The Good News

This is my favorite holiday of the year. It's not as flashy as Christmas or as romantic as Valentine's Day, but Easter is the holiday with the most meaning for me. It's not about the eggs, the chocolate, the baskets or the new dresses (although I enjoy all those things). This holiday is all about the good news of Jesus.

When God created the world it was good - it was very good, but it didn't stay that way. Sin entered the world and death through sin. Ever since humanity has been plagued by illness, pain, violence, and death. We struggle to do what is right, but we want to do what is wrong and this battle affects every single person who has ever walked this earth - except one.

God gave humans a picture of what would eventually save us from our sins and reunite us with Him. He instated a sacrificial system, showing that the payment for sin was too high for anyone to pay. For centuries innocent lambs were killed, a foreshadow of what was to come.

Then one day, Jesus was born. He fulfilled prophecy in his birth and life. He was fully God and fully man. He alone was perfect though He was tempted in every way like we are. He came to fulfill the law, to save mankind, but there was only one way He could do that.

When the time was right, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the excitement of all who thought He was going to save them - from Rome. They wanted a political hero, not a spiritual Savior. In a matter of days they would turn on Him. He celebrated His final Passover on earth with his disciples (a celebration that pictured what was soon to occur), and one of His own sold Him out for thirty pieces of silver.

Jesus prayed that  God would remove the cup from Him. He experienced emotional, mental and physical agony as He struggled with what was to come, but when it came time to be arrested, He went willingly. His trial was unfair and yet He didn't say word. He was sentenced to death, and not just any death, death by crucifixion - a death so tortuous, so vile, so agonizing that there wasn't a word strong enough to describe the pain it inflicted. So they invented a new word - EXCRUCIATING. It was such a horrible way to die that it was reserved for only the worst of the worst, and Roman citizens were exempt from ever facing it.

Jesus was flogged, beaten in a way that would have shredded His back. Many people didn't even survive the beating that Jesus took because the loss of blood was so great. Then He was forced to carry His own cross to Calvary, only He was so weak from the beating that He couldn't do it. Instead, a man was pulled from the crowd to carry it for Him. He was hung on the cross with nails and each statement He uttered from the cross would have been done in agony since He was slowly, painfully suffocating to death. While He was on the cross, every sin that had ever been committed or ever would be was placed on Him and for the first time, Jesus was separated from God. That was the worst part of the entire thing for Jesus. He bore the weight of our sin even though He had never sinned. When it was finished, He laid down His life and died.

If the story ended there though, there would be no good news. No matter if Jesus was a good man, a good teacher, a prophet - none of it would matter if Sunday had never come. If Jesus was still in a grave, we would be lost forever. But He is no longer there! He is risen! And with His resurrection death lost all of it's power, sin was conquered once and for all, and humans and God could finally have their relationship restored.

The Good News is this:
Christ died, was buried and rose again - and He's coming again!

There's nothing better than that.

Hallelujah! He is risen indeed!

Slacking Off

I haven't written a blog post in almost a month. I also have not written much in the Christmas novella I'm currently writing. If you think that this mean that I've been slacking off - well, you'd be right. I can make excuses: I've been busy, my aunt was in town, I needed to clean my house - and they're all true, but the reality was that, for the first time, I just really didn't want to write anything.

It wasn't writer's block either. I knew where I wanted my story to go and how I was going to get it there. I just had no desire to sit down and do it. When I did try to write, I'd generally do it when there was a lot going on around me and use being unable to focus as an excuse to put the computer away.

There are two things that I think have been part of this. The first is that I'm writing a Christmas novella right now, which means that it technically doesn't need to be done until the end of the year. The second book of the Holliday Hotel series isn't coming out until next February giving me plenty of time (or so I think) to slack off and still get it done. It's a dangerous thing to have due dates that are so far away.

The second is that since I'm self published I don't have anyone setting deadlines or checking in on me. In some ways, that's really nice, but when I'm sort of struggling, I don't have any outside motivation to get it done. It all has to come from within. Not always very easy.

Yesterday I think I had a break through. I had about 45 minutes, and I decided that I needed to just sit down and write. So I did. Turns out that once I got back in a rhythm of writing, it starting flowing pretty easily, and once that time was up, I actually wanted to write more. Today, I sat down and wrote again. Thankfully, it was just as easy as yesterday, and I feel like maybe I'm getting back into the swing of things. Now I still had to tell myself not to pick up the craft that I'm working on and pick up my computer instead, but once I got into it, I was thankful that I had made the decision that I had.

