Kate’s Comics – Make Believe Nonsense
Kate usually provides our comic relief, but she is busy with school projects. So, I thought I’d give it a try. Enjoy!
The God of Second Chances
Let’s give Karen Malley a warm welcome to the blog! Karen has visited before, and a handful of readers reached out to tell me they were excited to check out her book Following the Sparrows. Today, Karen is sharing about her newest release and the truths woven through her novel’s themes. Welcome, Karen!
Have you ever felt like you’ve messed up so much there’s no hope for forgiveness? You’re in good company. The Bible tells of the amazing accomplishments of men and women of faith, but we also learn of their failings. I believe God includes these failings to show us we can never fall too far to be forgiven.
Consider Moses. He is best remembered as the deliverer of the Israelites out of slavery, the one to whom God gave the ten commandments, the leader of Israel. He wrote the first five books of the Bible and spoke to God face to face. Before all that, though? He murdered an Egyptian man and ran off into the wilderness to tend sheep for 40 years. When God came to tell him he would lead his people out of slavery, he made excuses.
What about David? David, the king of Israel who delivered the nation from her enemies, was called “a man after God’s own heart.” He loved God deeply and poured out his emotions in the Psalms. David also committed adultery and murder, and he failed in parenting.
The disciple Peter boldly declared his allegiance to Christ. He was the first to proclaim Jesus as the messiah. He led hundreds to Christ after Jesus’ death and resurrection. He performed miracles in Jesus’ name and was eventually martyred. When Jesus was arrested, however, Peter denied even knowing him.
Perhaps the most striking example is Paul. Paul was one of the most influential people in the early church. He started multiple churches, spread the gospel to the Gentiles, wrote more books of the Bible than any other author, and spread the gospel throughout the world through his missionary journeys. Before all that, though, he actively persecuted Christians. He spoke against Jesus and had Christians thrown in jail. Paul says the following:
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
1 Timothy 1:15-16
The Bible is full of examples of God’s forgiveness. No matter your past, whether you’re a murderer like Moses or have actively spoken out against Jesus like Paul, you can be forgiven. It’s simply a matter of asking. When you sincerely ask God for forgiveness, He offers it freely. Does that mean we’ll never mess up again? Absolutely not. It means when we do mess up, we get back up and try again. I, for one, am grateful God is a God of second chances.
A new life coming into the world disrupts Susan’s quiet life …
Susan Montgomery is used to a quiet, peaceful life managing her apartment building, where the hardest problem is her grouchy neighbor’s leaky faucet. She soon finds herself dealing with a pregnant teenage niece, a mysterious briefcase left behind by a tenant, and two very different men vying for her heart.
A near-death experience gives Mac a new outlook on life …
Christopher “Mac” MacAllister is trying to figure out how to “do the Christian thing.” As a new convert, he’s drawn to Susan’s love for life and for God. She’s nothing like the women he used to date; but can Mac compete with the guy who’s come out of nowhere and knows all the right things to say?
You can follow Karen online via her website, Goodreads, BookBub, Facebook, or Twitter.
Mother’s Day Fallout
Mother’s Day is a complicated day in our home. I didn’t cart home from the hospital the three kids that made me a mom. They did not grow in my body. They arrived, fully formed, at ages ten months, two years and three years old.
We celebrate Mother’s Day with such gratefulness that God has knit our family together through adoption. We celebrate how adoption beautifully models how God adopts and grafts us into His family. And then we mourn.
We mourn with our children for all they have lost. We grieve for what could have been—what should have been—for our children. The aftermath of Mother’s Day has always brought questions.
Why didn’t she keep me?
Why didn’t they try harder?
Why didn’t God make it right?
Who am I?
Mother’s Day after Mother’s Day after Mother’s Day, we speak of God’s goodness and our broken world. We discuss God’s sovereignty and how He takes what man planned for evil and uses it for good. We discuss a heart torn in two, between what is and what might have been, and how our God is bigger than both. We affirm His love, His plan, and how He never defaults to plan “B” because plan “A” always works.
