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Mom and kids special!

September 29, 2011 in It's A Wonder-full Life, Loving Our Children, Relationships, Single Moms, Spirituality with 0 Comments

Especially for moms and their kids, order a copy of Rediscovering Your Happily Ever After and get a copy of Dimensions – all for $15.00. A $24.00 value, this combo delivers encouragement for moms and an inspiring adventure for kids. For memorable family fun, read Dimensions aloud.

Written by accomplished teen writer Estee Wells, award-winning Dimensions is the exciting adventure of two high school friends who are whisked into another dimension where they face an impending danger whose next target is the destruction of Earth. Previously someone had been summoned to protect the planet but when he saw the power of the enemy, had given up. Time is running out as the two boys face their own trepidation and move forward despite the odds. 

For moms, Rediscovering Your Happily Ever After is an extra large scoop of hope. Packed with tangible helps, and practical tips, this book reminds us that whatever is over our heads is under God’s feet. Whatever appears to be impossible is actually HIMpossible. With these simple steps, you can create a nurturing environment for you and your children.

Order a set for yourself and one for a friend. Made possible through a collaboration of the authors, the special package is available only until December 31. Grab this opportunity quickly!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Teen author Estee Wells has crafted a story that catches your interest from the beginning and keeps you guessing to the end. Clear your afternoon before you start this book because you won’t be able to set it down!

Best friends Austin and Daniel are at first introduced as ordinary boys living in small-town Indiana where nothing interesting ever happens. But their lives are turned around at the start of the book when an angel transports them into another dimension where they discover a sinister evil that inches closer and closer to earth. The future of all dimensions is left to these average teenagers, whether they like it or not.

Fast-pace action scenes, fantastic adventures through several different dimensions, and a powerful theme of good vs. evil make this a perfect read, and not just for pre-teens. This book would make an excellent gift for the reader in your family, young or old.

Review by Hannah Stalhut

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This book is described as being written for tweeners, but please don’t let that mislead the reader! Adults can get a lot of spiritual wisdom from this book too. It is beautifully written as an allegory with deep insight that is suprising for an author of this age.

Austin and Daniel are two boys who play video games and face real life pressures that young people face today, which makes the book relevant to the target age group that it was written for. However, the thought provoking symbolism this young author weaves into the book is for all ages.

There is Samala, the visitor who shows them that there are other Dimensions to the universe, an ancient book that helps them along the way, Evil One who tries to deceive them, and many other beautifully written treasures for the reader to discover. I think it can be read again and again and appreciated more each time. I really hope Estee keeps writing because she is a gifted author!

Review by  M. Columbini

 

 

Interview for Rediscovering Your Happily Ever After

July 8, 2011 in Loving Our Children, Relationships, Single Moms, Spirituality with 2 Comments

Log in to http://hope101.net/ and hear my interview with Lori as we discuss Rediscovering Your Happily Ever After; Moving from Hopeless to Hopeful for the Newly Divorced Mom.

Scared to Death?

April 26, 2011 in Loving Our Children, Single Moms, Spirituality, Write On with 0 Comments

Fear is the greatest hinderance to living life full blast, full out. Conquer fear through the courageous book, What to Do When You’re Scared to Death. http://amzn.to/ghWMbh

So Many Bibles To Choose From

March 8, 2011 in Spirituality with 0 Comments

I received a Bible catalog in the mail. Can you remember when we had two Bibles – KJV and one other version for the not-as-spiritual? This catalog is 68 pages of Bibles in every color for all kinds of people – women, women of color, horse lovers, addicts, ultraslim (me or the Bible?), and charismatic – again, me or the Bible? What does a charismatic Bible do? Reminds me of the Broadway Christian Church I once attended. Though the church was named for the street it was on – Broadway – each week I was distracted by the name that brought to mind images of lights and dancing in a Joseph and the Technicolor Coat fashion.

Recorded Bibles are on MP3 or CD. You can order dramatic as opposed to someone droning on and on and on. That would be a big seller.

Other options include a journaling Bible (who journals? me or the Bible?), many study versions, parallel versions, and scripture in the language of your choice. There is an Abundant Life Bible – who doesn’t want that one? I didn’t see a scarcity Bible though I know people who live in scarcity as if it is a religion.

According to the catalog, the HCSB Bible keeps me and God on the same page. Don’t know how they do that, but I will pay big money for someone to get me on the same page with God. King James comes in a Handy-size which sounds handy, but the LARGE PRINT is more my current style. Who wants just a standard size? There is the ESV Reformation Second Edition – second reformation or the book? What happened to the first? Will the third edition be out soon?

In the catalog are church hymnals with 600 hymns and 56 carols. Did you know there are 56 Christmas carols? I remember when hymnals were by threes in every church pew and every pianist had a couple floating around the house. Now we sing contemporary choruses with an occasional hymn from an overhead and you buy hymnals for keepsakes. Who knew?! There is even four pages in the catalog dedicated to pew Bibles. I wonder if there is much call for those anymore.

My kingdom for a hymnal but Bibles are now in polka dots and sized to fit any size believer. For the traditional King James Version only crowd, the 400th anniversary edition is available.

While some countries have a scarcity of Bibles, my hat is off to those who’s business it is to create a Bible that appeals to the many interests of Americans that golf, follow Maxwell, Stanley, or MacArthur, enjoy adventure, discovery, have children, or give gifts. If I don’t have a Bible I am regularly into, it is not for lack of available styles and types. With this variety to choose from, if I am not reading the Word, it’s time to get real and admit it is because I don’t want to.

Cherished is the Word

April 9, 2010 in Single Moms, Spirituality with 0 Comments

I read Scripture with two questions. Was God worthy of my trust and my heart? Does God love me? Asked to go to Nicaragua to speak at a women’s conference, I prepared my presentations based on counsel from experienced missionaries.

“They have the same questions you do.”

Worldwide, women in other countries, of other cultures and other languages, have more in common with each other than differences. They were asking the same questions I was asking.

In Central America, amidst banana and mango trees, and riotous traffic, we headquartered at a mission in the busy capital city of Managua. For two days I worked with a team providing medical care to over 300 poor Nicaraguans, mostly women and children. I took temperatures, blood pressures, bathed infected feet, distributed doctor prescribed medications, and shampooed countless heads of lice. Through broken Spanish, a couple brilliant interpreters, smiles, hugs, and gestures, we communicated and connected.

The next day our group toured the area, the market, and had an extended visit at a potter’s dirt floored home where the artisan demonstrated how he closely works with the clay he selects from the ground, mixes with measured parts of water and river sand, and shapes on his wheel. His hands cupped around the forming vessel, he removes impurities and adds his unique design and finish. Days later the beautiful piece emerges from the fire as a one-of-a-kind collector item. Just like you. Just like me.

As we traveled, always in the background was the low smoke that marked the location of the vast dump. For generations, people have lived at the dump. Mothers have been known to give their daughters to drivers in exchange for first pick of the trash collector truck. One missionary befriended a family from the dump, built them a home in a better neighborhood, and moved them to the new location. In six months the family had returned to the dump.

“Money doesn’t cure poverty,” our host profoundly explained. She should know. She and her husband have partnered in Nicaragua with local pastors for some three decades.

For the next two days our team hosted a women’s conference. Women of all ages attended from teens to abuelas (grandmothers). From my heart I expressed my insecurity around being chosen and loved by God. I viewed my relationship with the Lord through my worst experiences with people while scripture urged me to see myself through God’s loving eyes.

For Jesus to die for my sins and conquer death to give me forgiveness and eternal life with him, for God to provide his written word for me in the form of the Bible and then for me to shrug it all off, point to one or three people who hurt me and say I am not lovable, is the equivalent of someone tenderly moving me out of the dump but I hunch my shoulders and slink back.

I’ve never gone back. To dump thinking. A dump mentality regarding whether God is worthy of my trust and my heart, whether he loves me, is a deep poverty of heart and spirit. It is a poverty not cured by money. Or education.

I comb through God’s word, seeking, trusting, and believing all the great things he says about me.

“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).

“Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light” (Psalm 36:5-9).

What joy and freedom to approach life, each opportunity, and every relationship looking for proof that I am cherished by God. I can continue to choose to seek evidence that I am unloved, unwanted. Or I can believe God, take him at his word, accept his grand sacrifice on my behalf, and choose to see all the ways he proves his love to me.

Welcome to 2010, the new year and the new decade!

January 11, 2010 in It's A Wonder-full Life, Loving Our Children, Relationships, Single Moms, Spirituality with 0 Comments


“Cheshire Puss,” asked Alice, “Would you tell me, please,

which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to go,” said the Cat.

“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

Our lives are to be spent. Not to be saved. Each of us decides how we will invest our days. Today is an opportune moment to invest our life in pursuits that will outlive us.

If you could do anything, regardless of money, time, abilities, or any other hindrances, what would that be? No matter how crazy, what desire burns deep in your heart? What do you yearn to be?

Obstacles are those frightful things you see

when you take your eyes off your goal.

Henry Ford


Christmas is Not Just Once a Year

“What do you think my house looks like?” asked my mentor the first time she invited me to her home.

“Uniquely beautiful like you,” I responded.

“But what does it look like?”

“Probably classic antiques,” I guessed.

What I saw when I came through the front door still takes my breath away. Her country abode was a Christmas wonderland. The sparkling ceiling high Christmas tree was catalog perfect skirted by a pile of brightly wrapped packages.

It was summer.

“Pick a gift,” she invited.

My children and I starred at her dumbly.

She urged us closer. Gathered around the holiday tree, she distributed presents tagged with our name. Then we selected another from the unnamed beribboned gifts. Of course each item was just right.

“This is wonderful,” I said. “But I don’t understand.”

“Christmas,” she said, “is not just one time a year. Giving is not seasonal.”

For over a decade, it is always Christmas at her home. My children call her home the Christmas House. Every visitor who enters Saundra’s home chooses a gift from under the decorated tree. It is Christmas in her heart, too. She is famous for sowing what she calls seed money. Monetary gifts tucked into pockets and envelopes that she gives and encourages the recipient to pass on.

Years ago, as a single mom raising five children in a tiny Midwest town, Saundra barely kept food on the table. “In His Word, God gave keys for living,” she said. “One of those keys is give and it shall be given unto you. When I started I didn’t have the money to give. The gas and electric bills needed paid. The year I began giving, my business grew from $3,000 yearly to provide for my family and pay off my home.”

When he personally paid for a teenager’s college, Walt Disney was instrumental in launching the career of writer/producer Ken Wales, Likewise, Ken mortgaged his house multiple times to bring the story of Christy to television. Following his passion, Ken realized his dream when Christy became the most watched television show on the Easter Sunday when it debuted. Ken realized another dream when the story of William Wilberforce became a feature film titled Amazing Grace.

You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going,

because you might not get there.

Yogi Berra

Have a knowing where you want to go kind of year!

Think of standing next to a quiet pool of water.

Did I hear someone say, ‘Cannonball!’??