Davalynn Spencer's Blog, page 47
July 4, 2016
It Was For Freedom
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
This Independence Day, as we consider the liberty we enjoy as a nation, let’s remember the freedom that Christ paid for …
Freedom from fear,
from doubt,
from depression,
from sinful habits,
from loneliness
from anger,
from addiction,
from unforgiveness.
He is the great Freedom-Giver.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,
and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1 NKJ
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June 27, 2016
The rains are over and gone …
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Often on a summer afternoon, a verse from the Song of Solomon replays around my Colorado home.
Gray clouds gather over the mountains, then roll down into the valley with thunderous roars and streaks of lightning.
And twenty minutes later, “… the rains are over and gone…the cooing of doves is heard in our land.”
I love these sudden and powerful storms and have included them in several of my novels set in Colorado.
Somehow, they remind me of God in His strength and majesty. In His provision and love.
He is greater than anything I face.
Greater than any foe or fear.
Great enough to set the doves cooing in the drip, drip, dripping trees after the rain.
From The Columbine Bride …
The fast-moving storm rolled down the wooded slopes and dropped into the valley. Lightning fired a warning shot, but Lucy stood fast. Buck gripped the porch railing and glanced at Sissy and Button standing stock-still near the doorway. He loved this family more than he thought possible—Lucy with her fight and fire, and those two young’uns who worshipped the light she walked in. He had hoped to cut their hay this summer, but from the looks of the white wall coming at them, he might not get the chance.
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June 19, 2016
We Learn A Lot From Our Dads
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
My dad taught me how to drive a tractor and a nail. He taught me how to start a motherless calf on a bucket by using my fingers, how to set irrigation pipe in the hot San Joaquin Valley sun, and how to ride a horse. Over the years, many of his lessons have come to my aid.
We learn a lot from our dads, and even though most fathers are kind and loving, they are fallible humans in need of a savior.
Just like us.
No father on earth compares to our heavenly Father with His unconditional love, and He would do anything to show us that love. As a matter of fact, He’s done everything.
As we pause to appreciate our dads and other life-influencers this Father’s Day, what lesson do you hold most dear, whether from dad or an uncle or someone else? Leave a comment below and tell me how they’ve impacted your life.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
Widowed rancher Josiah Hanacker will do whatever it takes to keep his family together in “The Wrangler’s Woman.”
ECPA 2016 bestseller in Christian fiction.
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June 13, 2016
An Important Life Lesson
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
On Saturday, I took my three-year-old granddaughter’s birthday pictures and I learned something very important from her—other than the fact that Biderman is her best friend and Yucky Charms are her favorite cereal.
I learned that no matter what you’re doing, whatever the occasion, do it with abandon.
And by all means, wear a tutu and keep your toes pointed. 
Do you have an important life lesson learned from a child? I love to hear what it is!
“Work hard and cheerfully at all you do,
just as though you were working for the Lord
and not merely for your masters.”
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The Cowboy’s Bride – ECPA and Publisher’s Weekly best-selling Christian fiction.
June 6, 2016
Get a Different Perspective
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Sometimes we miss what’s right under our nose. Or above our nose, as the case may be.
We take for granted what we are used to seeing and then we no longer see it. At least I know this happens to me.
I live near Pikes Peak, commonly referred to as America’s Mountain because it served as the inspiration for Katherine Lee Bates’s poem-turned-song, “America the Beautiful.”
Last weekend I took a long look at that mountain from a different perspective: on top.
I rode the 8.9-mile Cog Railway out of Manitou Springs—the perfect way to see the majestic mountain. No winding roads or hairpin curves. Just straight up, relatively speaking.
Many lesser ridges lead to the 14,115-foot pink granite peak, and the view along the way explains the overuse of a certain cliché—breathtaking.
Too long I’d ignored my curiosity and pushed the Cog Railway experience into the corner called “Someday.” Why not make someday today?
It wasn’t exactly a same-day decision. I had to make reservations, but I did meet another patron who just showed up and landed a seat that someone else had cancelled.
Passing Big Tooth Reservoir on our way up the pull. See that hazy, distant horizon? That’s Kansas.
