in the local area, please come by Journey Fellowship (I35 S in Selma) on Saturday, November 20th from 9am-2pm for our annual Artisan Faire. We have lots of amazingly talented local artists and artisans. Perfect for all your Christmas shopping needs.
Jon and I will be there again this year. I may have a few items left of my Dad’s woodwork to sell. I no longer receive any new inventory from him, since he passed away in early 2019. My heart smiles when I imagine him using his woodworking gift for the glory of God in the eternal Kingdom.
Jon may have some his photos available. Either way, we will definitely have our photo devotional books in the Be Still series for sale. I absolutely love the look of these covers. They display just a hint of God’s creation as captured by my husband. And it’s been so much fun creating these books. I’ve learned a lot along the way and I’m already thinking about next year’s book. Please be sure to stop by my table. I’d love to talk to you.
Details for each book can be found on my Be Still blog page. Details and ordering are available on my Amazon author page for those not in the local area and/or can’t make the Artisan Faire.
I can’t remember how I discovered this book. I’m not sure if I had heard about it on one of the podcasts I listen to (which has been my tendency lately) or if it popped up on Amazon when I was looking at other books to order and its cover and title intrigued me. Either way, the book was on prayer, and prayer has been one of two areas that I always want to grow in (the other is writing).
I didn’t start the book right away; it sat on my desk for a few months, along with a couple of other prayer books in my “to read” stack. When packing for our summer trip, I picked it up and tossed it in with a few other books for our time in the camper.
I didn’t have any expectations, but when I finally opened Jethani’s book, I realized it was different than, well, than what I expected. The book is divided into six parts and each part has approximately eight segments. The segments are short devotionals with a couple accompanying scriptures for further reflection. They’re easy to read in the morning when getting ready for the day, but have deep, insightful truths.
The segments total fifty-three conclusions Jethani makes about if Jesus was serious about prayer. He includes a comical, yet deep truth, “doodle” with each segment. He also provides plenty of places for the reader to jot notes, thoughts, reflections, or even their own doodles on each of the prayer conclusions and the scriptures.
Don’t let the simplicity and the doodles fool you though. Jethani challenges the reader to take another, harder look at what Jesus thought about prayer and therefore what we should think, do, and be about prayer.
I have all kinds of succulents and cacti growing on the steps and on our patio. But recently I dropped seeds into some extra little pots that I have—tomato currant, chili pequin, and sweet pepper.
The tiny plants had just started breaking through the dirt when we had another visit by some frequent, albeit not always welcome, guests.
Three young raccoons make a monthly visit, usually when the moon is full. They have a party on our patio. They look for the food they know we have—deer corn and protein and bird seed. They poke around my plants where water is pooled around the pots. And they just seem to hang out because they like it on the patio in the wee hours of the morning.
I know this because we have a ring camera and I’ve seen their dark forms lumbering about, the occasional beady eyes glinting in the camera.
I usually don’t mind. I’m just a bit more cautious about letting our small dog out into the back yard in the evening without first checking for these guests. They not only outnumber him, but outweigh him by at least 10 pounds. We’ve had to replace the deer feed storage bin with another bin having (supposedly) raccoon proof closures. The two five pound weights we placed on the top of the original bin didn’t deter the raccoons in the least. Provided a bit of challenge I suppose. In all their efforts, they eventually cracked the bin’s lid, hence the need for replacement.
Like I said, I usually don’t mind their visits. They’re kind of cute.
Until they’re not.
The little bandits knocked over my small pots, spilling dirt and damaging my tiny plants. After my tender efforts to grow them, I’m not sure if the plants will survive. I gently repotted each one and placed them on a tray in a less-raccoon-accessible location.
Isn’t that how life can be, though? We see God plant tiny seeds of faith and bring growth to the tender gardens of our human hearts. He tends our faith with love and grace and soon our hearts produce new fruit of trust, joy, peace.
Then in the night, the masked bandits come. Night thieves. Careless looters. They poke around, sniff around, and create turmoil and trouble where seeds of faith are growing. Maybe intentional, maybe not. But the damage is the same. A mess made, hearts breaking and spilling over with tears, maybe even faith damaged.
The bandits may come as the death of a loved one, illness, the loss of a job, a move, a friend’s betrayal, an accident, divorce, anything that rocks our world.
But God is there, scooping up the mess, comforting us in our grief and tears, and restoring our tender faith.