I saw a quote by Anne Tyler that said, "If I waited till I felt like writing, I'd never write at all." I think I need to post that on my wall, my desk and my computer. Writing isn't always done because I feel like it. Sometimes it can be a chore and sometimes it can feel like work (gasp!) but I still  need to do it. It hasn't been a great writing month, but I think I've learned from it. Hopefully, that will help me develop further in my journey.

What is Love?

Valentine's Day is past. A day to celebrate love. As a romance author, and just someone who appreciates romance, I enjoy celebrating with my husband. I also enjoy the chance to tell my kids that I love them. It's an excuse to tell them something that I hope they already know.

In this world though, I think we've confused what love actually is. We love our family, love our jobs, love our coffee, love our pets, love our homes, love our clothes, love a celebrity - the list goes on and on. Honestly, we've watered down love to the point that people can't see what it really is. It's a feeling that can disappear as quickly as it started. It's passion that can fizzle out. It's whatever we want to make it because who is anyone else to tell you that it's not love.

Here is what love is.  "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) This is more than romantic love. This is true love. It's a love that never, ever fails. I don't know about you, but sometimes I'm not patient with those I love. Sometimes I can be envious of someone I love. Sometimes (a lot of times) I can insist on my own way. And way too often I'm irritable. So this love cannot come from within myself. I don't have the capacity in me to love in this way. Fortunately, it doesn't have to. This love comes from God. This passage is a portrait of what true love looks like and it looks a lot like Jesus Christ. He was patient and kind with his followers. He didn't envy anyone because He was God, but He also didn't boast about His position. Instead He humbled Himself. He was never arrogant or rude. He didn't insist on His own way, but did the will of His Father. He bore all the sin of the world and endured the cross. That's true love. 

Humans tend to love people who love them in return, but God loved us when we were still His enemies, lost in our sin. Humans can stop loving others, but God's love never ends. Humans have a capacity for love, but God is love. Humans think that love is indulgent, but God knows that sometimes love is chastisement and discipline. Humans can love their things, their beliefs, their status more than people, but God knows that there is nothing more precious than a human soul. 

I don't know about you, but I want that love. As much as I love my husband, he isn't capable of giving me that kind of love. He's human and sometimes he won't demonstrate all those attributes. He may get impatient with me or irritable. He may even be rude or unkind at times. And I can't give him that perfect love any more than he can give it to me. We can only get that love from God. 

I want to demonstrate that love though. I want to love my family this way, my husband, my children. I want to love my neighbors, my church family, strangers with this kind of love. I even want to be able to love my enemies with this kind of love, because that's what Jesus called us to do. But I can't do it on my own. In Galatians chapter 5, love is the first virtue listed in the fruit of the Spirit. When I am close to Christ, and allowing the Spirit to work in my life, I can demonstrate this love. When I try to do it on my own, I will fail. I love Him, because He first loved me. When I love Him, His love can shine through my life. When His love shines through me, the world will notice, because it will be unlike anything they've ever known before. This is love.

Dedication: Resolution Room

On January 2, 2015, my grandfather passed away. As I was writing Resolution Room, it seemed obvious that the dedication would be in memory of my grandpa. I think New Year's day will always remind me of him from now on as each one will mark another year that he has been gone.

I already wrote a blog post about how much grandpa influenced our family and what he meant to me last year. With that, I didn't want this post to be just a repeat of that one. I was thinking back, trying to come up with something to write about, and I realized something. That trip back to Iowa for my grandpa's funeral was - fun. It seems odd to say that you had a good time going to a funeral, but it really was. So what was it that made it so enjoyable?

Putting Arizonans in Iowa during winter is always amusing - just as amusing as putting Iowans in Arizona during summer! My parents, my sister and I have lived in Arizona for twenty-five years and the cold just penetrated our bones. And last year, it was eighty degrees in Arizona in January! Quite a shock to the system to go to twenty below! But as humorous as that was, that wasn't it.

We got to see lots of family and friends. People that we hadn't seen for years were there, and it was wonderful to catch up. It was great to be with family that we don't know how long it will be until we see them again, to get to meet little ones that we've only seen pictures of, to play games as a family. Although that was enjoyable, that wasn't it either.

