Sandra Byrd's Blog, page 6
March 14, 2021
A Devoted Life: Attagirl!
When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.
William Temple
We are created in God’s image, and therefore a sense of compassion and justice is embedded into our sensibilities. The needs of our neighbors and family are well beyond our ability to resolve for them—at least on our own. God can work his will and has unlimited resources. We say we believe this, right? Why then do we pray so little, relatively speaking, to ask him to bring about victory and relief?
Perhaps because deep down, we don’t believe he will act. Most of us believe he has the power to act in response to our prayer. But because so many prayers seem to have been unanswered, or answered too slowly, or not in the way we’d wished, we wonder if he has the will.
One of my mentors told me that we need ten attaboys just to overcome the memory of one put-down. I wonder if it might likewise be true that our minds cling so tenaciously to the one prayer in which the answer seemed to tarry that we forget the nine which were resolved?
Maybe it’s just that we spend too much time worrying instead of praying.
I’d been telling a friend about a situation which had the potential to cause harm to my family. At some point, though, God gave me the strength, and the words, to acknowledge his kind sovereignty. “The situation is completely out of my hands now,” I told her. “So I’m not wringing them.”
Just then, I heard it, deep in my spirit. God was saying, “Attagirl!”
The situation was in his good hands. Rather than wringing mine, I could unclench them and put them together in prayer.
You know what? I’m still waiting for the answer to that prayer, to that situation. But in the meantime, many others have been swiftly resolved. I either believe, or I don’t. He tells me that my prayers matter, that he is listening, and that they are powerful and effective. “I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” (Psalm 116:1-2, nlt).
Try it. Yep—right now. What would you like to ask our good God for today?
The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
James 5:16
Devotion drawn from my The One Year Experiencing God’s Love Devotional. Available now from Tyndale.
Main photo used with purchase permission from Shutterstock.
February 28, 2021
A Devoted Life: Just Walk Away
Three times in the book of Acts the Lord miraculously removes the chains of his imprisoned disciples. I noticed as I read that despite the miraculous removal of chains and an angelic presence each time, the believers were still expected to act.
In Acts 5, the Lord opened the doors and brought the disciples out, but then told them to go and preach. In Acts 12, as Peter’s life was in danger from Herod, an angel appeared and struck Peter. He told him to get up, dress himself, put on his sandals, wrap his cloak around him, and walk out of prison. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas were freed by an angel but had to immediately step in to save the life of their jailer, then follow him out and to his home, where they ministered directly after.
The point? God takes off the chains, but I must walk away from prison.
When the Lord Jesus saved us, he freed us to eternal life by grace alone. After that salvific moment, though, he partners with us in the business of becoming holy. He has taken off the chains; I must walk away. I must walk away from the fears that paralyze me, from the sins which enslave me, from the habits which keep me down. So often I call out to him to save me from those, and it’s not that he doesn’t help. He does. But most often he whispers, “I took off the chains, but you must walk away.”
Sometimes I find it’s easier to be angry with him for not helping enough, but really, it’s that he’s given me the power to move. Is there something the Lord is calling you to walk away from? Go ahead. You’re not shackled anymore!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Luke 4:18-21, ESV
Devotion drawn from my The One Year Experiencing God’s Love Devotional. Available now from Tyndale.
Main photo used with purchase permission from Shutterstock.
February 14, 2021
A Devoted Life: Bespoke
Although we share a common language, I discover some wonderful new words whenever I am in England. One of my very favorite new words is bespoke.
Bespoke has a sense of the upper class about it; it means something, anything, designed and created with a specific person in mind. No buying clothes off the rack—I’m going to have a bespoke dress, one designed just for me. (One dress. The rest of my clothes are bought online.) My husband loves hats (he says all balding men do!), and whenever we return to London, he has a new cabby hat made just for him.
Bespoke.
Despite the cool clothing that bespoke can refer to, one reason to truly love the word is that it reminds us of God’s specific, direct, and personal love. Genesis tells us that God spoke, and it was done. Romans reminds that God, “calls into being things that were not” (4:17). Psalm 33:9 pronounces, “For he spoke, and it came to be.”
Although he spoke the world and some creatures into being, when God saw that the man was lonely, he created a companion for the man in a unique way. He took one of Adam’s ribs, something part of the man, and fashioned a woman out of it. He created someone perfectly suited for Adam. Not just any woman, not spoken from the void or created from the ground. Custom made for the man himself.
It’s a reminder to us of the sacred nature of marriage, but it also reminds us that God created all of us, his children, especially for himself. He knew what he wanted; he always does. He knows how to meet those desires; he is God. When he created you to think and feel and respond and work, he created you exactly as he wanted you, his beloved, to be. He calls us his bride, after all.
You are just right. He bespoke you for himself!
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:21-22, NASB
Devotion drawn from my The One Year Experiencing God’s Love Devotional. Available now from Tyndale.
Main photo used with purchase permission from Shutterstock.
