The Warrior Weekend: Special Deal for Dads!

June 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Warrior 3DGet away, get outdoors, and get into God’s Word! The Warrior Weekend is a resource to help dads raise boys to be Godly men. Written as a devotional, it is full of biblical wisdom specific to boys, applicable stories of brave men, and adventurous activity ideas or a weekend away. The Warrior Weekend is a great resource for helping dads and sons explore God’s Word and God’s world together.

During The Warrior Weekend, there will be three lessons you will explore and complete together.

Each lesson consists of the following components:

Warrior Account: Each lesson will have a real life account of a warrior’s story in history. These are different men who have done extraordinary things. These accounts are meant to illustrate a biblical principle or truth outlined in that particular lesson.

Warrior Activity: Each lesson will have an activity that you and your son will complete together. These activities are meant to be adventurous and fun. They are also meant to illustrate the main theme of each lesson.

Warrior Application: After reading the warrior account and completing the warrior activity, you and your son will sit down together and discuss the application. This will be a chance to discuss what God’s Word says about how boys are created for God’s purposes.

My prayer is that this resource and weekend will be instrumental in helping your son(s) continue learning what it means to grow up and be Godly men! The Warrior Weekend is a great resource for you and your son(s) or it can be used in a group. Feel free to invite more dads and their sons!

To purchase your copy now:

On Kindle, Nook, PDF, and in Paperback!!

Click to purchase The Warrior Weekend in paperback for only $7.99!

Click to purchase The Warrior Weekend on Kindle for $4.99!

Click to purchase The Warrior Weekend on Nook for $4.99!

Click to purchase the PDF of The Warrior Weekend for $4.99!

 

Filed Under: Guest Post

JOYN INDIA Winner!

May 31, 2013 By Leave a Comment

PicMonkey Collage

Congratulations to Patricia L Janes who was our winner of the JOYN INDIA giveaway!!

Please email Christen with your mailing address!

If you want to find out more about JOYN INDIA and their fabulous ministry and products visit their website.

Filed Under: Charity, Just for Fun

JOYN INDIA: Using Fashion to Create Better Lives

May 24, 2013 By 3 Comments


What is JOYN?

JOYN takes artisans living in poverty and crashes them together with the thriving fashion world. Each step of our process is done by hand, creating more jobs — creating more joy and connecting more artisans with YOU.

The Story: 

JOYN was birthed in the hearts of Melody and David Murray over 13 years ago. (Read Melody’s recent ‘Mother of Pearl’ post for more about her.) Since they met in 1998, they both had a growing passion to live and work among individuals living in poverty. After spending a summer working in an orphanage in Uganda in 1999, the Murrays’ dreams became more clear. The orphans had a home, had food, had clothing, but they had no future. They lacked hope. They lacked purpose. They lacked opportunity. After that experience, the Murrays set out to find sustainable solutions to the needs of those living in the majority world. They spent 10 years obtaining degrees, certifications and experience in order to go back to those in poverty with real solutions.

In June 2010, an opportunity arose to work with a small needy community in the Himalayas, so David and Melody and their 2 young boys packed their bags and moved to Rajpur, North India. David has followed his dreams of creating sustainable livelihood and being an agent of change in the lives of young men(www.dehradunguitars.com). Mel has grown JOYN, fulfilling her passion to connect artisans with western markets. They now have a diverse and growing team of Americans, Australians, Indians, Tibetans and Nepalis working together to create a community that strives to take care of each other and bring opportunity to as many as they can.

How YOU can help spread the story:

Homeshows – Throw a JOYN party in your home. If you are interested please get in touch with us.
Internships – JOYN is always looking to add the write individuals to our team. Again, if you are seriously interested in what JOYN is doing and have skills to add to our efforts, please get in touch with us.
Campus Reps – Would you be willing to represent JOYN on your high school or college campus? We’d love to tell you more.
Follow our Blog – Stay near to our story as we grow and learn of other opportunities to get involved here.
JOYNers – We currently have a team of JOYN reps throughout the US that share our story with local Retail partners. We are always looking to expand.