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The end of the line – literally. The tall poles show visitors where the edge is when there is deep snow. Those tiny people in the picture are standing at the lip of “The Bottomless Pit.” And yes, you’re right – there is no railing.
Over the heads of other passengers, you can see the remains of a cabin from the 1800s.
Historical fiction, anyone?
I’m glad I made the effort and took the time to gain a different perspective and added appreciation for the splendor of God’s handiwork.
Is there something in your life that you’d like to see from a different angle?
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ECPA and Publisher’s Weekly best-selling Christian fiction.
May 30, 2016
Change of Season or Change of Heart?
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Memorial Day signals the changing of the seasons and the beginning of summer for many Americans. Who wants to wait another four weeks? We’d rather start thinking about vacations, the end of school, and what to throw on the grill.
Here in Colorado it has something to do with dragging out the lawn chairs and not having to worry about the barbecue being canceled due to snow. If we’re lucky.
Of course *Memorial Day is about much more than the barbecue and how the weather will be.
Once known as Decoration Day, it was set aside to honor the fallen from our nation’s Civil War by decorating their graves with flowers and flags.
After WWI, honors were extended to include those who were casualties in any of America’s wars.
Battlefield casualties were obviously on the founders’ minds, but the fallen have given their lives in various venues.
During WWII, many women went to work outside their homes for the first time, picking up the slack left in the wake of their deploying husbands, fathers, and brothers, gladly joining the war effort.
One very young bride took to the Long Beach shipyards in southern California while her new husband served on the damp airfields of England.
But it was he who came home to a funeral, for her lungs could not withstand the ravages of tuberculosis, and she left a toddler in his arms when she died.
Every year on Memorial Day, my husband gives a nod to the woman who gave him life and ultimately her own for her country. And I think of others whose names we will never hear who gave all of what they had to give.
The giving goes on. May we who remain live our lives in ways that continue the example of hope and faith and selflessness.
This Memorial Day, let’s pause in our reveling and remember with gratitude the fallen upon whose sacrifices we stand.
Do you have a loved one who gave his or her life?
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
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*A version of this post first appeared on May 25, 2015
May 24, 2016
Goodreads Giveaway
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
My columbines are beginning to bloom—perfect timing for the June 1 release of Barbour’s complete print collection of The 12 Brides of Summer which contains my novella, “The Columbine Bride.” 
To celebrate, the authors are sponsoring a Goodreads giveaway of six copies, each one autographed by all twelve authors.
Enter here for the Goodreads giveaway, but be sure to enter before midnight on Wednesday, June 1, when the contest ends.
These stories released last summer in four e-book collections and three Walmart-exclusive collections. However, now they are all together under one cover for your summer reading pleasure. Take a copy to the mountains, the beach, the desert – wherever you go to get away. Each story can be read in an afternoon or evening.
Goodreads.com is a book-based social-media site where readers can find new books, visit with authors, and leave reviews. Stop by sometime!
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May 16, 2016
In the cool of the day …
… Adam and Eve heard God walking in the garden and they hid because guilt from their disobedience pressed them into hiding.
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
God took care of their guilt and disobedience, and we also benefit from His plan through Christ.
However, today I want to look at the God-walking part. Different versions of the Bible express Genesis 3:8 in different ways, though the essence is the same.
I get the impression that God strolled through His marvelous creation to simply enjoy it. Maybe He did this every evening—we don’t know because scripture doesn’t say.
Maybe He often looked for Adam to just “hang out,” but we don’t know that either.
What we do know, is that something happens in the cool of the day. Something intentional.
Why didn’t God come looking for Adam at high noon? Is there something special about those few moments when day slips into night and the earth seems to exhale in preparation for rest?
I believe there is. I believe it can be a time of “unwinding,” letting go, breathing deeply. Instead, it is often the second most hectic time of our modern day-to-day lives. Commuter traffic. Homework. Rushed dinners, the six o’clock news (usually bad). Exhaustion.
Have we fallen into these societal traps and missed an important time of meeting with our Maker during a time when He longs to restore our souls?
