Let Your Fingers do the Gluing!

I'm curious. How many people actually use the phone books that gnomes faithfully leave on our doorsteps each year? Well, here's an idea: Phone books are PERFECT for spray adhesive projects (and glue stick gluing too). Just put what needs to be sprayed or glue sticked on a miscellaneous phone book page, spray or glue away, remove the project and close the phone book. That particular page is forever glued shut and hundreds of new pages await your next projects.

Stir It Up!

I heard the following verse quoted at a Martin Luther King, Jr. gathering
yesterday:

“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you
through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of
fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:6, 7 NKJV

Indeed, God has given us all gifts. The speaker implored, “Don’t wait for someone to stir them up for you.” How inspiring.

How are you using your creative gifts? Your gifts are unique. No one else can paint just like you, write just like you, sing just like you, [insert your gift here] just like you.

"Swirl" by artist Catherine McElroy

How are you stirring it up? The Bob Marley song, “Stir It Up” came to my mind. I thought, wouldn’t it be fun if that catchy song was relevant to this passage? I’m not familiar with the lyrics to the song, so I looked them up online. Oh my. Marley had something totally different in mind. Made me blush!

Even so, I encourage you to Stir it Up!

* Artwork used by permission of the artist. Click the link for more information about the art and artist.

Hope for Haiti

"And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them." Mark 10:16. Jesus loves the Haitian children. He is our hope.

Samaritan's Purse is a trusted organization led by Franklin Graham. Their "Operation Christmas Child" program is dear to our hearts.

Click here to donate online through Samaritan's Purse.

I Could Be Jello

Fueled by encouragement from a friend who'd read my novel's manuscript, I started searching for a literary agent in October. The first few rejections came as quickly as my search had started. I asked one agent for feedback regarding the first five pages I'd submitted with my query. Her response? My main male character just didn't grab her attention and she couldn't bear the notion of reading a whole book about him. Ouch.

I immediately started rewriting my book! Surely every other agent in the country agreed with the first agent to offer feedback to me.

Then, I stopped writing altogether. The book was becoming something that just wasn't me.

Lately, I've been pondering a key scene in the Julia Roberts movie, "My Best Friend's Wedding." In the scene, Julia's character, Julianne, is arguing with Kimmy (Cameron Diaz) about the kind of woman Michael (Dermot Mulroney) really wants and needs. Julianne: ... Okay, you're Michael, you're in a fancy french restaurant, you order... creme brulee for dessert, it's beautiful, it's sweet, it's irritatingly perfect. Suddenly, Michael realizes he doesn't want creme brulee, he wants something else.
Kimmy: What does he want?
Julianne: Jello.
Kimmy: Jello?! Why does he want jello?
Julianne: Because he's comfortable with jello, jello makes him... comfortable. I realiae, compared to creme brulee it's... jello, but maybe that's what he needs.
Kimmy: I could be jello.
Julianne: No! Creme brulee can never be jello, you could never be jello.
Kimmy: I have to be jello.

In my situation, I identify more with the jello than the creme brulee, but the point still stands. I must be the jello God made me to be and write the jello God wants me to write. And pray, pray, pray that there's an agent out there that's craving jello.

Book Review: Max Lucado

The year was 1992 – my Senior year of high school. I was a sales associate at Family Christian Stores at the Macon Mall. There was a particular author I found myself recommending over and over and over. Max Lucado. I wasn’t sure if it was pronounced loo-kay-doe or loo-kah-doe. But, I hand sold quite a few copies of No Wonder They Call Him the Savior (published 1986), God Came Near (1987), Six Hours One Friday (1989), The Applause of Heaven (1990) and more. (For the record, Max pronounces his name loo-kay-doe.)

Whenever hurting people needed encouragement, could count on Max’s books to assist them in their journey toward healing. Believe it or not 2010 marks Max’s 25th year as a published author. He has published over 75 books and related projects for both adults and children. And he is still the pastor of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas.

How could I have known as an employee at Family that one day I’d have the privilege to market one of Max’s books, Grace for the Moment, as a publicist at Thomas Nelson Publishers.

He is truly a remarkable man. Two of his most recent books are currently burning up my bookshelf. The first, Fearless, Max invites readers to “Imagine your life, wholly untouched by angst. What if faith, not fear, was your default reaction to threats? If you could hover a fear magnet over your heart and extract every last shaving of dread, insecurity, or doubt, what would remain? Envision a day, just one day, where you could trust more and fear less. Can you imagine your life without fear?”

What a timely message for our nation.

The other book, His Name is Jesus, is an absolutely beautiful full color book that journeys from the birth of Christ to His resurrection.

Drawing from his classic writing on Jesus combined with new reflections and breathtaking art, Max Lucado again opens our eyes—and hearts—to the life and work of the Savior in a way that will change lives forever. “Jesus was, at once, common and not; alternately normal and heroic. One minute blending in with the domino players in the park, the next commanding the hell out of madmen, disease out of the dying, and death out of the dead.” Who was this man who spoke as easily with kids and fishermen as widows and waves? It is the question that has echoed down through the centuries to us today, and here is a visually stunning book that answers aspects of that question.

If I were a bookstore clerk today, I can guarantee you I’d be hand-selling these two books!

Happy New Year

“We learn from the artists, from those who work in paint or words, or musical notes, from those who have eyes that see and ears that hear and hearts that feel deeply and passionately about all that is sacred and dear to God.” -- Ken Gire, Windows of the Soul

Welcome to the World Amelia-Grey

What is it about new life that is so inspiring? Check out this incredible baby video.
You don't have to know sweet Amelia-Grey to be utterly moved. As for the fancy website? It helps that her daddy is an amazing photographer/web developer! (Previously featured on this site.)