If you are interested in any of the above, please contact JOYN

Find out more about JOYN on their website and shop online

Sign up below for your chance to win a gorgeous T-shirt Fabric Scarf in Mint and Lemon Flora!
***Due to shipping costs, contest open to US only. Winner will be announced Friday, May 31.*** 

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Filed Under: Charity

Grateful Life Doesn’t Always Go as Planned | Deborah Raney

May 16, 2013 By 2 Comments

Untitled1Oh, how grateful I am that life doesn’t always go as I planned it. I’m a very creative person, but I could never have come up with the things God has brought about in my life. Never. God’s plans are always infinitely better than my own.

For starters, I wanted twelve kids. What was I thinking? God gave us three, and most days, three seemed like 12. Then when those three were 14, 10 and 8, God gave us a baby. We call her our “oops baby” but we know better. There’s nothing “oopsy” about her. And she’s been the joy of our lives—as have her sister and brothers.

The biggest plan of mine that God thwarted was my plan that my sweet husband would work at his job until a ripe, ripe old age and that we would always have his nice salary and a decent savings account to rely on. Just over four years ago—just as that oops baby was headed to college—my husband came home from work at ten o’clock one morning (never a good thing) and informed me that he’d been laid off from his job after 25 faithful years with the company. Ken took me in his arms and said, “God’s been taking care of us for 35 years of marriage. . .there’s no reason to think He’s going to stop now.” I believed that. What I didn’t believe was that my husband would have the audacity to tell me he didn’t plan to look for another job, but instead he thought God was leading him to create the job of his dreams by starting his own business. Was he crazy? And how come God didn’t tell ME?

We struggled mightily with this disagreement. Biggest struggle of our marriage in 35 years. Finally I decided I couldn’t fight my husband, let alone God and my husband in tandem. So I said, “whatever, Lord.” (And yes, I mean that snarky teenage version of “whatever.”) The story is too long to tell in a blog, but let me just skip over the part where I was a whiny, unsupportive brat of a wife, and tell you the ending. . .or the ending so far. Who knows what else God has up His sleeve!

Ken’s graphic design business, Clash Creative, has so much work he can barely keep up. We have managed to pay every bill on time and in full. In the meantime, because we both work from home now, and make our own hours, Ken is free to travel with me. He’s even started teaching workshops at several writers conferences, so we now go on 5 or 6 most-expenses-paid “vacations” every year and enjoy our time together immensely. Yes, they are working vacations, but still. . .

Just after Christmas last year, God’s plan unfolded with a move for us. We sold our home (in a bidding war!) and bought a house in the city that’s perfect for us—and closer to our kids and extended family; closer to the airport (and four minutes from Starbucks!) This farmer’s daughter small-town girl never would have planned to be a city girl. And yet, I love it!

But beyond those plans, God had some even better ones. That I would, through the angst of these life-changing events, come to trust in Him with a depth I never could have plumbed on my own. That Ken and I would have found a new intimacy in our marriage for having gone through these tough times. That I would have grown more sensitive to the needs of others who are walking where we’ve walked. That our story would serve as an encouragement to others. That I would learn to be content with far, far less—and even then, we live in luxury compared to most of the world.

I know my heart well enough to know that I’ll probably fail to trust God’s plans again, probably sooner than I even dream. But I’ve grown in Him so that even when I fail, I’ve learned to come running back to His arms far quicker than I used to. And His arms are a wonderful place to be.

DEBORAH RANEY’s first novel, A Vow to Cherish, inspired the World Wide Pictures film of the same title and launched her writing career after 20 happy years as a stay-at-home mom. Her books have won numerous awards including the RITA, National Readers Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol Award, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. Deb and her husband, Ken Raney, enjoy life in Kansas, but also love traveling together to teach at conferences, and to visit four children and four small grandchildren who all live much too far away. Visit Deb on the Web at www.deborahraney.com, Twitter, Facebook, Blog

Filed Under: Guest Post

Who Is Your Ray of Light? | Shelley Shepard Gray

May 16, 2013 By 1 Comment

Years ago, long before I published my first novel, I went to the Romance Writers of America Conference. I didn’t know much about the publishing industry or about writing. All I knew was that I really wanted to be a published writer one day. I had scheduled some agent and editor appointments. I had circled all the workshops I planned to go to. But I was still there by myself, and didn‘t know anyone. So I volunteered to help at the workshop desk every day.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the absolutely right thing to do. I met other volunteers, kept busy with all kinds of tasks, and basically got to see how the conference was run-the workshop desk was right in the middle of it all. I also met everyone who stopped by and asked for help or directions.

