Monthly Archives: October 2014

Cindy Loven–My Friday Friend!

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Cindy Loven is seeing her dreams fulfilled with the publication of her first novel, Swept Away Quilt of Love.  She co-authored this novel with Laura V. Hilton.  Born and raised in Arkansas, she loves her home state and is happy to live there with her husband of nearly twenty-nine years and her adult son. You can find her online at Facebook, her blog or @cndloven on Twitter.

 

My dad was a pastor, so I am a PK, as well as a PW (pastor’s wife) so there were always funny things happening at the parsonage. You never knew what was going to go on around there. Here are a couple of short stories from those days growing up in the house right next to the church.

Daddy’s Job

In addition to being a pastor, my dad worked as a carpenter on several different crews. One year he worked with 2 brothers, who were local guys. Daddy would come home telling stories about them, and he always talked about them speaking French (his code for them cursing). Well my brother and I didn’t understand that this was “code”. When Daddy was working in town, my mom would cook lunch every day. One day mom cooked lunch for Daddy and he invited the guys home for lunch with us. My brother and I were over the moon, excited. This was it, we had never heard anyone speak in French and the guys were coming to dinner, we were finally going to hear them talk French. As we are all eating lunch, we asked them, “Can you talk French for us,” they were so embarrassed, and my dad thought it was hilarious. I often wonder if they remember that happening.

 

Rock and Roll in the Church

My little brother worked all the time when we were kids and he saved money like a miser..and I do mean like a miser. He bought himself a set of drums, and one day during his senior year, he thought Mom and Daddy were going to be gone from home all day.  He and some friends cut school and decided to go to the church and ROCK out, hehehehe poor brother. Little did he know, Mom and Dad forgot something and came back for it, and he was busted. Mom was not happy with my brother and he found that out very quickly!! We all still giggle about it,.I think the guys thought our mom was whacko!! NEVER a dull moment around our house as kids!!

 

CoverofSweptAway

 

About Swept Away

He survived a life-altering event. She is facing one.

Sara Jane Morgan is trying to balance teaching with caring for her grandmother who doesn’t want to be cared for. When school lets out for the summer, the plans are for Grandma to teach Sara Jane to quilt as they finish up the Appalachian Ballad quilt Grandma started as a teenager. But things don’t always go as planned.

Andrew Stevenson is hiding from his past—and his future. He works as a handyman to pay the bills, but also as an artisan, designing homemade brooms. When Sara Jane’s grandmother hires him to renovate her home, sparks fly between him and his new employer’s granddaughter.

It doesn’t take Sara Jane long to see Drew isn’t what he seems. Questions arise, and she starts online researching him. What she discovers could change her life—and her heart—forever.

Buy Links for Swept Away

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/kr9ygxh 

 

Congratulations, Cindy, on your debut novel! May all your dreams come true.

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

WINNERS!

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Here are the winners of my giveaway for REDEMPTION. Thanks to everyone who left a comment. If you won, yay! If you didn’t, I’m sorry.

Winner of the $25 Amazon gift card:

ANN ELLISON

Winners of a $5 Amazon Gift card:

Mary Ann Duncan

Mary Ludeman

Jan Lemon

Carol Sue

Maxie Anderson

And there you have it–the winners!  If you are one of the winners and you haven’t heard from me, that means I don’t have your email address. So please contact me so I can send you your gift.!

UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

Want More Joy?

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Matthew 22

Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Life nis not nearly as complicated as most of us make it. Here’s a quick and easy to remember formula that will bring more joy in your life. If you want more JOY in your life, then focus first on Jesus, then on Others, and finally on Yourself.  The first above says exactly the same thing. Love God; love your neighbor as yourself.

Focus on Jesus. Jesus said the first and most important commandment is to love God with all your heart and mind. It’s not enough to say that you do, you must show that love to God. One of the ways to do that is to spend time praising and worshiping God and I don’t just mean in church on Sunday. From the beginning, Jesus was meant to bring joy to those of us on earth.

