When We Ask ‘Why?’

Northern transplant Victoria Russo moves to the charming southern city of Charleston, South Carolina, from cold Connecticut, hoping to renovate her career, her life, and an old house. Instead, she faces animosity, betrayal, and calamity. Will she repeat the pitfalls of her past mistakes, or find the freedom and restoration she seeks?

By Marie Wells Coutu

Why do some people struggle through life, while others seem blessed?

I have friends and family members who struggle with health, financial, and relationship issues. Others, including my husband and me, seem to be blessed with (mostly) good health, good friends and healthy finances. And I wonder what the difference is.

Oh, wait. Sometimes I have to remind myself that we have struggled in all those areas in years past. And may in the future. We just happen to be going through calm seas right now. As one of our friends likes to say, “We’re living the good life.”

But during those times of trouble, it’s tempting to ask God, “Why?”

And that’s OK!

With thanks and apologies to one of my pastors, I am reminded of these things, based on Genesis 25 (Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau).

-God doesn’t mind if we ask Him, “Why? Why me? Why this? Why now? Why not now?” (See James 1:6).

-But God doesn’t owe us an answer. “And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason” (Ezekiel 6:10, HCSB). (Also see Job 38-41.)

--God has a plan, and His plan is always good.

We may never understand until we see the situation from the other side of life. In Corrie ten Boom’s home in Holland, there hangs an embroidered cloth with the finished side facing the wall. The ten Boom family (who were imprisoned and tortured for their role in aiding Jews during World War II) wanted to reveal the knotted, messy back side of the picture as a reminder that the Master is working out a beautiful picture, even though all we see are the tangled threads.

Sometimes, knowing what we will have to face in the future would be too difficult for us. In the words of the great philosopher Jack Nicholson, “You can’t handle the truth.”

We can ask, but we can also cling to the truth that God knows the plans He has for us—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11, HCSB).

So go ahead. Ask, “Why, God?” But then, whether you see the answer or not, trust in His plans for your future. And cling to that Hope that only He can give you.

 

Marie Wells Coutu began telling stories soon after she learned to talk. At age seven, she convinced neighborhood kids to perform a play she had written. She wrote her first book, “I Came from Venus,” in eighth grade, but studied journalism in college. After a career writing for newspapers, magazines, governments, and nonprofits, she returned to her first love—writing fiction—at the age of fifty-five. Her debut novel, For Such a Moment, won the Books of Hope Contest. Thirsting for More, the second book in the Mended Vessels series, released in April 2015. Books in the series are contemporary re-imaginings of the stories of biblical women, including Esther and the woman at the well. Marie retired after 15 years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and she and her husband now divide their time between Florida and Iowa.

LINKS TO MARIE WELLS COUTU SOCIAL MEDIA AND TO PURCHASE"THIRSTING FOR MORE"

  My website: MarieWellsCoutu.com

     Blog: MarieWellsCoutu.com/Such-a-Moment

     FB: Marie Wells Coutu (no author page yet)

     FB: Mended Vessels (Page for encouragement)

     Twitter: @mwcoutu

     Amazon page: bit.ly/AmznMarieWellsCoutu (to order books)

PEACE AFTER LOSS OF A LOVED ONE TO SUICIDE

“When our children die, we want their lives to have mattered. We long for the world to know they were here.”
   
      —Jean Ann Williams

Description of  God’s Mercies after Suicide: Blessings

By Jean Ann Williams

Woven through a Mother’s Heart is a devotional of two hundred and nineteen pages–30,000 words– and is intended for mothers who’ve lost children to suicide. This book is a friendly, approachable, inviting book that helps mothers feel welcome and at ease to allow them a peaceful time to reflect on their loss and the child they miss. Each chapter has three sections. The devotional begins with Scripture and where the author tells the story of her loss and then ends in a prayer. The second part is of the author’s anecdotes and memories of her son. The author reenacts moments in her child’s life and recalls how she felt to see the different stages of growth and challenges he faced in life. The concluding part to each chapter is a journal page for the readers to write their memories of their child. It allows them space for both memories and grieving, a prayer of praise, and a Scripture of encouragement.
   
      When a mother has lost a child, there are times when it’s hard to mingle with other people. Each God’s Mercies after Suicide chapter can be read and journaled in within the privacy of a mother’s home, giving her a bit of hope and rest for another day. The book is distinctive in that it combines coping with the pain of loss while encouraging mothers to search for their own blessings.
   
