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!

Under a Starry Sky

Every year my church does a program called A Festival of Carols with choir, orchestra and drama. I always participate in the choir, but this year I had the opportunity to act in the drama. I hadn't done any acting since I was in high school so it was fun to get the opportunity to do this again. As an added bonus, I got to act with my husband and son, and my daughter and sister were in the choir. I even got to sing two duets with my husband. We've been singing together since before we even started dating (20 years ago) so it's something I absolutely love to have the chance to do.

The story was that my character, Melody, is excited to finally be able to have a Christmas with her husband employed so she can help others, buy gifts for the kids, etc. Unfortunately, she comes home to find that her husband has been let go. In anger, hurt, sadness and frustration, she storms off and gets in a sort of dream-like time warp thing that sends her back to Bethlehem.

She meets Mary's mother first who reminds her that everyone is on a journey and that we need to trust God. Then she meets an angel (a part of the M.O.T.H.H.s - Multitude of the Heavenly Hosts) who teaches her that, although God could incinerate all of humanity because of our fallen state, instead He opted to show us some love. Finally she meets a shepherd who takes her to the manger, but Melody is so caught up in her own problems that she completely turns her back on Jesus. The shepherd teaches her that God thinks he's "somethin'" and how precious it was that he got to see his Savior.

At this point, Melody has had enough and fully breaks down. She finds herself in a "limbo" state where she can see and hear both the past and present, but can't get to either one. She yells at God about why she's been put through all of this, being open in her pain and anger. Eventually, she realizes that she completely missed Jesus because she had been too wrapped up in her own issues. She tries to go back, but can't and ends up falling on her knees. She asks God to forgive her and thanks Him for His gift and His love. At this point, she is finally transported back home to find that the choir has come with gifts, food, and a lot of love.

While acting was a lot of fun, the thing I loved the most about this experience was seeing how it affected the people who came. I had so many people come up and tell me about how the story had spoken to them, some of them in tears. Some people were touched by the situation, because they've been in the same place. Others could relate to Melody shaking her fist at God and yelling at Him. Still others realized that they had often turned their back on Jesus figuratively when they were going through their own issues or had gotten caught up in the gifts, busyness, stress of the season and had left Jesus out of it.

There was one part that brought real tears to my eyes every night. It was when Melody realizes just how much God loves her and how little she deserves that love. Even writing it now, my eyes are tearing up. God's love isn't a romantic love, even though I am part of the bride of Christ. The love I'm talking about isn't even the paternal love He has for us, even though I can call Him Abba Father. I'm talking about the love that the God of the universe, the Almighty, sovereign, omnipotent, holy, King of kings can demonstrate for a weak, insignificant, sinful, human like me. It's that unconditional agape love - a love that I don't think humans can fully grasp. In the words of Harvey, the shepherd, "To think, God loves me. To think, He thinks I'm somethin'!" I don't know why God loves me, but I'm so thankful He does.

This Christmas I am so thankful for the love God showed us by sending His Son to earth. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). Most preschoolers can recite that verse, but oh friend, it's so true! He LOVED us! He still does. It was love that prompted Him to sacrifice His Son, send Him to earth in human form, suffer and die. Why? So we can be reconciled to Him, forgiven from our sins and one day live with Him. It was worth the cost to Him because of His great love for us.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Spend some time this day thinking about the love that God showed when Jesus came to earth. He loves you and He thinks you're somethin'.

What's in a Name?

My mom doesn't like the main character's name in my new series. She accused me of using a random name generator to name her, which I have done before, but I also don't just use the first name that pops up, and I usually only use it for minor characters. However, I didn't use a random name generator for her name, but there was a method behind my madness. This whole conversation got me thinking about how I do name my characters. It was surprising how many different methods I've used to name my characters.

In the KW Consulting series, Kate and Isabelle sort of named themselves. I don't know how else to describe it. One day when I was thinking about the characters, those names popped up, and they fit. That was the end of it. There was no debate, because it was who they were.

Georgia also named herself, but I fought it. I didn't like the name, didn't want it, but it was her name. It wasn't until I started writing her story in Smell the Roses that I realized that her dad's name was George, and she was named after him. And yes, I know that I'm the author and technically I should know these things, but I swear that sometimes my stories have a life of their own. I had no idea that was why her name was Georgia. It was definitely an "aha" moment when I figured it out.

Brooke was a little different. I knew she was a former model, and I thought of women like Brooke Burke and Brooke Burns, and that led to the creation of Brooke Bailey. It just seemed to be the right name.

Christmas Angel needed an angelic name, but not one that was completely obvious like Angel. So I combined two Christmas carols. Angels We Have Heard on High gave her the first name of Gloria and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing gave her the last name of Herald. Thus Gloria Herald was named. I have to admit, her name makes me happy, even now.

So now I'm starting a new series focusing on different holidays. The owner of the bed-and-breakfast's name is Carol Noel Holliday (this isn't the name that mom can't stand). Carol was born on Christmas day, and some family history played into her name a bit. Joel's grandma was a Christmas baby, too, and her name was Carol. I liked the way it fit with the season, but again, wasn't blatantly obvious.

Now for the name that has brought about all this reminiscing. The main character of my new book is called Willa Newman. The holiday the book centers on is New Year's (which is why I'm hoping for a January publication) so obviously her last name had to have "new" in it somewhere. But it's Willa that has caused the trouble. In the story line, Willa makes a resolution that sort of alters her course. Willa means "resolved" and that's where her name comes from.  So as you read my new book (next month?) you now have a little insight into where the names came from, and hopefully, it will make you look a little more favorably on them.