Davalynn Spencer's Blog, page 6
July 7, 2024
How Are You Holding Up?
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Have you ever been asked, “How are you holding up?”
Rarely do people mean, “How are you holding up the bank?” or “How are you holding up your socks?” or “You’re holding up the parade.”
Ah, yes – the English language.
The idiomatic expression, “How are you holding up?” is used when checking on someone’s well-being after a trying situation, tragedy, or disease.
The last time I was asked how I was holding up was several years ago and the answer came without consideration: “By holding on.”
I didn’t see that reply coming and I hadn’t given the answer any thought. It simply popped out of my mouth because it was imbedded in my heart.
The phrase “holding up” insinuates personal determination, stamina, or vigor.
At the time, I had none.
All I could do was hold on.
“Holding on” says something entirely different. It points to strength and solidity outside oneself.
I don’t have the strength to hold up under life’s pressures and disappointments. But I can hold on for dear life by holding onto the One who is holding onto me.
His grip is much stronger than mine, and He never lets go. (John 10:28-29)
I believe everyone holds onto something or someone. What matters most is who or what it is.
~
Yet I am always with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward You will take me into glory.
Psalm 73.23-26
~
COMING SOON – Covering Grace, the final book in the Hutton family saga, “The Cañon City Chronicles.”
Grace was the little tag-along sister for twin brothers Cale and Hugh in Books 4 and 5. But she’s not so little anymore and she gets center stage in Book 6, Covering Grace. After three years riding with Bill Cody’s Wild West Show, she can do it all—rope, ride, and take care of herself. But fitting in back at the home ranch is beyond her. Her discovery that she has more in common with her grandmother, Annie Hutton, gives her exactly the footing she needs. Full of the grit and independence of the renowned Hutton women, Grace’s road won’t be easy to the love and acceptance she longs for.
If you loved Annie Whitaker (Hutton) in Loving the Horseman, you’ll adore her granddaughter, Grace, in the sixth and final book of “The Cañon City Chronicles,” Covering Grace.
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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June 30, 2024
What’s In Your Purse?
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
This week I’m featuring a women’s devotional book from fellow author and friend, Becky Van Vleet. Not only do I like the catchy title, What’s In Your Purse, I enjoy the layout of each of the fifty-two devotionals with “Remember This” Bible verses, a “Make It Happen” challenge, and room to journal personal thoughts.
I pray the selection below is a blessing to you.
~
Lasso It In
Moderation in all things is a good rule.
As a young girl, I had no idea what the word moderation meant when it came to squeezing the ketchup bottle. Goodness knows, this quote would have applied to me. I have slacked off a little at this stage of my life, but oh how I love ketchup!
Democritus, an ancient Greek philosopher, stated, “Throw moderation to the winds, and the greatest pleasures bring the greatest pains.”
In our greedy, thrill-seeking, if-it-feels-good-do-it culture, moderation seems to have gone out with the winds. While we normally think of gluttony as pertaining to eating, it can apply to doing anything beyond the point of necessity. And sadly, our world is filled with gluttonous behavior.
Over-indulgence can divert our attention and beckon us to the glitter of a pretentious society. Our peace and joy can become depleted if we don’t cling to their true source, our Lord and Savior. As humans, we have a tendency to complicate things in general anyway. But running our lives with moderation and ease can keep us well-oiled and clean.
In Philippians 4:5 (KJV), Paul exhorted the church at Philippi, “Let your moderation be known unto all men.” Still a good rule of thumb today. Let’s lasso it in, sisters!
Remember This: Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32 (NIV)
Make It Happen: Do a self-examination this week. Are there any areas in which you lack moderation? Write down your plan to control over-indulgence.
I love ketchup!
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Becky Van Vleet is an award-winning multi-genre, multi-published author. Her devotions have appeared in multiple publications including Guideposts, Christian Devotions Ministries, and Lighthouse Academy. A wife, mother, and Nana to nine grandchildren, she and her husband make their home near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Purchase link: If you enjoy Becky’s delightful devotional book, please leave a brief comment or two as a review on Amazon. This is a great way to bless an author!
