new year 2021 wishes

Happy New Year!! Here we are in 2021! I am expecting God’s blessings in this new year!

I am excited to introduce you to my new, updated website and blog. This is truly a new re-beginning. I plan to be more faithful to blog about my writing projects and events that are happening in our family, community, and country. I pray my posts will honor the Lord, my Savior.

Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? Or, What shall we drink? Or, wherewithal shall we be clothed?… For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:31-33

2020 was an unusual year, to say the least. Almost all of our norms have been shaken to the core. In March we were inundated by an unknown virus called COVID 19. Everyone was required to stay-at-home for what seemed like an eternity. Schools were closed and students had to have virtual classes. Retirement homes closed to all visitors, even family members. The churches could not meet and had to have services on Facebook live or Zoom. The word of friends and family who had contacted the virus came in waves.

Eventually, restaurants and businesses were allowed to open with distancing requirements and masks. Thankfully, churches opened back up with strict limitations. Parents are scrambling to work their schedules around part-time virtual learning and school attendance as the schools try to comply with all the regulations. 

In spite of all these strange and often uncomfortable restrictions and mandates God’s name and His plans are still lifted up. In spite of churches being shut down, the message of Jesus Christ went out over social media like never before. We came to realize that the church is the people, not the building. We could still meet together even if it was virtual. The circumstances we are living through have given us an opportunity to share the Gospel and the love of Jesus even more to an uncertain world.

I am so thankful to know that God is bigger than all these seemingly overwhelming situations. He has it all in His hand and is still in control of it all. He knows what we have need of and He has promised to supply our needs. But He does require that we put Him first in all things. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Great Writing News My novella, “Inconvenient Love,” is in the final stages of editing and I hope to have it published before Valentine’s Day. It actually takes place between my first and second novels and is Tessa’s story. She was Elise’s roommate and friend in “Romance Along the Rails.” I finished the first draft while at the Women’s Get-Away Writer’s Retreat near Joplin, MO. last March right before the pandemic shutdown. What a great group of writer friends. They are so encouraging. I was having a difficult time with my next planned novel. One of my friends, Marty Knox, suggested I place it during the 1918 flu epidemic and WWI. Thank you for that inspiration, Marty! My next novel will be “Beauty from Ashes” and Rachel, who was Liz’s little sister in “Home for the Heart” is the main character.     The pictures below were actually taken at our March 2019 retreat. (I didn’t have any from 2020.) I hope we can meet again in March of 2021!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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