For a long-time reader-want-to-be-writer, this was amazing. I met all kinds of famous authors as they stepped forward to get their packets for workshops they were presenting.

And then, on the fourth day, I met Mary Balogh. The Mary Balogh, aka, my favorite author. Mary is from Wales, lives in Canada, and has a very proper British accent. Years ago she wrote Signet Regency Romances, and I fell in love with the settings and stories she created. Since then I think I’ve bought every book she’s written. Anyway, Ms. Balogh stopped by the workshop desk to ask where the bathroom was. I took one look at her nametag and became star struck.
Instead of answering her question and letting her go on her way, I began to tell her about how much I loved her books. She looked delighted, said thank you, and handed me a bookmark.

That was my cue to leave her alone, right?

Oh, no. I proceeded to tell her how I’d combed used bookstores looking for her books that were out of print. I told her which of her books were my favorites, and then decided to tell her all about my favorite characters in those books. Because, well, why wouldn’t she want to hear about that?

Once again, she very sweetly thanked me, dug in her tote bag, and gave me a pen.
And still I gushed. By the time she finally left the workshop desk, I had a leather bookmark too…one that she signed right in front of me. I was grinning like a fool. Poor Ms. Balogh was probably making a mental note to Avoid Shelley At All Costs for the rest of the week!

I’ve saved those bookmarks all this time, just like I’ve cherished that memory. What’s funny is I probably remember more about that conference than the 10 or 12 conferences I’ve attended since. It was such an exciting and scary time for me. I had a hope and a dream and absolutely no idea if it was ever going to come true. All I knew was that I had to try.

I thought about that chance meeting with Mary (yes, in my mind we’re on a first name basis now) a lot when I was writing Ray of Light, the second book in my Days of Redemption series. In the novel, the characters realize that there are many rays of hope and promise in their lives. Some come from the Lord. Others? From family members…and yes, even the kindness of a stranger. Meeting Mary Balogh made a huge impression on me. She was thankful that I liked her books. She was patient while I took up her time. And most of all, she made me think that maybe-just maybe-one day I, too, could be a published author.

So, I guess my hope is that we each realize that a kind smile or a little bit of patience will always be remembered…and sometimes it might make all the difference in the world to someone. For whom are you a Ray of Light? Who has been a Ray of Light for you?

With my blessings to you.
Shelley Shepard Gray

Shelley Shepard Gray is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the “Sisters of the Heart”, “Seasons of Sugarcreek”, “Secrets of Crittenden County”, and Families of Honor series. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town’s bike trail.

Filed Under: Guest Post

Motherhood and Writing | Sibella Giorello

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A dear friend is expecting her first baby, while writing her first novel.

The baby news filled me with joy, the kind that put tears in my eyes. But the news also led me to think about threading that needle known as Motherhood and Writing.

I want my friend to cherish motherhood, and I want her to finish her novel.

With two kids, six years homeschooling, five published novels, and ten-thousand readings of “Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?,” I almost feel qualified to offer some advice.

So here’s my humble five-point offering to every mom serving in the happy trenches while trying to write.

1. Don’t quit writing.

There will never — never — be a good time to write. Never. Ever. Stop thinking the world will someday agree with your compulsion to put words on paper. The world doesn’t care. But YOU care and frankly, God cares because God made you a writer.

If that last statement strikes you as pretentious, congratulations. Feel free to pick up your glue-gun and complete all those Martha Stewart projects. You’re not a writer.

Meanwhile, we blessed wretches will continue to comb through our minds, searching for meaning and wrestling with words.

Writers need to write. Need, not want. The same way some birds were designed to fly south every winter whether they feel like it or not, writers were designed to translate thoughts into words. You will know if you’re among that flock if deep down inside, you feel like you might suffer some kind of death if you don’t write. Soul, spirit, emotion. Maybe even physical death. Frank McCourt once said that he wrote “Angela’s Ashes” because if he didn’t, he would “die howling.”

The sooner a writer recognizes this built-in need, the sooner they become a productive person rather than a garden-variety dysfunctional oddity understood by precisely nobody.

2. You’re a mom. Make it manageable.

Motherhood comes first.

Scratch that.

Your husband comes first, even after baby arrives. Then baby. Then writing. Break that order and you’ll build an idol.