Learn more about Becky, her children’s books, and historical novel at her website: https://www.beckyvanvleet.com/
~
COMING SOON – Covering Grace, the final book in the Hutton family saga, “The Cañon City Chronicles.”
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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June 23, 2024
Oh, Give Me a Home …
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Do you know the next phrase in the classic Western ballad that begins, “Oh, give me a home”? It has something to do with buffalo, deer, and antelope.
However, the line after that is the best one, in my opinion, and no doubt became the deciding factor in the song’s popularity.
“Where seldom is heard a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day.”
“Home on the Range” became the iconic tune of the American West in the 1800s and was sung by cowboys on the Chisolm Trail and elsewhere. It was popularized in the next century by silver-screen cowboy crooners like Gene Autry.
But it’s not just the prairie that has changed since Dr. Brewster M. Higley penned “Home On the Range.” It’s the proliferation of discouraging words.
How many have you heard lately?
Probably more than a few. And I’m not even talking about the news media.
As an author, I hear both positive and negative feedback about my work through public review forums such as Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and Facebook. One of my very first reviews years ago was a real slice-and-dicer, yet that book turned out to be a top seller.
“Consider the source,” I was told, and there is some comfort in that cliché. But for me, the experience underscored the power of words, both spoken and printed.
Words are like bricks. They can build up or tear down, and it’s a whole lot easier to tear down something than to build it up. Anyone with a sledge hammer and a crow bar can demolish a house, but it takes a skilled craftsman to construct one.
Our parents’ generation of school children were taught to deflect painful words with an old quip:
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
How untrue!
Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can shred us to ribbons and leave us bleeding in the ditch.
Words have power to heal hearts, but discouraging words can destroy marriages—like little drops of acid over time, corroding once-loving foundations until nothing is left.
Cruel remarks on social media impact young people more and more every day. Ugly barbs devastate their characters and diminish their sense of worth.
God knows the power of our words and He has a lot to say about it. Check out this list of scriptures on kind words:
This week, may we choose our words wisely, and make our homes a refuge where “seldom is heard a discouraging word.”
The very words
I have spoken to you
are spirit and life.
-Jesus
John 6:63 NLT
~
Words are like bricks
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The Dodson place opened up east of the Rafter-H with good flat land as well as prime mountain grass. The couple had been mostly farmers with potatoes, berries, and a small apple orchard north of the barn and outbuildings.
Hugh approached off-road from the west, and a chorus of red-winged blackbirds cut loose from new-leaf cottonwood trees. But as he neared the house, an eerie feeling climbed his shoulders like the first time he’d ridden over. The place must have been in decline for years with the older couple unable to keep it up. He and Cale would have helped if they’d known, but the Dodsons kept to themselves, even the few times he’d seen them in town.
Didn’t matter. Neighbors were supposed to help neighbors. It’s how things were.
Rather than start right off on the barn, Hugh stopped behind the house and went inside through the open back door. The place was run-down and dirty with the wind blowing through. It must have been a nice home at one time. He reminded himself he was no trespasser, for if he had his way, he’d soon be the owner.
Word was, the place was up for taxes and overdue mortgage payments, but there would be an auction. Just like the government to milk every penny they could get. So be it—he’d play their game. A fat worm if there ever was one, and he planned on being the early bird. ~Hope Is Built – Colorado Book Award finalist
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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June 16, 2024
If only …
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Fifteen years ago, I was not writing Western romance but teaching sixth-grade Ancient-World History and Language Arts in a central California farming community.
I was also writing a slice-of-life column for a daily newspaper in a larger, nearby city. This Father’s Day, I want to share one of those columns with you – one that speaks of a priceless moment from those rich years of seeing life through the eyes of a child.
