and the winner is…
I’ve got some kind of coughy, chest hurting, want-to-curl-up-in-bed kind of thing going on today. I’ll be back tomorrow, but I did want to announce the winner from the Discerning Direction post last Tuesday. The winner is….
Tomorrow I’ll be back and we’ll discuss The Crossroads: When You’re Going in Circles.
Have an amazing day, friends.
Discerning DirectionIf you are joining me from Encouragement for Today’s devo, I’m so glad you did. Maybe you dropped by today because you are stuck right in the middle of a crossroads — unsure of where to go, or what direction or move is the right one.
I’ve created a devo for you to print out called Discerning Direction. It takes you right to a crossroads I had to cross, and offers six questions to help you know if you are making a good decision. Download it, share it with friends, take it to your Bible study group, or just have a one-on-one with God as you go through it.
Discerning Direction (click to download)
I hope you will consider leaving a comment so I can pray with you today. I promise that I’ll pray over each person and each crossroads. Do I have the answers you need? No, but I know Who does.
I’ll also send an autographed copy of my book, Making It Real: Whose Faith Is It Anyway, to one of you that leave a comment.
Be sure to leave your email address (I’m the only one who will see it) so that I can contact the winner!
Blessings,
Suz
PS: It’s 12:47 p.m. and after reading many of the comments, I want to take this deeper. Is that okay with you?
For the next few days we’ll address some of the issues you brought up. What does Scripture have to say about it? How do you live it out the next day? Are there tangible changes or choices that can be made? What do you do when there doesn’t seem to be?
I hope you’ll come back tomorrow through Friday. We’ll dig deeper together, okay friends?
Suzie
I’ve been a bit of a baby lately
“Why is this so hard?”
“Why can’t I just come up with a title?”
“Why won’t THEY hear what I’m saying?”
I hate to admit it, but I’ve been a bit of a baby this past week. I’ve been stuck. Oddly enough, stuck on a title for a book about “being stuck”.
The night before a message from my agent landed in my in-box. “Try again,” she said.
Again? Really? I could have written the book by now.
I was discouraged. I shut my laptop down and turned on a Hallmark TV movie, hoping to be inspired, or at least distracted.
Last night Richard and I went to the evening service. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do that. Our church is a 90-mile round trip, family has been in, Richard has had to study… lots of reasons to keep us away on Sunday night.
But I wanted to go. I needed to go. I looked forward to seeing friends, to worship, to something anything besides brainstorming for a title.
Pastor stood in the pulpit. “Did you know that the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul had to pray one week for a title for his book?” he said.
What?
He went on to share how one of the founders of Chicken Soup was in angst over a title. And every title he came up with just wasn’t good enough.
He decided to pray for a week. When Chicken Soup came to him, he resisted. Why would his grandmother’s soup be a good title?
People are sick, he thought. That’s why. They need something warm, something uplifting for the spirit.
No, the soul.
The right title was key. That first book sold 200,000 copies. Now the series has sold millions of copies.
I sat in the pew, shaking my head. What were the odds that the Sunday evening I attended the sermon would be about finding a title for a book?
I’ve resisted. I’ve whined. I’ve been discouraged.
But this title matters. So I’ll go back to the drawing board prayer room. I’ll ask for help from the One who knows the name of every beautiful reader who will pick up the book because they feel stuck.
Father, have I mentioned lately how much I love You? I do.
And
…and the winners are
Patricia of http://www.caregivingandbeyond.blogspot.com/
Leigh France of http://www.leighfrance.blogspot.com/
Please send me your mailing address at tseller@daretobelieve.org and your autographed copy of Real Issues, Real Teens: What Every Parent Needs to Know will go out in the mail asap!
When God Turned Off the LightsEvery once in a while a person comes into your life that absolutely changes you.
Cec Murphey is one of those people in my life. He’s my mentor, and there are several others who would say the same thing. He’s direct. He’s caring. And he’s the youngest 70+ year old I’ve ever met.
I was hanging out with Cec in Montana at a writer’s retreat last year. It was fun to watch him in action. He personally enriched the writing dreams of 10 people from all over the nation who had come to sit under his teaching. He was energetic. He started his day with a run every single morning while the rest of us spit out a few zzzz’s under the cover.
He has written over 100 books. I would give an exact number, but every time I do another one has come out.
I am privileged to review and read his latest: When God Turned Off the Lights.
Cec suggests that there are three choices when the lights go out:
1) we can give up,
2) we can examine ourselves for sin or failure, or
3) we can accept that God has hidden His face from us for a purpose.
It’s a topic that a lot of people don’t want to talk about, but if you are the one sitting in the dark it’s all you can think about.
Cec gently and honestly shares his experiences, and how he made the most of his time in the darkness and chose the latter two responses, because he wasn’t about to give up.
I read a lot of books and every once in a while I come across one that is so honest that I mark it “Suzie’s” and put it on the bookshelf to read again—and again.
This is one of those books.
Have you ever felt that God turned off the lights? If so, I’d recommend that you invest in this powerful resource and invite my friend, Cec Murphey, to join you in the darkness as he shows you the Light.
Check out the book (you can read an excerpt online).
Bo’s Cafe
Stephen is out of control. He’s angry and his wife and daughter never know when he’s going to blow it. He’s 34, a top executive and has the car and the cash and the beautiful house.
What he doesn’t have is peace, or answers.
He keeps trying to fix his temper. He and Lindsey fight. One of them walks out. His daughter retreats.
Then they start all over again.
One day he runs into a friend of his dad’s in a bar. A retired guy who wears a Hawaiian shirt and shorts and drives an old Buick Electra, Stephen is positive this guy has nothing to offer.
The old guy invites him to Bo’s Cafe, a colorful restaurant on the cove with even more colorful characters, and there he finds acceptance. Stephen starts his journey toward healing, though it’s not an easy road, and in an entirely different direction than he wants to go.
Bo’s Cafe is a fictional story that was easy to read and reminded me of books like The Noticer, Shack, and others that delve less deeply into a plot than it does a message.
Read an excerpt.
Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker, columnist, and author T. Suzanne Eller shares how to live free when you've felt broken, how to nurture family regardless of the obstacles, and how to deepen intimacy with a relevant and life-changing Savior.