But because of where it stands on the totem pole, mom-writing needs manageable goals. When my kids were toddlers and took naps, I placed a note card over my computer that read “500 words an hour.” My daily goal. With a background in newspapers, my five hundred words seemed like a cake walk. Some days I was surprised by 1000 words. Other days I could squeak out six. (Yes, six: “My brain has turned into Jello.”)

But on those difficult days — both in motherhood and writing — remind yourself that this glorious gift of life will only make you a better writer, eventually. If you don’t quit. I guarantee this. With motherhood, a heart grows new chambers of understanding. It only improves your writing.

If you don’t quit.

3. If somebody understands your blessing/affliction, cherish them.

My first novel,”The Stones Cry Out,” arrived like a thunderclap. The story came complete with a cast of characters, a setting, and a plot.

Unfortunately, the timing couldn’t have been worse: I was seven months pregnant with my first child.

But God’s timing doesn’t resemble man’s timing. And the gift seemed perishable. So, despite the gasps of horror from polite ladies who probably had good intentions, I waddled into the FBI’s forensic mineralogy department, asking questions about murder and mayhem.

Only a handful of people understood why I was starting a novel when it looked like my water was about to break. My husband. My dad who was battling stage-four throat cancer. My mom who was also a writer. And an elderly uncle who once attempted to write a novel but quit — he really understood.

The rest of the world treated me as though the novel was a betrayal of the child in my womb.

Fourteen years later, not much has changed. The other day, a homeschool mom asked me in a baffled tone of voice: “Why do you even feel the need to write these books — I mean, are you making a ton of money or something?”

4. You can answer those questions, but it probably won’t help.

Any explanation will make you sound like a televangelist who can’t afford glittery clothes (“God called me”), or just plain weird (“The day doesn’t seem quite real until I write about it.”)

Most people won’t understand. But writers don’t live an either-or existence. They live two lives. Here, and not here. Experiencing life, and imagining it.

Yes, I know. I just described a dual personality.

But as Dorothea Brande writes in her essential little book “Becoming a Writer,” the writer’s double existence is not a bad thing:

A dual personality, to the reader who has a number of half-digested notions about the constitution of the mind, is an unlucky fellow who should be in a psychopathic ward; or, at the happiest, a flighty hysterical creature. Nevertheless, every author is a very fortunate sort of dual personality, and it is this very fact that makes him such a bewildering, tantalizing, irritating figure to the plain man of affairs who flatters himself that he, at least, is all of a piece.

5. All interruptions come from God.

As though stating the case for me, my kids just knocked on my office door. They want pancakes. They want to start their school work. They want me.

And I am happy to go.

Very happy to go.

I can always write about it later.

***

Sibella Giorello grew up in Alaska and majored in geology at Mount Holyoke College. After riding a motorcycle across the country, she worked as a features writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Her stories have won state and national awards, including two nominations for the Pulitzer Prize. She now lives in Washington state with her husband and sons. Find out more about Sibella at http://sibellagiorello.com.

Filed Under: Guest Post, Motherhood

Mother of Pearl 2013 Winners

May 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We hope you enjoyed the Mother of Pearl blog series. And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for . . .

The winners from this year’s Mother of Pearl:

Victoria Gaudette Brinius – Pearl necklace
Georgia Hatheway Beckman – JOYN India bag

Be sure to join us in December for our 12 Pearls of Christmas blogging series! You’ll be able to post great blog posts on your blog as well as sign up for some wonderful prizes!

Thank you again for entering the contest and to all the authors who tithed their talents! All God’s best to you!

Filed Under: Mother of Pearl

MY FINAL WORDS TO MY MOTHER BY LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN

May 12, 2013 By 3 Comments

ImageProxyServletWelcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother’s Day blog series—a nine-day celebration of moms and mothering. Each day will feature a new post by some of today’s best writers (Tricia Goyer, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Beth Vogt, Lesli Westfall, and more). I hope you’ll join us each day for another unique perspective on Mother’s Day.

AND . . . do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful handcrafted pearl necklace and a JOYN India bag. Enter at the bottom of this post. The contest runs 5/4-5/13, and the winner will be announced on 5/14. Contest is only open to U.S. residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info, subscribe to our blog, and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith to help support Pearl Girls™.

 
And to all you MOMS out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
~

My Final Words to My Mother By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

The day had come.