~
“If Only”
One of the great things about kids is their surprise factor. You never know what they’re going to say next, like “What about Mrs. Potamia?”
Mrs. Potamia was that woman in Iraq who lived between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. She was one of the ancient aunt-sisters, according to some of my sixth-grade history students, a distant relative of the famous Egyptian lady, Rosetta Stone.
Maybe it was a language barrier that sent students into rhetorical contortions, or maybe it was just a delightful little bonus for us grownups who needed a splash of humor in our lives.
Or maybe, as a teacher, I needed to be reminded that I didn’t have all the answers to all the questions.
“If people didn’t exist, where would chickens live?”
I didn’t see that one coming, but the look on the boy’s face said he wasn’t kidding.
Many of the students who passed through my classroom moved out of my life completely as their families followed the ebb and flow of a harvest tide. Parents found jobs elsewhere. Texas and Mexico really weren’t that far away, so babies were bundled and furniture stored and friendships torn apart. It happens.
And it happened one hot June morning at the end of the school year.
“Mrs. Spencer – we’re moving.”
The boy’s dark eyes met mine, void of his usual excitement and anticipation. They merely confirmed an unavoidable fact. And in their old-too-soon gaze I read, “I don’t want to go.”
“Did your father get a new job?” I asked, ignorantly assuming the reason behind the departure of one of my brightest students.
“No.” He glanced away, quickly noting other students nearby. “I’ll tell you later.”
Again I jumped at a possible motive. Perhaps it was an immigration issue.
But later, as promised, he shared the reason. Through the painfully pure sentence structure of one too young to cloak his feelings, I learned the truth.
“My dad left me.”
Not many statements had caught me by greater surprise. In four simple words, this twelve-year-old revealed all the pain of a broken home, the self-imposed guilt of the guiltless, the bottom-line loss of one left behind.
I will never know if he confused his pronouns and really meant to say, “My dad left us,” but somehow I doubt it. I think his heart spoke the words before his mind could interfere.
Teaching is often like parenting and grand-parenting: you want to protect those who suffer from that which causes them pain.
If only you could.
If only I could have captured the joy of innocent discovery and saved it for later. If only I could have answered unanswerable questions or dried the eyes that watched a hometown slide past the backseat windows of his mother’s car.
If only I could have assured those boys and girls that in spite of the surprises and the questions and the pain, they would make it. Their journey would be worth it, and I was blessed to have had them in my life.
Even if only for a moment.
And he shall turn the heart
of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children
to their fathers …
Malachi 4:6
Author’s note:
Today, if you’re a dad, don’t wait for your children to give you a card, send you a text, or fix your favorite meal. Take the first step and tell them you love them. Tell them you’re sorry for the mistakes you’ve made, (you’re human) and tell them how much they mean to you.
And if you’re a child of an absentee father, remember that you don‘t know the whole story. If your father was a brute rather than a dad, find forgiveness. And if there was no father at all, learn about your Father in heaven who loves you more than humanly possible.
His heart spoke the words before his mind could interfere.
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Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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June 9, 2024
Resting In His Shadow
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
(Excerpted from Always Before Me)
American lyricist, Oscar Hammerstein II, said the hills were alive with the sound of music.
Where I once lived, that music played against spring-green hillsides. Black angus cattle dotted the scene like quarter notes on a musical score. In the spring, each cow had a calf at her side, and she paced her stride to match its own youthful steps.
The calves shone like onyx in the morning sun, dark and sleek against the grass their mothers grazed. There was a tenderness in it all – in the grass, in the animals, in the freshness of the mornings – a moment set against the rush of time when nothing mattered but the protection and nurturing of new life.
I drove through that landscape every weekday morning on my way to school. And in the late afternoons I returned on the same road to find long shadows thrown across the pastures by the grazing cattle.
One day the cows had turned their eyes away from the low sun, and their backs toward the west. I slowed to watch them, wondering what there was of God out in that pasture. I knew there was something – something He would show me of Himself if I paused in my hurry home and searched for His message.