We bend our knees to pray for the family they didn’t get to know. We thank the Lord that when unwanted pregnancies are easily terminated, our children were born to a woman that valued life. We pray for God’s mercy in her home, for His saving arm to reach down and retrieve the lost from the miry bog and set her feet on solid ground.
As the kids have aged, Mother’s Day has become less traumatic, but the grief is just below the surface. The questions are still there. Who am I?
We praise the Lord that all three of our kids have confessed Christ as their Saviour, and that decision defines them more than anything else ever will. God defines them as forgiven and clean, and God calls them holy. Col 3:12, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved…” 1 Pet 2:9, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation….”
They are holy, not because they have earned it or made themselves holy by responding to God’s call, but rather, they are holy because those adopted into the family of God are made holy by Christ. They belong to God. They are His child, and nothing can never sever that relationship.
Year after year, we witness God giving them the strength to endure their losses as they lean into Him. As they mature in Christ, we see them stand more confidently because they understand their status is secure because Jesus not only stands with them, but He stands in their place.
And every Mother’s Day I am overwhelmed afresh by the blessing it is for them to call me mom.
A few good finds
I try to get into BookSweeps when the categories are appropriate for my writing. The spring promotional, Light in the Dark: Inspirational Mysteries, Thrillers & Suspense was such a fantastic fit for Fatal Homecoming that I jumped at the chance to enter. If you like to enter contests, check out the link. The prize includes Fatal Homecoming and several other titles AND an e-reader! The contest runs from April 26-May 5.
Not a contest lover?
Maybe, you’re like me, and you don’t enter too many contests. And maybe you are wondering what a book with a title like Fatal Homecoming has to do with light of any kind.
The themes explored in my stories always relate to our faith. I’m not sure if you noticed 1 Cor 2:2 on my website homepage, “I’ve decided to show nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This is my anchor when I write, even when I write books with titles like Fatal Homecoming.
As Jessie Berns slogs through dangerous valleys in Fatal Homecoming, she comes to realize that she does not have to endure her valleys alone. Despite the absence of her physical family, God has provided a friend. Rick Chandler will not only walk with her, but he will face death to protect her. And even better than that – God will never leave her.
I don’t know what kind of valley you face, and I cannot speak into how God might resolve things for you. But I encourage you to resist the lie that you must endure your hardship alone. Find your people. Find the faith community that will walk with you, encourage you, and prepare you to stand before the Lord.
FLASH SALE:
In Too Deep
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
A cautious lifeguard and an adventurous camp director face a saboteur determined to destroy the camp.
Winner of the 2018 Word Awards for Best Christian Romance!
Forget Me Not
99 cents from April 29-May 1st through Pelican Book Group ONLY.
School secretary, Miranda Wilkins is thrilled when Paul Green walks into her life. The handsome gym coach is everything she wants in a man–except for one problem. He’s stopped trusting in a loving God.
You might also like these FREE downloads:
Due to a mild illness, Grandma Mandy sends her young friend, Jason, to meet her granddaughter, Lissa, when she arrives in New Mexico. Lissa’s attraction to him is immediate. Yet she refuses to be tempted into romance with a man in a creative profession. She knows from experience that the insecurity of his job would cause her stress. She has worked too hard, even at the expense of a guilty secret, to be the only one making a living. Nonetheless, they are brought together because of their mutual tie with Lissa’s grandmother and Lissa finds it increasingly hard to deny her growing interest in Jason. Will she be able to ignore the attraction or will her heart lead her down the path of love?
Jason also experiences an instant attraction to Lissa. However, his experience with his previous career woman girlfriend left him wary. Her devotion to her job often came before spending time with him. Can he take the chance that Lissa will be different? Does she share his devotion to God? If he takes a chance with her, will she break his heart?