Luke 2:10

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Focus on others. Jesus talked of love again and again. He wanted His followers to show God’s love to others. Loving others is not a suggestion, but a commandment. Again, loving others doesn’t have to be complicated. Smile at people; be friendly, when  you can help someone in need, help them. Talking about loving others includes loving your spouse and your family. Sometimes we spend all our energy helping people outside of our house. That’s wonderful but save enough energy to be sweet and kind with those you live with.

John 13:34

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Focus on yourself. Yes, we are to focus on first on Jesus, then on others but don’t think that we are not to focus on ourselves. God doesn’t want us to be selfish or self-centered but He does want us to enjoy our life. He does want us to take care of ourselves in a healthy and balanced way.

We shouldn’t put ourselves first all the time but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t put ourselves first sometimes. We need to take care of our own emotional, physical, and spiritual needs as well as others.

So there you have it. Want more joy in your life? Then follow God’s greatest commandment and the second as well, and you’ll suddenly have more joy than you can imagine.

Until next time…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!

Do You Recognize Jesus?

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Luke 24: 30-31

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

Do you recognize Jesus when you see him?

As Christians, we would hope the answer to that question would be a resounding yes! After all, who would want to miss a moment like that? Not me!

But yet, I’m afraid I’ve often failed to recognize Jesus. Too busy. Too many things on my mind. Too much time spent on worrying about me and my problems.

The minute things start going wrong in our life, we go in a panic. Where is God? Why is He letting this happen to me? What did I do to make God mad? Life isn’t supposed to be like this–it’s supposed to be easy, right? Wrong.

Jesus never promised us we wouldn’t have problems but he did promise he would never leave or forsake us.

If you aren’t recognizing Jesus in your present circumstances, take some time and reflect on your past. As you do, you will begin to recognize that Jesus was there, guiding you, supporting you, and loving you even in the toughest of times. And even that many of the things that were hard when we were going through it, actually was a good thing in the long run.

A few years ago, my part-time position as a speech pathologist was eliminated. And it was the PERFECT JOB for me. I loved the kids, the teachers, even the principal was a nice guy. I was not a happy camper, but a few months later I was diagnosed with bilateral brain tumors.

Now, I know me well enough to know that I wouldn’t have quit the job on my own, like I said, it was the PERFECT JOB. Instead, I would have kept the job while I was undergoing treatments and side-effects from the treatment and…all that wold have done was cause me stress!

God knew me well enough to know that too.He smoothed out the rough road ahead of me by making sure I could concentrate on my health instead of stressing out about responsibilites that I could not have fulfilled.

God is so good!

I didn’t recognize Jesus at the time, but he was with me anyway. If you are in the midst of a tough situation, pray for God to open your eyes so that you can recognize Jesus. He is with you!

I’d love for you to share a time when God was with you even when you didn’t recognize him.

My Friday Friend–Ruth O’Neil

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As we know FRIDAYS ARE FOR FRIENDS so…today I want to introduce you to Ruth O’Neil

Ruth  has been a freelance writer for more than 20 years. She sees everything as a writing opportunity in disguise, whether it is an interesting character, setting, or situation. When she’s not writing or homeschooling her kids, Ruth spends her time quilting, reading, scrapbooking, camping and hiking with her family. Website link:  http://ruthoneil.weebly.com/

Today, she’s going to share how she started writing.

The Story That Started it All

One of the questions I am often asked is how I became a writer. Like most little girls, I wanted to be just like my mom when I grew up.

Going back to the beginning…

We lived way out in the country. We didn’t often have people stop by because they were “in the neighborhood.” One day someone did stop by unexpectedly. Our house was in a shambles. My mom sent all four of us kids in different directions shoving and cramming junk wherever we could find a hidey-hole. I took the broom and swept my sister’s toys under the living room couch. What I thought should fit, wasn’t fitting. I look under the couch to see what was stopping my progress. It was a file full of typed paper.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Put that back under there!” I think Mom said it in an angry tone of voice because the unexpected guest was already on the porch and she didn’t have time for questions.