The cow closest to the fence line along the road stood at an odd angle, sideways to the slanting sunlight. Her shadow stretched wide across the grass, and several feet away lay her resting calf, tucked exactly within the edges of her cool shade, sheltered from the heat of the day.
She knew exactly how to stand to shade her calf, and she stayed there until the glare of the sun had passed.
Our God knows too. He knows we need respite from the heat of worry and stress. He also knows when we need it, and He is there to let us rest in the shadow of His presence.
And if we still our hearts and listen, we may hear the music of His love around us.
~
Oh God of all comfort, thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves, and for giving us exactly what we need. Amen.
He who dwells in the secret place
of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty.
Psalm 91:1
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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June 2, 2024
A Different Perspective
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Have you heard of the two-week rule?
I often refer to it when deciding how I like a new purchase, the rearrangement of furniture, or a questionable repair job.
The rule goes like this:
“Give it two weeks. If you don’t notice it anymore, leave it.”
How often do we become so accustomed to situations that we no longer “see” them? We can miss what is right under our nose. Or above our nose, as the case may be.
I live near Pikes Peak, commonly referred to as America’s Mountain, because it inspired Katherine Lee Bates to pen the poem-turned-song, “America the Beautiful.” For much longer than two weeks, I went about daily life in the shadow of Colorado’s famous fourteener—several years, in fact. It had become common, like a leaning fence or crooked picture on the wall.
A few summers ago, I decided to take a long look at that mountain from a different perspective: on top.
I rode the nine-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 summit, and the view along the way demonstrates the old cliché—breathtaking.
But I’m glad I took the time to gain a new appreciation for the splendor of God’s handiwork. Along the railway, I saw a caved-in log cabin from the 1800s, fallen trees, bare rock faces, and foot trails. I saw things I couldn’t see from a distance, yet I also saw distance itself, as in the state of Kansas. At least it seemed that way while looking east with a 14,000-foot bird’s-eye view.
It’s all about perspective.
Is there something in your life that you’ve been living with for a long time and need to see from a different angle?
Ask God to show you the view.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalm 90:2
~
See it from a different angle.
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“It’s beautiful here. So clean.”
“Unless it comes a storm and you get caught in it without your slicker,” Cale said.
Ella looked up at him, concern pinching her face. “Really? That fast? Can’t you see it coming in time?”
“Oh, you can see it coming. Same way you can see a cougar leaping at you from a high rock.”
She shuddered and gripped her elbows but kept walking, a slight limp working into her steps.
“’Course that’d be a rare occurrence in these parts.” Though bears weren’t, it seemed, but he didn’t want to spook her, and lately he hadn’t done such a fine job of stringing words together. “See that patch of bright green under the hill there?”
She slowed and looked where he pointed.
“Aspen. They turn yellow in the fall. The only gold you’ll find in these mountains this side of Cripple Creek.”
She stopped and took in the view. “I’ve read about the Independence Lode and the fires.”
He reached behind her, took her by the shoulders, and gently turned her north where higher, pine-covered slopes rolled up toward the backside of Pikes Peak. “We could see the smoke from here. Worried Pa some. Hugh and Grace and I would sneak out at night and climb up the bluff to watch the sky glow red.” From behind her, he pointed over her shoulder. “Right over the ridge there. As the crow flies, about fifteen miles.”
She turned her head and her breath brushed his chin. “That close?”
Too close. “But not an easy trip unless you’re that crow.” He stepped around her and continued on, his pulse galloping with her so near. “A little farther, and you’ll see the break where the stampede came down yesterday.”
Sensing she wasn’t following, he looked over his shoulder and caught her rubbing her leg. “You all right?”
She straightened. “Why, yes. I’m right as rain.” She ran her hands down her riding skirt and looked around. “Though I don’t see any headed our way.” Her smile, a bit forced, still brightened the morning.