Some people walk their dogs in the evenings, go for bike rides, or sit on the patio and enjoy the sunset. It depends on where we live, the time of year, and family responsibilities.
This topic has been foremost in my mind lately—along with other demands of authoring books like writing press releases and newsletters and preparing for book signings.
But as I juggled these demands and my increasing interest in “the cool of the day,” I remembered that I had included just such a moment in “The Columbine Bride” which releases June 1.
Actually, it’s a re-release of the story published last year in e-book form. Next month it comes out in print via Barbour’s complete collection of The 12 Brides of Summer.
I’ve included a portion of that scene below, and I pray that it encourages you to take a few moments in the evenings, set aside the demands and frustrations of your day, and breathe in the presence of the Lord.
Dusk dropped down with a sigh, and shadows tucked themselves beneath rocks and roots as she surveyed the small meadow. Crickets took up their chorus, doves joined with their melancholy song, and Mr. Wellington’s words rolled over the grass. The Lord surely had taken care of her and the children through the long winter. And it had taken most of those months to loosen her grip on resentment.
God had not chosen to keep William alive—a fact with which Lucy was weary of wrestling. Death was not an uncommon visitor in this rugged land, but she’d not expected its sudden and brutal call at her home. Hugging her waist, she closed her eyes and let the evening breeze tug loosened hair and familiar words across her shoulders. Thou wilt shew me the path of life. William had often repeated those words in their evening prayers, and for nine long months she had clung to them in his absence. Had he uttered them with his last breath—perhaps not for himself, but for her and the children? Was it his dying prayer she felt cooling her cheek?
Her job was to live, and to do so, she must accept that God knew what He was doing. She did not have to like it or agree with it. She just had to trust His love. If her children learned nothing else from her, they must learn that.
“Oh Lord, I am willing, but I need Your help.” The breeze freshened and she turned at the familiar caress. William had often touched her just as gently, and habit pulled her heart into her throat. She clenched her jaw. Too easily she could melt into a pool of self-pity. But such indulgence drained her strength and left her weak, and she dare not risk weakness if she and the children were to survive.
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May 9, 2016
An Interconnected Root System
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
I love aspen trees. They are beautiful all through the year, regardless of the season.
Winter: Raising bare white limbs against deep pine-green forests
Spring: Bursting with fuzzy catkins reminiscent of pussy willows
Summer: Quaking their full, leafy branches in the slightest breeze
Autumn: Lifting gold-coin leaves against a cerulean sky
Last month I planted an aspen in the back yard—or rather, I planted a cluster of aspen, three
trees to be exact.
Aspens don’t grow alone, but thrive via an underground, interconnected root system.
Talk about networking!
One of the largest living single organisms on Earth is said to be an aspen grove or clonal colony in Utah. I would love to see it, but for now, I’ll relish the beauty of my new cluster growing stronger each day as the Colorado weather warms.
In six of the eight stories I’ve written, aspens appear in one of their seasonal forms. I guess I can say they are my favorite tree.
Like aspens, individual Christians are distinctly unique from one another, but we are referred to as a body because we are interconnected by God’s Holy Spirit. We support each other, draw upon each other for strength and encouragement, and thrive in each other’s company.
Today, “may your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” – and His family.
What is your favorite tree?
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“Dawn spilled over the hills as they climbed toward the higher ranges, and it warmed Lucy’s back once they reached the little valley. A lacy green ribbon of bright aspen rimmed the meadow at the forest’s edge, and knee-high grass skirted the barn and cabin, a silent invitation to snakes and other unwelcome guests. She shuddered.”
May 2, 2016
Perspective
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
An out-of-state friend messaged me during last week’s deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma, Texas, and elsewhere.
“Storms again tonight, with tornado warnings.”
The message continued, mentioning rolling thunder and how the sky was lighting up.
And then the most surprising statement came:
“God’s plan for rain is magnificent.”
Not one drop of fear soaked through the words that night. Only amazement at “God’s plan.”
Oh, how I want to remember that lesson of perspective!
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on thee:
because he trusteth in thee.
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