There are more FREE titles on kecogan.blog and Made for Each Other is available through other providers.
Karen publisher has also put on sale Forget Me Not as a bonus for this promotion. You can find Forget Me Not
In an effort to avoid a matchmaking nightmare Heather RSVP’s two for her cousin’s wedding, without a date. Three days before the wedding, her pesky co-worker, Jake, with an obnoxious crush on her agrees to go as her fake date. Will Heather survive the evening, or even possibly see there’s more to Jake than meets the eye?
Why Homeschool?
This past year, I’ve fielded more questions about our decision to homeschool than any other time.
Our family of five has been homeschooling for about seven years. This year, our children turn 17, 14, and 13, and they will be the first to tell you that we are not perfect homeschool parents. So if you are reading this and feel overwhelmed because you are not doing this homeschool thing perfectly or you fear you could never do this homeschool thing at all, you are in good company.
Why we chose to homeschool
I never planned to be a homeschool mom. I’m a writer, novelist, and speaker. I never even considered home education as an option before we moved to Brantford, Ontario. We had great public school experiences up to that point in life, and we know and love fantastic public school teachers. Our choice to homeschool did not come as a result of a wound or a fear. Our decision to homeschool began as a practical decision.
My husband is a pastor, and we were in a transition year that took us from our public school in St Catharines to the United States for four months (where we were gifted private Christian education), then back to St Catharines to sell our house to land in Brantford, Ontario. Brantford would have been our children’s third school experience that year and fourth transition. We felt that was too much change and opted to homeschool the remaining four months. I thought that even if I were the worst homeschooling mother ever – they likely wouldn’t lose an entire year in four months with me. No one is more shocked than I am that we are still homeschooling all these years later.
Unexpected blessings through homeschool
Through homeschooling, I have grown closer with my children in a way previously unknown to me. There is a greater depth to our relationship, and it saddens me to know that I had no idea what I was missing before. My kids were gone all day with conventional school and busy with homework and sports/clubs at night, but I didn’t know anything different. I thought it had to be that way. Now we are together nearly all the time (which has its pros and cons), and I have grown to love their quirks, sense of humour, and personality traits more than ever before.
So much time together has been a blessing, but it has also been the most sanctifying and challenging experience I have ever endured. Nothing has exposed the sin in my heart more than homeschooling my children. God has used this to shed light on my selfish tendencies, my sense of entitlement, and a shocking level of personal laziness. When I went into this, I believed God would use homeschooling to grow and impact my kids, but I had no idea how much he would use it to grow and challenge me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
I’m not alone
I’ve learned that my ability to teach my children rests entirely on God’s ability to keep His promises to me. It rests on God’s ability to bring about the changes in me that He desires. It rests on God’s ability to provide for our every need in Jesus Christ.
I’ve found the homeschool community to be a tremendous encouragement. Moms further along the path have encouraged me through difficult years and offered advice and resources. We’ve cried together, laughed together, and prayed together as we sought to raise our children to be responsible and God-fearing adults. As I near the finish line of homeschool, I am challenged to pour into those just beginning. I desire to be available to answer questions and share resources that I have found helpful.
Have questions?
I’m excited to be part of the 2021 Canadian Homeschool Symposium. If you have questions – this is the conference with answers. It’s affordable ($25), it’s accessible (ONLINE), offers several workshops and allows you to interact with the speakers.
I have the privilege of opening God’s Word to 2 Chronicles 20 at this online symposium. Raising our children in the ways of the Lord and educating them to be responsible God-honouring adults is an all-in, no-holds-barred, the-enemy-fights-dirty battle. Sometimes, even after suiting up in the armour, fear spears us right through the heart. At the conference, you can journey with me through 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 in Homeschool Hardships and Humble Hearts and learn how a teacher’s character shapes the student and how you can fearlessly lead your children through battles that belong to the Lord. Click the image to visit the website and learn about the other speakers, vendors, and help available.
I hope to see you there!