“Come on then, Rain Woman.” He held out his hand and she took it. He’d carry her if she’d let him.
Doc and Barlow meandered a ways behind them, grazing. Cale chuckled.
“What?”
“We’ve got a couple of tag-alongs.”
She glanced back. “Oh, the dears.”
“Don’t let on. You’ll hurt Doc’s pride.”
“Pride? You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“As an undertaker. He thinks he’s sneaking up on us.”
With her hand in his, her soft laugh fanned a spark. He lifted his hat and sleeved his brow before setting it down again. Things were warming up a might quick. If he wasn’t careful, he’d set the whole pasture ablaze. ~A Change of Scenery
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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May 26, 2024
Worship Through Verse
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
While I am away this Memorial Day weekend, I’d like to share the inspirational work of fellow author and friend, LoRee Peery.
Peery has written four devotional books in a series titled Worship Through Verse. The first, Shelter in the Night, speaks beautifully in a modern psalmist’s voice about those times we seek shelter from pain in the night.
Peery says of the second book in the series, Looking Beyond Self, that God asks us to lay our worries at His feet so His grace and compassion can get us through our troubles. Reflection in the midst of pain is often cleansing, giving us a different perspective in our walk with Jesus.
Below are two samples of these modern-day psalms, one from each book. I pray they will be a blessing for you or someone close to you.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
You are my strength, I watch for you;
you, God, are my fortress.
Psalm 59:9
Renew My Mind
The world is noisy
The news is negative
I love my Abba Daddy
Help me tune out the din
The Lord keeps me going
I want to hear You
You wait for me to call
And answer with Your calm
I need Your fortress of walls
To keep distraction at bay
A spiritual battle threatens
Help me relax in Your presence.
~from Shelter in the Night
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Sovereign Lord has given me
a well-instructed tongue, to know
the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
Isaiah 50:4
Wake Me and Teach Me
The Lord God is my Teacher
He’s taught me to encourage
He wakes me each morning
To please and glorify Him
My tasks, my work, my all
Is set before me by Him
He gave me ears to hear
He’s in my heart to direct
My Lord saves and frees
He comforts with tenderness
I trust and love to obey
Joy and gladness make me sing
The Lord God is my Teacher
Teach me the rest of my life.
~from Looking Beyond Self
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Watch for Books 3 and 4 in the series, coming in June.
Worship Through Verse
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LoRee Peery is the author of numerous Christian novels and is drawn to reunion stories for two reasons. She believes God is a God of second chances, and the past often needs to be dealt with before anyone can move on in life. Connect with her at her website.
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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May 19, 2024
Like a Tree
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
With spring on its way into summer next month, I want to ask: Do you have a favorite tree?
Aspens are mine, beautiful all through the year, regardless of the season.
In winter they stand bare and white against evergreen forests.
In spring they burst with fuzzy catkins like pussy willows.
Summer finds them quaking full and leafy in the slightest breeze.
And in autumn they lift bright yellow coins against sapphire skies.
Each aspen tree is unique and different from its fellows, but they are not solitary trees. When purchased from a nursery, rarely are they planted alone, but in clusters. They flourish through an underground, interconnected root system.
One of the largest living single organisms on earth is said to be an aspen grove, or clonal colony, in south-central Utah.
Talk about networking! Aspens thrive in interconnected communities.
In nearly all of the twenty books I’ve written, aspens appear in one of their seasonal forms. With stories set in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, it’s easy to see how these glorious trees are so often part of the setting.
Aspens are also a beautiful metaphor for Christian living. Like aspens, individual Christians are distinctly unique from one another, but we are referred to as the “body of Christ” 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.
A promise in the first chapter of Psalms tells us that we can be like trees “planted by streams of water,” forever fruitful and never withering. Three of the four conditions for this promise deal with connectivity – who we’re hanging out with.