      It has been stated by sufferers of loss to suicide that the topic of suicide is taboo, and that the survivors feel they’ve been isolated from the normal hum of life. In truth, the ones left behind after the suicide do have a valid point. Included in the preface of the book is this paragraph: “I’ve written these devotions for those mothers who have shared the deep heartache of a child’s suicide. Through my writing, I believe God wants me to share from my heart to theirs, by encouraging them and giving them ways to cope. Mothers can have hope and a due measure of peace after a suicide. God has helped me, and He wants to help other mothers. The loss is horrific, but God is faithful. He brought me through this dark time, and He wants to do the same for all mothers.”

Jean Williams Short Bio
   
      Jean Ann Williams lives in Southern Oregon with her husband Jim. Although one of their children has passed on to the Great Beyond, their two remaining children have blessed them with thirteen grandchildren, their Baker’s Dozen. To learn more about Jean Ann Williams visit her on Face Book, Twitter, and her blog Love Truth, where the partial book is blogged  through installments, and Jean Ann Williams: Author blog.

Infertility Struggles: God Never Wastes Anything

By Paula Mowery

From experience, I am a firm believer in the fact that God never wastes anything, including our struggles. How often I find myself learning lessons from the trials I have been through.

This principle was also proven to me in my bout with infertility. Now, as I was going through that battle, I couldn’t see how my experience could be used. But, God is faithful and by being open to His leading, I learned some lessons as well as being used to touch others.

Looking back on those days of bitterness and depression when I couldn’t get pregnant, I now know that I was trying to be in control. So, there is lesson number one. I am not in control. God is and that is how it should be.

Another related lesson was that my timing isn’t God’s timing. God knows the plan and path He has set before me. I so often want to jump ahead or even take a different route because I want what I want now. But, God’s way is always best even if I don’t like it.

Still another lesson was God will listen and comfort. God listened when I whined and when I argued. He listened when I mourned. His Spirit comforted me at my low points.

My infertility battle wasn’t wasted since God taught me some valuable lessons, but He also allowed me to encourage others. He led me into the paths of other women suffering through this dilemma. I was able to comfort them and relate what I had learned through my experience. I could not only sympathize but empathize.

During my years of trying to get pregnant and enduring testing, I had no Godly resource to help me through. About a year ago, God brought me together with five other authors who had gone through this same battle. We have written our stories in a new devotional from Chalfont House called A Walk in the Valley.

Our prayer is that our stories will encourage other women going through this valley. See? God knew all along that we would share our infertility paths in this way. None of our experiences were wasted but used to His glory.

Paula is a pastor’s wife, mom to a college student, author, acquiring editor, and speaker. No matter the hat she wears, she strives to honor God’s plan even if it means going out on a limb and leaving comfort zones. Reviewers have characterized her writing as “thundering with emotion.” Her book, Be The Blessing, won the 2014 Selah Award in the novella category. Paula enjoys reading and reviewing Christian fiction, writing Christian romance and devotionals, and helping other authors realize their dream of publication.  

You can follow Paula at www.facebook.com/pages/Paula-Mowery/175869562589187. Learn more about Paula at her blog at www.paulamowery.blogspot.com or enjoy her monthly columns on www.christianonlinemagazine.com.

What we can learn from Spring Flowers--Plus a World War II spy triology.

By Carole Brown

Throughout January, February and March I’ve read a lot of complaints about the weather and probably made a few myself. Too, too cold.  Too much snow. Too gloomy. Too cloudy. I wish the sun would shine. I wish the rain would go away . . . The snow would quit . . . The clouds would vanish.

Good news. Spring is here! Rain, yes, but an encouraging rain--it’s APRIL, after all! You know the old saying: April showers bring May flowers. And sometimes we get a few of those glories in April too.

What are a few things we can learn and embody from spring flowers? Let’s see:

                                                                                                                                                                                           Apple blossoms: Promise.

This is a good one. Read the scriptures and find (if you don’t already have one) a promise for this spring throughout summer and the rest of the year--for you. Promise yourself some new attitude, some new adventure, that new idea--the beginning of a book started. Promise yourself to be more appreciative of everyday, which may not always be good, BUT there’s ALWAYS something good in that day. Draw comfort and peace from that.

 Crocus: Foresight

One definition for the word “foresight” is giving careful thought for the future. It does us good to check on our heart now and then. Not physically, but spiritually. Do we still prize our relationship with God more than anything? Do we love to spend time reading His word to us, communing with him?

Do we also have the foresight to realize that that book won’t get written without at the least a few words a day typed? Do we advance our work by researching, plotting, or sharing with our critique groups?
             