The reason why his funeral could be a time of celebration, a time of joy was simple. We know we'll see him again. Better than that, we know that he is healthy and whole once again. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 say this, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." The "fallen asleep" refers to death. Yes, we grieved when my grandpa died - there were tears shed when I found out, tears at the service and the graveside, there have been tears since - but we have hope. Not a vague oh-I-hope-I-hope, but an assured hope. That body that they buried no longer contained the spirit that was my grandpa. It was just his shell. His spirit went to meet his Savior and although it was a sad start of the year for us, it was the best way that he could have started the year.

You can have that hope as well. 1 John 5:11-13 says "And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." God wants us to know that we have eternal life in Him. There are no balance scales in heaven for all our good works to go on one side and all our bad works to go on the other side. The Bible says that the good things we do (our righteousness) is like disgusting, filthy rags to God. Even if we had a mountain of good works on one side and just one sin (lying, disobedience, cheating, etc) on the other side, the good wouldn't outweigh the bad. We can't earn our way to heaven - not by giving money, going to church, reading the Bible, helping at charities, being baptized, taking communion - none of it counts. There's only one thing that we can do. Romans 10:9 tells us, "because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." That's all there is to it. 

My grandpa believed in Jesus and served Him his whole life. He wanted others to know Jesus as well. I'm sure that he would be pleased that the dedication of my book to him led me to retell that old story that he loved so much.

Taking Note

My friend, Meghan, gave me this journal for Christmas in 2002. I only know this because I wrote the date on the inside cover. Her idea was that I would write a story in the journal and then share it with her. My first entry was dated September 2004, and I had decided to make it a devotion journal - and apparently I was hit and miss in writing in it. I used it for about a year and then moved on to something else. It's sat with only those entries in it until recently when I found a new use for it - a little more along the lines of what it was intended for.

While writing the KW Consulting series, I found that there were small details that I could never remember. Inevitably, when I was writing the next book, I would have to go back to the previous book to check on how many kids Brooke's brother had and did I name them? Or how old was Mark's sister and how did I spell her name? These things kept coming up and it was frustrating to not be able to just have it at my fingertips.

So, when I started editing Resolution Room, I decided to write down names, relationships, ages, employment, etc. of anyone and everyone in the book. Now when I start to write the second book, if I have a question about Carol's daughters or her friend or her friend's family, I have it all written down in one place. It only took me writing five books to figure out such a simple solution, but at least I figured it out.

Meghan, your gift didn't really go the way you had planned it, but it is definitely helping me write some stories for you to read. Thank you, my friend!

In case you didn't know, Resolution Room is now available on Kindle. You can find it by clicking the link below.

Resolution Room

Facebook Page

I was able to get my Facebook page up and going, and I'm very happy with how it's been going. Facebook gave me a starting goal of getting fifty likes, and I achieved that the first day! Since then I've been trying to get to one hundred. I'm at ninety-three right now so I'm getting close!

I plan on using my page to make announcements and updates, communicate with readers, post my blog, and even do some giveaways. I really do like hearing from my readers - whether it's encouragement, criticism, praise, or just something fun. I've been posting each book from the KW Consulting series and asking some questions and it's been fun to see the few responses that I have gotten. If you see me ask a question on the page, please take a moment and answer it. I love seeing what you have to share.

If you think of a way that I can improve my page, please let me know that as well. This is still all new to me, and I'm learning. I know that I can learn a lot from listening to my readers. If you haven't liked my Facebook page yet, you can go to it by clicking here.

This will (hopefully) be my last update in a blog post. All updates from now on will be on my Facebook page. I have received some edits back, and I'm hoping to begin working on those tonight. I'm really hoping to have the first book of Holliday Hotel published by the middle of the month. Right  now I'm waiting on two of my editors to finish. When they finish and I've gone through their notes, I can published Resolution Room. I'm looking forward to finishing it up and getting it up on Kindle.

If you've already liked my page, please invite others on your friends list that you think will like it as well. Thank you for your support! It means a lot to me!

2016

The new year is here! I am excited about some new things coming up in this year. I am starting a new series (which hopefully will be published this month), I started writing a Christmas novella to be published around Thanksgiving, and I'll be starting a Facebook page dedicated to my journey as an author (blog posts, updates, and give aways). I can't wait to see where this year takes me on my journey.

First, though, is the publication of Resolution Room in the new Holliday Hotel series. I've enjoyed creating a new line of characters and a new situation. I'm looking forward to seeing if others like it as well. I'm very excited to reveal my new cover art. Killer Covers did a great job once again and I love the result.

Have a wonderful 2016!