My mother lay pressed against her pillow, her skin like baking paper, her limbs disposable chopsticks. She had not moved or spoken for days.

In those last days we rarely left her side, my three siblings and I. Between us we had eleven children, the youngest my newborn, whom we had baptized a week ago right here by my mother’s bedside. The children tumbled and danced around the hospice floor, admonished by us to keep quiet, keep quiet! They had already said their good-byes to Nana. Now it was our turn.

The hospice nurses had told us of the final signs. She will cease to wake, even briefly. Her fingers and toes will turn blue. Her breathing will grow shallow and ragged.

Then we heard it. My mother took a breath. That’s all it was—a sip of air. We knew it was time. We rushed around her, my siblings and I, and all together began to sob.

cullenpg

And this is what I said to my mother before she died: “I’ll be all right, Mommy. Don’t worry. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right.”

Not “I love you.” Not “I’ll miss you.” Not “thank you for everything.” Why? I asked myself that night as I cradled my colicky newborn, both of us wailing. Why did I choose that moment to inform my mother of my own well-being? Why did I feel this was the very thing she needed to know as she drew her last breath?

It took me years as a parent to understand: As mothers, that is exactly what we want to know. We want to know our children are safe. We need to know they’ll be all right as they journey into the world without us by their sides.

I don’t know if my mother heard me. But if she did, I hope my final words eased her journey just a hair. That she believed and trusted in my well-being, and then let go.

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The Pastors Wives_LisaTakeuchiCullen_cr Matt DineLisa Takeuchi Cullen is the author of Pastors’ Wives, a new novel from Penguin/Plume, and The Ordained, a 2013 CBS drama pilot. Previously, she was a staff writer for Time magazine. Readers can friend her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @lisacullen, or visit her website at www.lisacullen.com.

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Filed Under: Mother of Pearl

THE PURSUIT OF IMPERFECTION BY BETH VOGT

May 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

ImageProxyServletWelcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother’s Day blog series—a nine-day celebration of moms and mothering. Each day will feature a new post by some of today’s best writers (Tricia Goyer, Lisa Cullen, Beth Vogt, Lesli Westfall, and more). I hope you’ll join us each day for another unique perspective on Mother’s Day.

AND . . . do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful handcrafted pearl necklace and a JOYN India bag. Enter at the bottom of this post. The contest runs 5/4-5/13, and the winner will be announced on 5/14. Contest is only open to U.S. residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info, subscribe to our blog, and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith to help support Pearl Girls™.

 
And to all you MOMS out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
~

The Pursuit of Imperfection by Beth Vogt

In my early mommy-ing years, I was all about perfection. I wasn’t going to be just a good mom—oh, no. I grabbed the virtual performance bar and shoved it way out of my reach.

It didn’t take long for that bar to come crashing down on my head. Perfection was toppled by the harsh reality that, at times, I was an angry mom. I hit my knees and begged God for forgiveness, for patience, for the ability to love my children one day at a time . . . sometimes one hour at a time.

I embraced 1 Peter 4:8: Love covers a multitude of mistakes, even altering it a bit so that it met my need. My version of 1 Peter 4:8 became: Love covers a multitude of mommy-mistakes. There was no way I could pretend that I was perfect, but I could do everything possible so that my children knew that I loved them, despite my imperfections.

Fast forward through toddlers and teenagers to being the mother of a twenty-something son, two late-teen daughters, and one (surprise!) elementary-school-age daughter.

During lunch one day with Katie Beth and Amy, my two oldest daughters, Katie Beth looked at me and asked, “Do you want to know what the best thing was about you as a mom?”

Did I? How could I say no to an unexpected “her children will rise up and call her blessed” moment? I assured Katie Beth I absolutely wanted to know the best thing about me as a mom. She looked at me and said, “The best thing about you as a mom was that you weren’t perfect.”

Oh. I admit I expected something . . . more. I joked with my daughter, telling her I wished she’d told me this sooner, as I wasted too much time trying to be perfect. We all laughed and the conversation moved on.

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A few weeks later as a prepared a talk on motherhood and perfection for a moms group, I asked Katie Beth, “Can you tell me again why not being perfect was the best thing about me as a mom?”

She emailed me a letter that read: So many kids grow up thinking their parents are up on this pedestal. They think their parents can do no wrong, but then when they fail at something or make a mistake . . . it can tend to devastate those kids. Also, it taught me that being a Christian does not equal perfection. So many people think because they are a Christian they have to be perfect, and I learned from you that, while you are a very loving mother, you are not perfect. It helps me know you don’t expect me to be perfect. 



Our children don’t want perfect moms—but they do want to know we love them. And maybe by admitting we’re not perfect, our kids will avoid the perfectionist trap too.

###

Beth K. Vogt believes God’s best is often behind the doors marked “Never.” After being a nonfiction writer and editor who said she’d never write fiction, Beth has proudly authored two novels, Wish You Were Here and the newly released Catch a Falling Star. Connect with Beth at bethvogt.com.
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Filed Under: Mother of Pearl

DAUGHTER SING SOFTLY BY LESLIE A.WESTFALL

May 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment

ImageProxyServletWelcome to Pearl Girls™ Mother of Pearl Mother’s Day blog series—a nine-day celebration of moms and mothering. Each day will feature a new post by some of today’s best writers (Tricia Goyer, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Beth Vogt, Lesli Westfall, and more). I hope you’ll join us each day for another unique perspective on Mother’s Day.

AND . . . do enter the contest for a chance to win a beautiful handcrafted pearl necklace and a JOYN India bag. Enter at the bottom of this post. The contest runs 5/4-5/13, and the winner will be announced on 5/14. Contest is only open to U.S. residents.

If you are unfamiliar with Pearl Girls™, please visit www.pearlgirls.info, subscribe to our blog, and see what we’re all about. In short, we exist to support the work of charities that help women and children in the US and around the globe. Consider purchasing a copy of Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith to help support Pearl Girls™.

 
And to all you MOMS out there, Happy Mother’s Day!
~

Daughter Sing Softly By Lesli A. Westfall

RedBirdAlong with the visit of winter comes the wet, dull, silent days and gray landscape, even in Southeast Texas. On the other hand, there is always a turn between the seasons. The brightness of spring is just around the corner. And God, in His unique, loving way, proves to us a sign through the things we love and when we need it the most.

I love birds, truly, any kind of bird! However, one of my favorites is the cardinal. It’s indigenous to some parts of North and South America. An attractive bird to say the least! Bright red feathers, black bill, a metallic chirp with a sweet, crystal clear melodic song . . . and my most favorite feature, for the most part, the male and female are always together.

For the last two weeks, right outside our bedroom at daybreak there has been a cardinal singing, loudly, wakening me morning after morning. In the deepest sleep, I would hear the bird’s song, and smile, knowing God is near. The daily morning concerts continued. Then, one particular day for my daily devotion, I opened my Bible and my eyes fell upon this scripture:

“. . . one arises to the sound of the bird, and the daughters of song sing softly.”  Ecclesiastes 12:4

Wow!  How personal God truly is to you and me. He knows how much I love birds. The little feathered beings always reminded me of the Creator. He placed it in a strategic place to sing, then He led me to His Word and gave instruction for the moment: while waiting for the desire of my heart to become a mother; daughter, sing softly. In our waiting the Creator of life desires for us to worship Him.

In doing a word search about the cardinal, I found some interesting characteristics. The word “cardinal” originates from the Latin word “hinge.” A hinge helps a door or gate to turn. Could this sweet bird be a sign there is a turn in the change of seasons of our lives? Could the waiting to become a mother or answer to a long awaited prayer be a turn from winter’s silent, dull barren landscape to spring?

westfallpg

I believe He is saying to us, “As the season turns, Daughter . . . sing softly!”
Scripture for reflection: 

“Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.” Psalm 86:17

A prayer for the day:
 “Heavenly Father, I ask that you show me a sign of your goodness! I need it Lord. I thank you for your faithfulness to me, even in the littlest things. Comfort and help me as I wait upon you for the desires of my heart!” 
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

(All scripture from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1991.)
 
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Westfall - author photo smLesli Westfall, author of Dancing Upon Barren Land, enjoys her moments in life by teaching cooking and etiquette to children, finds pleasure in spending time with family and friends, traveling and eating dark chocolate!  Most of all, she enjoys sharing God’s love and teaching His Word to women. She is happily married to her man of faith, live-in comedian and best friend, Larry, of twenty years. Visit her website.
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