I found out later that it was a book that my mom had been writing. Ever since that day, I wanted to be a writer, too.

When I was nine I wrote my first story called “The Hunchback Bug.” My mom was never anything but encouraging. She even allowed me to use her typewriter. I felt proud as I sat at the dining room table pounding away at the keys. When I was done I asked if I should put my name, age, and date at the bottom. She thought it was a good idea.

Later on that story came up missing. I never knew what happened to it until my mom passed away. Dad gave all four of us kids our baby books that Mom had meticulously kept up with from the days we were born. Inside were treasures of all kinds: hair, reward certificates from school, honor roll certificates, report cards, and…my story. She had kept that story all those years, safely tucked away so it wouldn’t get lost or damaged.

I still have it today.

My mother was definitely my inspiration and encouragement for writing. She made sure I went to writer’s conferences so I could learn as much as possible. She read everything I wrote and gave me advice and constructive criticism.

Now, I am able to pass along some of what I’ve learned to those who want to learn this business of writing.

I’ve also learned that I can stir the emotions of people through words on a page. I can make people cry and I can make people laugh. I can touch people’s hearts.

That is why I write.

 

Ruth’s latest book is BELONGING  and the Amazon link is. http://amzn.to/TFP8bf

About BELONGING:

Shelly feels alone in the world. She would like to bury herself in a whole and not pay any attention to the world outside her door, but God has big plans for her. These plans will force her to step out of her comfort zone, which might be impossible for her.

REDEMPTION—A DEVOTION

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Romans 3: 22-24

 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 

The title of my newest book is REDEMPTION so it seemed to me a good topic to write about in a devotion. Dictionary.com defines redemption as an act of atoning for a fault or a mistake; deliverance or rescue; deliverance from sin; salvation; atonement for guilt.

The title came about as a result of Jamie, the main character being ashamed of things she’s done in her past as a consultant to the FBI. As a result she feels God can’t love her the way she is. So she seeks redemption by putting herself in dangerous situations to help other people.

That makes for a good plot in a suspense novel, but it’s important to know that we can’t save ourselves through good acts, through helping others, or even being really good people. There is only one way to receive redemption: meaning salvation; meaning going to heaven to live with God forever!

We are saved through our faith in Jesus—and only through our faith in Jesus.

No amount of good works can earn us a ticket to heaven! It doesn’t matter how “good” we are, how much money we give to good causes (including the church), or how kind we are to others.

Only our belief in Jesus as the Son of God can save us.

And the reverse is true as well as Jamie discovers in my novel, REDEMPTION. Your past doesn’t matter. God loves you just the way you are. He won’t turn his back on you because of your past, present, or even your future mistakes.

And that is more awesome than I can say, but 2 Corinthians 9:15 says it best:

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

REDEMPTION PROMO:

To celebrate the release of REDEMPTION, I’m giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. But wait…there’s more! I always feel bad for the people who enter the contest but don’t win. So I’m also going to pick FIVE more lucky names to win a $5 Amazon Gift Card. Just the right amount to buy REDEMPTION! Just kidding, the winners can use it to buy whatever they wish.

All you need to do is leave a comment here or under any of the posts with REDEMPTION in the title. Contest ends on October 18!

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BLURB:

Others may think Jamie Jakowski is a hero, but she knows differently.

Haunted by her past, she seeks redemption by helping others in spite of the danger to herself. However, after almost orphaning her daughter, Jamie opts to retire. When a friend needs her, Jamie agrees to one last undercover operation.

She is determined to reunite a heartbroken mother with her kidnapped son. Used to working alone, Jamie’s not happy when she’s assigned a partner. And after a failed operation and their failed romance, Enrique Rodriguez is the last person she wants to work with—ever.

To succeed, Jamie must confront her past as well as the people who want her dead.

DON’T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT!

 UNTIL NEXT TIME…GOD BLESS & GOOD READING!