ŸViolet: Faithfulness.

Stay by the stuff. In other words, be true and faithful to God, of course, but to your family and your friends. Cherish every moment. Treasure the little things as well as the big. A child brought you a dandelion? Take a picture of you, the child and the flower. It will mean the world to the child and satisfaction to you. Someone shared a smile with you? Return the smile. Your father told the same joke again? Realize that small annoyances now will be precious memories someday. Shut your eyes and relish his voice and appreciate the effort he made to bring laughter to his loved ones’ hearts.

Most of all, be faithful to YOU! Don’t take on too much. Learn to say no, but always be willing to do what you can faithfully perform. Whatever God has asked you to do, do it with all your might and ability. Rest. Relax. Be strong.

  Star of Bethlehem: Hope

I love these small but beautiful star-shaped flowers. They do indeed give off the essence of hope. Hope for the day, right now. Hope for the future, tomorrow. Hope that breeds faith that I will stay close to my God. That I will continue to work diligently toward my goals. Don’t lose hope, but hold tight to that which you have and allow yourself to cling to a hope that Spring and the flowers share with us every year.

See what else bloomed in Carole's garden. A spy Triology!

Brown not only has her award winning (RWA International Digital Award finalist, Clash of the Titles Laurel Awards finalist, Selah finalist; Genesis semi-finalist) debut novel, The Redemption of Caralynne Hayman, available for purchase now, but a companion book called West Virginia Scrapbook: From the Life of Caralynne Hayman, filled with tidbits of information about West Virginia, quotes, recipes from West Virginia and from Caralynne’s life, pictures and discussion questions for the novel.

November, 2013, the first book in her mystery series, Hog Insane, released. It’s a fun, lighthearted novel introducing the characters, Denton and Alex Davies.

Releasing November, 2014, is the first book in a new WWII romantic suspense series: With Music In Their Hearts. Three red-headed sisters. Three spies. Three stories.

Besides being a member and active participant of many writing groups, Carole Brown enjoys mentoring beginning writers. She loves to weave suspense and tough topics into her books, along with a touch of romance and whimsy, and is always on the lookout for outstanding titles and catchy ideas. She and her husband reside in SE Ohio but have ministered and counseled nationally and internationally. Together, they enjoy their grandsons, traveling, gardening, good food, the simple life, and did she mention their grandsons?

Connect with her here:

Personal blog: http://sunnebnkwrtr.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaroleBrown.author

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/browncarole212

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sunnywrtr/boards/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5237997-carole-brown

Carole also is part of several other blogs:

Stitches in Time:  http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/

Barn Door Book Loft: http://www.barndoorbookloft.net/

Earth Day: A CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Western Colorado

By Ada Brownell

The need to care for the earth has awakened in America and now is taught from kindergarten through college. Along with that awakening comes resentment against Genesis 1:28 where God said to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing.”

What is God’s and the Christian’s view?

The Bible not only speaks of dominion, but also of responsibility, respect and stewardship of nature. Dominion can be interpreted to mean “loving care, such as parental authority.”

      Christians often take the lead when it comes to preserving human life, especially the lives of the unborn, but are not noted for being tree and mouse lovers. But most understand we endanger ourselves when we endanger the ecosphere.

      Albert Schweitzer, a theologian/philosopher of the last century, said reverence for life is connected with the individual’s will to live.

      “If I am a thinking being, I must regard other life than my own with equal reverence,” Schweitzer said.”[1]

      The Bible teaches us to respect life. After all, our Heavenly Father—not Mother Nature—created all the ecosystems in the beginning. He gave us guidance in Old Testament laws about how to care for the environment. However, just as nature has natural systems which need to stay in a state of equilibrium and disturbing one element could affect the whole earth, our beliefs about the environment also need balance.

My adopted grandson

      In Deuteronomy 15-20, we are warned not to worship nature. Making idols of any animal, bird, creature or fish is forbidden. “When you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them.” The Lord condemns such worship as an “abomination.”[2]

      Likewise in Isaiah 1:29, the prophet says “You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted.”  God’s people knew that meant not to worship them.

Here are some of the biblical views of ecology:

·         The land is to rest every seven years. “For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops.  But in the seventh year the land is to have a Sabbath of rest.” (Leviticus 25:3-4).

·         Don’t cut down trees unnecessarily. “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. However, you may cut down trees that you know are not fruit trees and use them to build siege works until the city at war with you falls” (Deuteronomy 20:19-20).

·         Be compassionate to animals. “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4). “If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it” (Exodus 23:5 “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10).