A few promises from Scripture to turn to when the bandits come:
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27
So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
John 16:22
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Just in time for Halloween. What Darkness Fears, an anthology of stories and poems portraying light in the darkness. A perfect read for the spooky season. What Darkness Fears includes stories by authors Anne J. Hill, Lara E. Madden, and my friend/critique buddy, Lauren Thornhill, among others.
I asked Lauren to answer a couple of questions about her book because inquiring minds want to know.
How did you get involved in the anthology, What Darkness Fears?
I became involved in the anthology almost entirely through Instagram. I found Anne J. Hill on Instagram because she was a fellow writer and editor. In fact, she edited my current WIP for the King and Prophet Chronicles. We became friends, and I met her in person at the Realm Makers Conference (RM) this year. About a week after RM, Anne sent me a chat about the anthology and asked if I would be interested in submitting some stories. Of course I jumped at the chance. I love spooky stories, and I loved her theme of light in darkness, and keeping it clean fiction. I sent in a short story and two poems for consideration. The story and one poem was accepted.
What’s been the best part about being included in the anthology, What Darkness Fears?
Easily the best part of the anthology was the community. Anne created a group chat in Instagram for the anthology authors and anyone who wanted to help promote it. For two months I enjoyed the chats, the group thinking, and everyone’s enthusiasm for the project. It was intoxicating. Writing is so often done alone. This was a community, and we were having fun, even if it was just over chat.
What would you like readers to know about the anthology, What Darkness Fears?
This anthology was written by authors who love the spooky, but love the light more. Anne and Lara (Lara E. Madden) led us through this project. They kept focusing on the positive, making sure scripture was put in the book, and that the message of light conquering dark prevailed. We all learned a lot, and you can see the love in what we’ve put together—love for our Savior and love for our craft.
What Darkness Fears is available on Amazon, in Kindle and paperback.
Lauren has also published her own novella, The Lost Descendants, for the King and Prophets Chronicles. The Lost Descendants is available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback and, coming soon, will also available as an audio book.
My box of books waited for me, having arrived before came home from our trip to Colorado. Tired from our two days of travel, I decided to put off opening it until the next day. If anything was amiss, I didn’t think I’d have the wherewithal to handle it.
Worries tried to invade my thoughts. Had I completed a final proofread of each book, to make sure there weren’t any glaring errors? Where the covers going to look as good as I hoped? Did I order the correct amount? What if I messed something up when I updated the other four books?
Thankfully I didn’t spend too much time on those silly, invasive thoughts. Because the next morning, with a grand flourish, I opened the box and low and behold, everything looked perfect. I haven’t found any glaring errors, the covers look amazing, I ordered exactly what I wanted, and a quick flip through the books told me I had’t messed up anything noticeable.
I have to admit, seeing my name on the front of a glossy book gives my heart a bit of a thrill. The excitement of this thing we created, my husband’s beautiful pictures inside, the thoughts I’ve shared, the space we’ve created. It all inspires me to do it again. Indeed, I already have an idea for next years book. I’m just not sure of the title yet.
I’m hoping this next year to 1. create the sixth book in the Be Still series, 2. be consistent in posting blogs, and 3. get my author newsletter going. I still have a couple copies of the first two books with their original covers. They might could make for free giveaways in some drawings when readers sign up for my newsletter. It’s a thought, still in conception stage.
In my next post on the Be Still series I’ll talk about the upcoming Artisan Fair where I’ll be selling all five of my current books. The husband and I will have a couple of tables along with many other amazing artisans in our local area.
Details for each book in the Be Still series can be found on my Be Still blog page and details on ordering are available on my Amazon author page.
"The Lord God gives me the right words to encourage the weary.
Each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teaching;
he made me willing to listen and not rebel or run away."
Isaiah 50:4-5
"We are your symphony, Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life."
— Governor Gertrude Lang (Joanna Gleason) in Mr. Holland's Opus
"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C.S. Lewis
"...to be little with God is to be little for God."
E.M. Bounds
"If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one."
Mother Theresa
"He became what we are that He might make us what He is"
Saint Athanasius, 295-373
"It is the Christ in you, who recognizes the Christ in me...From now on, wherever you go, or wherever I go, all the ground between us will be holy ground."
Henri J.M. Nouwen
Why pray?
"…I have no better answer than the example of Jesus, who knew above any of us the wisdom of the Father and yet who felt a strong need to flood the heavens with requests."
Philip Yancey
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried."
G.K. Chesterton
"The well of your incompleteness runs deep, but make the effort to look away from yourself and to look toward Him."
Oswald Chambers
tablets of human hearts 