Special Gifts

Two years ago, I joined a ladies Bible study group at my church. We read the book, Lead Me, Holy Spirit, by Stormie Omartian.

She shared a story in her book that I’ve been reminded of often. On a snowy morning outside her window, there were thirty to forty redbirds perched in a tree. She compared the scene to a Christmas tree decorated with red ornaments. She tried to discover what God was revealing to her through the beauty of the moment but couldn’t quite grasp the meaning. When a pastor friend stopped by, she asked him what he thought God was showing her. The pastor said, “It was a gift to show His love for you.”

How often does the Lord give us gifts to show His love for us? Happens more than we realize. I’d like to share one He gave me.

A lover of worship music, I was looking for songs to download and came across a worship CD from my alma mater, Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. I purchased the entire album and listened often. There was one song that became my favorite—“Hope Is Rising.” For some reason, I wanted to know who sang this song. I checked the website for LeeU Worship but couldn’t find anything about the featured singers.

Eight months later my husband and I took a trip to Ohio where I grew up. We visited our home church while there and met the worship pastor. I learned he was the singer of “Hope Is Rising.”

There was no reason for me to know who sang this song, but God knew it was important to me. God gave me a name and allowed me to meet the singer.

God’s gifts are everywhere. How has He recently shown His love for you?

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Blog first posted in November 2018.

Omartian, Stormie. 2012. Lead Me, Holy Spirit. Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers.

https://www.leeuworship.com/

Photo by Robert Thiemann - Unsplash

I Enjoy Both!

This week I celebrated the one-year anniversary of my website. I wrote this post last November before my site went live.

In the past couple of months, a question I’ve heard often is, “How does a mathematics major become a fiction writer?” Possibly a better question is, “How does a fiction writer become a mathematics major?”

Growing up, I took an interest in stories long before I found my niche in math. My sister and I would lie awake at night collaborating on adventures in large houses with secret passageways. We often ended up in an ice cream parlor and would stuff ourselves until we fell off to sleep.

In elementary school I wrote my first fictional book. “The Dog That Had Kittens.” At the time, I didn’t understand anything about genetics or the impossibility of my topic.

My interest in math didn’t emerge until my freshman year of high school. I loved Algebra and enjoyed the challenge. The teacher made the class fun and encouraged me to do my best. Then in college, I turned my love for math into a teaching degree and taught middle school and high school for ten years.

Also while in college, my love for writing progressed. I looked forward to my creative writing class and penned a few fun stories. I experienced a heightened awareness of literature and poetry. Being an odd sort of person anyway, I loved to answer essay questions. One of my English professors made a comment one day about me being an English major. I corrected her assumption and surprised her at the same time.

What can I say? I enjoy both!

The Lord gives us many talents to use for His glory and to serve one another. Is there something you enjoy that perhaps God wants you to use to honor Him?

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Photo by Angelina Litvin - Unsplash

Guest Post by Leanna Sain—Author of Hush

Please welcome Guest Author, Leanna Sain. I hope to read her new Novel soon.

When I began reaching out to other authors about the possibility of them hosting me on their blogs to help spread the word about my new suspense novel, Hush, I had no idea I’d get such an avalanche of positive responses. Alzheimer’s, it seems, has touched way more people than I realized. Some have termed it “the long good-bye.” It’s an apt description, but I call it a thief. That’s because it’s not content with merely killing its victims. No, it steals … everything. Not just their memories, it steals all their abilities. Anything that makes them the person they are, it slowly takes it all away; then it kills them. I hate this disease with every fiber of my being.

I thank God that He gave me the ability to write. Writing was my life-vest during the final months of my mother’s life, something that kept me afloat and able to function. Because I decided to make my main character’s mother suffer from this dreaded disease, too, we were able to journey the long, lonely road together. That helped me. A lot.

Another thing that helped was deciding to donate a portion of book sales to Alzheimer’s research. Since Alzheimer’s tends to be genetic and since both my mother and her mother died from it, I’m sure you understand why I’m a bit nervous. Each time I can’t remember something, I can’t help but worry about my future. Please help me by getting your copy of Hush. You’ll not only get a good book, you’ll be helping a good cause.

Hush – by Leanna Sain

Lacey Campbell dreams murders before they happen.

As head chef for a chic restaurant and primary caregiver to a mother with Alzheimer’s, she doesn’t have time for the nightmare and at first she tries to deny it. But the next day, she discovers it's a disturbing reality. When she dreams the second heinous murder she knows it’s time to tell the police.

Detective Ford Jamison is called back to the little coastal town to help with the case and soon notices an alarming trend: the killer is using the lullaby as a “blueprint” to target women who resemble Lacey. This doesn’t slow the killings and now Lacey is afraid to fall asleep at night because the next face she sees in her dream might be her own.

As a hurricane churns ever closer to the little coastal town, danger and suspicion spin out of control. Time is running out. Can they stop the killer before the last verse of the lullaby?

Bio

Leanna Sain, earned her BA from the University of South Carolina before moving back to the NC mountains. She calls Miracle Hill Farm home, but she lives mostly in her imagination. Her Southern suspense or “GRIT-lit,” showcases her plot-driven method that successfully rolls elements of best-selling authors Mary Kay Andrews, Nicholas Sparks, and Jan Karon all together, making it her own. She loves leading discussion groups and book clubs. For more information or to contact her visit: www.LeannaSain.com

Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leanna.sain

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Leannasbooks

Website and blog: http://leannasain.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1323792.Leanna_Sain

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hush-Leanna-Sain/dp/1645262502/ref=sr_1_1?

No Bad Babies

There’s a story in the Bible about a compassionate mother willing to let her baby live with another woman. She overlooked her own personal heartache to spare her child from a tragic outcome, so he would receive a chance to live a long and happy life (1 Kings 3:16-28). Allowing another woman to raise one’s child is nothing new, and reasons are often similar today.

In adoption, the birth mother desires for her baby to have a better life than she feels she can give. She makes a courageous and unselfish decision when she allows someone else to become Mom to her child. She desires our support as she anguishes over what she believes is best for her baby.

Often the child grows up thinking there must be something wrong with them. “Why didn’t my mother want me?” “How could she give me away?” “How bad a baby was I?”

The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love
for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord,
give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”
1Kings 3:26a, NIV

As we look at the story of King Solomon’s wisdom in this circumstance, we do not see a bad baby. They may smell funny or may cry, but a baby is not terrible or unlovable. This mother loved her child, and she did not want him to die. She desired the best for her son.

I am thankful for the Cambodian mother who shared her daughter with me. She wanted to give her child a better life with plenty of food, good healthcare, and education. At the time of our daughter’s birth, her birth mother didn’t feel she could offer these things and gave from her heart. I am the one blessed by her gift.

In Cambodia there’s a mother who longs to wrap her arms around her daughter and hold her. We share a bond—two mothers loving the same daughter.

Please support birth mothers who have sacrificed so much for the future of their babies and adoptive moms who sometimes struggle to take her place. I am sure they, along with the children often caught in the middle, would appreciate our prayers.

November is National Adoption Month. Although our adoption was an international one, many children in the United States need homes and families to love them. Please consider opening your heart and home to one of these children. 

Blog adapted from a post on beyondfirst.org. Used by permission.