·         Respect birds. “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it” (Matthew 10:29NLT).

·         Respect the earth and its Creator. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s

My granddaughter on the mountain that overlook Albuquerque

foundation? Who stretched a measuring line across it? Who shut up the sea behind doors, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness? Have you ever shown the dawn its place? The earth takes shape like clay under a seal. Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? What is the way to the abode of light? Where does darkness reside? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or seen the storehouses of the hail? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it. Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food? “ (Selected from Job 38).

·         Turning away from God affects the land. “Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites; because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land. There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away, the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying” (Hosea 4:1-3).

·         God blesses the crops of the obedient.  “’You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the Lord Almighty.

·         Nations who support Israel:  “Then all the nations will call you blessed for yours will be a delightful land,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Malachi 6:3-12). “For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8).

In the beginning when God inspected His work, He said, “It is good.”

      Life, indeed, is precious and good. God shows us through His Word to respect it and all of His creation. No matter how careful we are  to prevent pollution, sometimes environmental contamination occurs. We can mourn an oil spill, dumping of harmful chemicals, and sometimes help with cleanup. Nevertheless, we should not worship the earth or our environment.

      But when we have a disaster, we can pray for those involved in cleanup and restoration; for wisdom for those working in the technical aspect of the cleanup; and for those whose lives and livelihoods are affected.

 Ada Brownell, a free lance writer and retired newspaper reporter, has written numerous stories on the environment and with Dennis Darrow received the 1994 Colorado Associated Press Editors and Reporters first-place environment award for a series that appeared in The Pueblo Chieftain.

---

[1] “The Ethics of Reverence for Life,” Albert Schweitzer, Christendom,  1936, 225-39

[2] Deuteronomy 17:2-4

What does your laughter say about you?

WHAT DOES YOUR LAUGHTER SAY ABOUT YOU?

By Cristine Eastin

Title: Telltale Laughter

A person’s laughter says a lot about them:

• Linda shields her mouth with her fingers. She's self-conscious about her teeth.
• Faye laughs through taut lips, and she rarely cuts loose with a big laugh. She's uptight.
• Don throws his head back and gives out a hearty guffaw. He thinks life's a hoot.
• Phil rarely laughs at all. Just a smile and a bemused, "Huh." He's got heavy emotional baggage and doesn't want to call attention to himself.
• Brad titters. He's nervous and unassertive, and his words don't seem appropriate to his laugh. His smile is a deflection for the upset he feels.
• And Nancy laughs so hard, tears run down her cheeks, and her face turns a shade of radish. She enjoys laughing with friends and isn't the least bit self-conscious.

See what I mean? When I write my novel

Cristine Eastsin

characters, or when I'm working with my psychotherapy clients, laughter gives clues as to what they're about. (The truth is, I notice people everywhere. My psychotherapy meter isn't always running, but I can't switch off my brain.)

We don't know what's in a person's head, but laughter language helps us guess at understanding her, helps us relate to him—laugh with them.

Laughter can be a sort of personal signature. My dad's laugh was distinctive, I guess. I didn't notice because it was so familiar, but it's one of the things my husband fondly remembers and imitates about my dad.

Then there was the teen girl in Barnes and Noble—I swear this is true—who had a laugh like machine gun fire. And she shot frequent volleys. Otherwise, she looked normal, so I wonder how in the world she developed a rat-a-tat-tat laugh. Fodder for a writer to put that character together.

Laughter is a universal language. What will you be saying the next time you laugh? What did your friend say? What will the character you write say with her laugh?

Book Description: “Fifty Days to Sunrise"

Her life is a love story, but then…

What’s a woman to do when her husband

dies three thousand miles from home?

Scream, cry—or run.

It’s 2003, a year and a half after her husband’s death.

Fifty-three years old and alone, Lissa Maguire’s 

seething with grief. She has to cope, but makes 

a self-destructive mess of it.

Lissa’s parents ask her to spend the summer in 

small-town Gifford, Minnesota, helping them move to an apartment. 

Cleaning out the attic of her childhood 

home, Lissa discovers her old diaries, and her 

potholed road to healing begins. But when an 

old friend turns up, she’s confused.

Her life in shreds, Lissa desperately needs to find 

peace. She even wonders if God has abandoned her.

Healing a broken heart is a lot to ask–it hurts.

Author Bio

Cristine Eastin, PhD is a psychotherapist when at the office, but she’s also a wife, stepmother, and grandma. 