You’re blessed if you:
Walk with someone other than the wicked.Avoid standing with those who keep on sinning.Sit with those who aren’t cynics.Love God’s word and think about it day and night.Being “like a tree” is the result of these choices – it’s cause and effect.
Today, may your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love (Ephesians 3:17 TLB).
What is your favorite tree?
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
Psalm 1:1-3
~
Be like a tree.
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At the high gate, Caleb headed east for Cañon City and heeled Rooster into a lope. The sun pressed toward the peaks behind him, on run from the coming night. It pulled its warmth with it and threw a brassy light on the ridge ahead, where yellow flared through a dark pine blanket.
He had read about the aspen that flecked the mountains—those white-barked trees that bore the gold men didn’t hunt, the kind that showed itself year after year as witness to a providential hand.
He snorted. Providence. That was one thing he didn’t need.
Providence had drawn him away from his father’s wishes and proven livelihood. Providence had left him without a bride, a living, or a place to lay his head. And Providence had led him to the hollow hope of a fresh start.
His gut kicked against the blasphemy, and he kicked Rooster into a dead run. Maybe Providence wasn’t to blame. Maybe he had done all those things to himself. ~Loving the Horseman
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
#lovingthecowboy
(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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May 12, 2024
Find a Mother
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Not everyone has a living mother to hug, call, or send flowers to on Mother’s Day.
And not every mothering woman has a child.
Many of those women are aunts, neighbors, sisters, or friends.
Like that little lady at church who always knows exactly what to say when you’re down.
Or the woman you talk to about raising kids and how you wish you’d done a few things differently.
What about the young mother of five under 10 whose hands are blistered from the rope she’s clinging to?
This Mother’s Day, find a mother and thank her for what she does. Call her. Send her a card. Mow her lawn, fix her dinner, watch her toddler for a couple of hours.
She’s demonstrating a kind of love that God compares to His own.
Can a mother forget her nursing child?
Can she feel no love for the child she has borne?
But even if that were possible,
I would not forget you!
See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.
Isaiah 49:15
Praise God. He loves us even more than our mothers do.
~
Find a mother
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Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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(c) 2024 Davalynn Spencer, all rights reserved.
#WesternRomance #ChristianFiction #FreeBook #HistoricalRomance #CowboyRomance
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May 5, 2024
Mom’s Best Advice Ever and a Giveaway
By Davalynn Spencer @davalynnspencer
Mothers are good at giving advice.
(I see some of you rolling your eyes.)
Mom would say, “Don’t roll your eyes, they’ll fall out of your head.”
Well, a few Moms would say that.
But honestly, some of the best advice I’ve received came from my mother.
Don’t put your hands in the pockets of your sweater; it will sag.
Wear good undergarments – what if you’re in a wreck?
Moisturize your neck as well as your face.
Much of my mother’s advice I ignored and I won’t go into that here because this is not a True Confessions Column.
But I will tell you her best advice ever:
“Love Jesus more than anyone, even me.”
That single sentence has been a rudder for my life.
What about you?
In the comment section below, share a sentence or two about your mom’s best advice, and you’ll be entered in a random drawing for a signed copy of my story-devotional book, Always Before Me. (Drawing closes May 7, 2024)
By the way, the book would make a great Mother’s Day gift. Just sayin’. Purchase links here.
Honor your father and mother.
Then you will live a long, full life
in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12
~
Don't roll your eyes.
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There’s a little cross-over between Mom-care and God-care.
Psalm 121:7 tells me the Lord will keep me safe and watch over me, and He does it all the time, even when I don’t know it.
When the auto-service technician called me out to my car the other day to see the split rubber on the inside of the left front tire, I remembered that verse.
The left front tire is the closest to oncoming traffic. All the other tires on my car were in good shape. There was an imbalance somewhere, a misalignment that I didn’t know about. The fix was easy, but the damages could have been horrific.
This was not the first time the Lord had watched over my life, nor will it be the last. ~Always Before Me
Inspirational Western Romance – where the hero is heroic.
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