“A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive.” Erica Jong,
I am a writer. I can't not write. I am writing in the shower, in the car, when I am washing dishes. I am thinking or teaching or writing all the time. It is not something I have to try to do--it is just there. From the Lord, perhaps what I was made to do. So even if I did not have a blog or speak, my love is studying, thinking, discussing and encouraging.
It is why I write books, blogs, in my journal. It is the way I interact with the Lord.
Even God was very specific about words. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
He loves to communicate to us. The word became flesh and spoke the messages of God through His life--He taught, counseled, encouraged, corrected, and left us a written account of His life, His love and His messages.
This is why I love books so much. You can hear a message, but when you take a book with you in the quiet of your own room, you read, your brain interacts with ideas as it was supposed to do, and the Holy Spirit has access to give you understanding, to convict your heart, to answer questions--to bring life and meaning to truth.
So, I take my writing and my books seriously. I desire that whoever reads them might encounter God and have a chance to have Him work in their lives, uniquely, right where they are, as they (hopefully) interact with truth and with Him.
I was so thrilled to see how many women were excited to have an opportunity to receive one of our books. I wish I could give them all away. (We even have to buy them from our own publisher.)
So, we will be giving many more of our books away and some of our tape sets. So stay tuned.
Here are the winners:
Mjoy who will receive Mission of Motherhood
and
Kristy B who will receive a Seasons of a Mother's heart.
In light of the interest in our books, I wanted to tell you about a wonderful friend of mine who has a similar heart for the wisdom of books and discussing them with like-minded women.
My friend, Jessica, has a wonderful blog and she had a brilliant idea to have an online book discussion each month this year, to enrich women's souls, to give them a place to discuss and to grow in their walk with God. She and I share the same heart and values to love, disciple our children and to make our home a place of ministry. One of the books she will be discussing this year is Dancing with My Father. So, I will be giving away one of those as it gets closer to the time of her reading of this book.
You can read about her book ideas here: http://lifeasmom.com/2010/12/booking-it-in-2011.html
I look so forward to discussing more of the ideas that I have written about in my books in the days ahead and will be even doing a video series especially online. But I am still in the last couple of weeks of my busy time with my sweet ones before Joy graduates, so will be here at least a little.
I so appreciate the prayers. Please keep them coming as we are in the midst of some big issues. But there is some hope on the horizon and some little miracles of some help in some medical areas as well as people coming along beside us in ministry and life. We love Him who is faithful. Our lives depend on God working, but we believe He is working and are so very grateful for the place we have in His throne room and the access we have to talk to Him about all that is happening and to know He cares and is working His purposes. May He bless each of you today.