Cris has two grown stepchildren, a son-in-law, and two grandchildren; her husband, Dave, is a psychologist. The family includes two rescue cats and an Australian shepherd.

Raised in Minnesota, Cris is a grafted in Wisconsinite with a heart of woods and water.

She keeps busy collecting hobbies. For instance, in winter she’s on the ski slopes, and in summer she might be kayaking. And in between she’d love to be visiting Scotland or England.

Cris works, lives, and writes by the motto “…because you can’t pour from an empty pitcher.”

Member of American Christian Fiction Writers.

Fictional character interviews? Also HOW TO LOVE YOUR HUSBAND and QUIET MOMENTS WITH GOD

By Donna Schlachter

“Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. . . “ 

When I sit down to create characters for a new project, this tune runs through my head. This is one truth writers ought to embrace: we need to know our characters better than anybody in our book does. Better than our readers will know them by the time they finish reading.

If we don’t know our characters, we’ll tend to write flat, one-dimensional people, like paper dolls who are simply wearing an outfit called “their story”, and are as interchangeable as—well, a paper doll.

Another danger in not knowing our characters is we’ll write three chapters getting to know them, wasting paper and the reader’s time as we plow our way through their backstory, their history, until we finally get to the point where our story really starts, about halfway through Chapter 4.

There are many methods to get to know your characters. Some of these require you to sit down and fill out a questionnaire that would cause most of us to lose our minds or at the very least, our excitement about our stories. While the details and minutiae of these questionnaires might work for some, many of us will struggle to answer what our character’s third grade teacher said that made him decide to become a private investigator twenty years later.

Bored with filling out forms, making up answers to questions I hadn’t even thought of, and wanting to get on with the process of writing, I came up with a faster and more direct way to get to know my characters—I interview them.

I pretend I’m a famous talk show host and my character is a guest on my show. As a famous talk show host, I know everybody in the world will want to hear what I have to say and how I can make my character squirm on live TV. So I come up with questions that will cause said squirming because I know how the story goes and what secrets my character is trying to keep.

Go ahead. Be catty. Be devious. Dig up the dirt. What would someone who reads one of those supermarket tabloids want to know about your character? And why would your character not want to tell the truth, not want to break a confidence, not want you to know everything about them? Because characters are real people, and real people rarely tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Even good people hide some things, hold back some things, try to make themselves look good perhaps at the expense of another.

Here is a list of questions I typically ask to get started:

1. How did you get the job you have?
2. What’s your background that qualified you for that job?
3. Tell me about ___________ (the inciting incident in the book).
4. Tell me about ___________ (could be the love interest, the villain, the hero/heroine. Whoever is making this character’s life difficult or messy in some way)
5. Tell me about ____________ (whatever you know your character doesn’t want to talk about. A past hurt, a secret, a rumor, an innuendo – anything that will make it look like this character isn’t telling all)
6. Bring up a topic that’s in the news now, and tie it into this character and the plot in some way. For example, if the character is a forest ranger, and poaching by forest rangers is in the news, ask what he thinks should be done to poachers and then what should be done to poachers who are also guardians of the woodland. Watch him squirm.
7. Ask what the character sees in his/her future.

By the time you ask and your character answers these questions, you should have a good idea of what motivates your character, what scares your character, what your character is trying to hide and why, the lie your character believes, what the internal and external conflicts are, and the growth arc of your character.

Feel free to drop by my blog and see a couple of character interviews I’ve posted there about the main characters of my historical suspense, Counterfeit Honor. Here are the links: https://historythrutheages.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/interview-with-margaret-buchanan/ and https://historythrutheages.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/interview-with-trevor-mcgonigle/

Quiet Moments Alone with God welcomes you into a journey of discovery, where you will

learn how to live in God's presence while you seek His plan for your life. Plan to spend some time getting to know the God Who wants you to stop, breathe, think, and act out His very best for you.

Available at Amazon.com and ChristianBooks.com.
100 Answers to 100 Questions About Loving Your Husband: You've said, "I do." Now, how do you love your husband in a way that brings honor to him, to yourself, and to the God who gave you the gift of marriage? This book provides the insights you need in the areas that matter most to you.

Available at Amazon.com and ChristianBooks.com.

The bio is:

Donna writes historical suspense and, using her alter-ego of Leeann Betts, she writes contemporary suspense. Check her out at www.HisStoryThruTheAges.com or www.LeeannBetts.com. Subscribe to her blogs at www.HiStoryThruTheAges.Wordpress.com or www.AllBettsAreOff.Wordpress.com You can follow her and Leeann on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr.