Monday, July 07, 2014

DON'T BE AFRAID TO PRAY SPECIFIC PRAYERS---by Guest Author Vickie McDonough



Have you ever noticed how God is in the details? Just look at a beautiful flower like a hibiscus, and imagine God forming each minute detail with His finger. Or what about a butterfly’s wing, with its lovely colors and symmetrical spots? Even a simple leaf illustrates in its veins and lines how detail-oriented God is.

I recently saw God moving in our lives in a special way. A few weeks ago, my husband and I went with our son to a college town an hour and a half from ours to help him find an apartment to live in this next year while he’s attending grad school. We had the names of several complexes that people had recommended, but each of those was already full with a waiting list. The more the day progressed, the more disappointed we became.

We stopped for a late lunch and prayed that God would lead us to a place for Sean. That afternoon, we found an apartment that was newly remodeled, with all new furniture. The complex had a pool and gym and security systems on each apartment, and even a shuttle he could ride to the campus—and the cost was less than anything we’d looked at all day.

Sean really liked it and signed a lease agreement. We drove home happy and relieved, and Sean was able to see God answered our prayers very quickly. I love it when God shows our children how He’s at work in their lives.

You are so much more important to God than a leaf or a flower. Have you seen His hand at work your life? Sometimes He’s working but we don’t even realize it. I want to encourage you to trust God with the difficult things you’re going through. He loves you so much and cares about each small detail of your life.

A common theme in my writing is that God dreams bigger dreams for us than we can dream for ourselves. So step back from the craziness in your life and pray. Get quiet and seek Him. Ask God to help, and don’t be afraid to pray very specific prayers. God cares, and you can trust Him with the smallest details of your life all the way to the massive issues. Lean on Him and find peace.

Butterfly/flower photo credit: Benson Kua from Toronto, Canada

ABOUT VICKIE McDONOUGH:

Bestselling author, Vickie McDonough, grew up wanting to marry a rancher, but instead, she married a computer geek who’s scared of horses. She now lives out her dreams in her fictional stories about ranchers, cowboys, lawmen and others living in the West during the 1800s. Vickie is the award-winning author of over 30 published books and novellas. Her books include the fun and feisty Texas Boardinghouse Brides series, and End of the Trail, from the Texas Trails series, which was the OWFI 2013 Best Fiction Novel winner. Whispers on the Prairie, Pioneer Promises book 1 was a Romantic Times Recommended Inspirational Book for July, 2013. Buckskin Bride, from the Pioneer Christmas Collection is a finalist in the 2014 Inspirational Readers’ Choice Awards.


SONG OF THE PRAIRIE  by Vickie McDonough  

Janie Dunn’s dream of being an opera singer suddenly fades when, at her dying cousin’s request, she flees Boston with her cousin’s newborn son to protect him from his abusive father. She moves to Kansas to live with her brother, but life takes another dire change when he is suddenly killed. Is a marriage of convenience the answer to her problems? Is Kansas far enough away from Boston that they are safe from the baby’s vengeful father?

Song of the Prairie releases in August but you can pre-order it now:
WHERE YOU CAN PURCHASE Song of the Prairie

CONNECT WITH VICKIE McDONOUGH

History lovers: check out the daily historical posts at: http://christianfictionhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com

Thursday, July 03, 2014

WAITING TO ADOPT by Guest Elizabeth Maddrey



Waiting on God's Timing to Adopt


He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

I’m a planner by nature. From the time I was in high school, I had the majority of my life fairly well mapped out. I’d graduate, go to college, and meet the man I was going to marry. We’d get married after graduation, work for a few years, and then start our family of no fewer than four children, all spaced two years apart. I had a little wiggle room built in—I hadn’t declared the gender of the kids, nor did I mind if they were two-and-a-half years apart. But the rest? Well, that’s just the way it was going to go.

For a while, things seemed to be going just as I imagined. I met a wonderful man in college; we married after graduation, and started on our careers. And, after being married for three years, we decided to get working on those kids, because we had no desire to be older parents. Then the waiting began. What followed were thirteen years of some of the worst spiritual pain I’ve ever imagined as we tried and failed to start a family. But God was doing a work in my heart that has changed the way I live. He was driving home the message that He, and He alone, is sovereign. And that it isn’t my time—or my plan—that matters, but His.

My husband and I have since adopted two amazing children. We’re older parents, but in many ways I’m a better mom now than I think I would have been. And I have seen firsthand how God makes everything beautiful in His time.



HOPE DEFERRED BY ELIZABETH MADDREY


Can pursuit of a blessing become a curse?

June and July and their husbands have spent the last year trying to start a family and now they're desperate for answers. As one couple works with specialists to see how medicine can help them conceive, the other must fight to save their marriage.

Will their deferred hope leave them heart sick, or start them on the path to the fulfillment of their dreams?

  

ABOUT ELIZABETH MADDREY:


Elizabeth Maddrey began writing stories as soon as she could form the letters properly and has never looked back. Though her practical nature and love of math and organization steered her into computer science for college and graduate school, she has always had one or more stories in progress to occupy her free time. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth is a voracious consumer of books and has mastered the art of reading while undertaking just about any other activity. She loves to write about Christians who struggle through their lives, dealing with sin and receiving God’s grace.

Elizabeth lives in the suburbs of Washington D.C. with her husband and their two incredibly active little boys. 

She invites you to interact with her at her website 
or on Facebook

HOW TO CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH MADDREY:




WHERE TO PURCHASE HOPE DEFERRED