January 31, 2021
A Devoted Life: Angels Among Us
A few years ago, our family was in London for a holiday—for work and pleasure—and we’d rented a tiny flat with a lovely view of the Thames, but in an area my daughter declared to be teetering on “the edge of sketch.”
After a day’s sightseeing, we deposited our teenagers at that flat while my husband and I set out for a stroll. There was a hole-in-the-wall restaurant not too far away, I explained, that I’d read had wonderful “takeaway” food. We could bring some back for dinner. We set out walking, and walking, and walking, and it wasn’t too long till we realized we were blindingly lost.
We had a small map, which didn’t do much once we were in the thinner arteries of the city, in a less traveled neighborhood, where we were clearly recognized as not of its own. There were few people walking, fewer still loitering in door stoops, smoking as they warily eyed us. We stood in an empty intersection, turning this way and that, wondering what to do next and praying for help. After a nearly clockwise spin, my husband turned back from looking down an empty street and was surprised to find a small, elderly man with a neat white beard appear from nowhere; he stood in front of a locked and barred door which had just been vacant.
Approaching my husband, he asked in a thick Scots accent, “Which way are ye going?” “That way,” my husband said hesitantly, pointing west. “That’s where I’m going too,” the stranger replied. “No,” I said, turning back around, certain that the restaurant was in another direction. “That way.” I pointed southeast. “That’s where I’m going too,” the Scotsman said.
My husband and I exchanged a glance above the stranger’s head. Didn’t he know where he was going either? I explained that we were Americans; he grinned—clearly he could already guess this by our accents. We wanted to locate a restaurant I’d read about online but had become a challenge to find.
“Follow me,” he commanded. “I know the place.”
I was nervous following him, but what choice did we have? I looked him over and noticed my husband did too. The man was slight, perfectly dressed in an expensive navy wool coat with a tartan scarf wrapped around his neck and a blue felt hat on his head. Because the man was smaller, my husband could “take him” if need be.
I glanced at the man’s shoes. They were well worn, almost falling apart, a distinct contrast to his well-cared-for clothing. I wrote it off to Scots frugality, and we followed him. Within a minute or two, he was leading us down an alley, which appeared to be completely deserted. Was he leading us somewhere to be jumped? I wondered. It was off the beaten path, and the buildings were so high on either side that we would be completely hidden from view. I glanced at my husband, who was between us and making light, awkward conversation with the man, and he nodded.
After a few minutes of twists and turns, we arrived at the start of a long street, nearly abandoned, with business after business on either side shuttered and barred off, which eventually met with a busy crossroad about a half mile down.
We stood in front of the restaurant we had been looking for, and the man nodded. “Here you are, then.” He looked down the long street. “When you’ve finished, you walk straight and quickly till you come to the main road, and then turn right.” He had not asked us to where we were returning, so I did not know how he knew which way we should go. I realized we hadn’t even mentioned the name of this restaurant!
He spoke up again. “Do not go back the way you came,” he said in a strong voice. “It’s nae safe for you.” We nodded and, still somewhat bewildered and stunned, said nothing, just stepped inside the restaurant. Within a second I said to my husband, “Oh! We forgot to thank him!” I turned and went outside, but he was gone. As soon I realized that I stepped out of the restaurant to do so, but noted that the man was no longer in sight, I hurriedly walked several steps in one direction, and then the next, but there were no breaks in the walls of businesses, and none of the surrounding buildings were even open; our Scotsman was nowhere to be found. Within the previous few seconds, he had completely disappeared.
My heart quickened, and I felt wrapped in a holy hush; within my spirit, I knew. He’d been sent to help us, presented in a way that would make us feel safe and comforted, but in the well-worn shoes of someone who had walked many miles in service. We bought our delicious food and walked toward the road, as we’d been instructed. It was true, then, what Scripture promised. That angels are sent to guard our way, to guide us, to serve, protect, and be messengers of God: Our Scotsman’s warning, “Do not go back the way you came, it’s nae safe for you,” is timeless truth for all who walk the path of faith, is it not?
Angels are not just for “back then” and not just for others, but for all of us, here and now, those of us who will inherit salvation.
Billy Graham, in his book, Angels: God’s Secret Agents, recalls a similar situation wherein a group of American troops trapped up north during the Korean War were freezing, starving, and lost. After prayer and praise, they found themselves suddenly confronted with an English-speaking South Korean who led them through the mountains to safety behind their own lines. “When they looked up to thank him,” Graham writes, “they found that he had disappeared.”
I read this account some years after our London encounter, but it resonated perfectly with our experience. Life can be difficult; we can become lost, bewildered, confused, and in dangers of various sorts. God, however, promises that he will never leave us; he is a very present help in times of trouble. Sometimes, to our unexpected pleasure, that help arrives in angelic form, of which we mostly, at the time, remain unaware.
See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
Exodus 23:20
Main photo used with purchase permission from Shutterstock.
December 30, 2020
A New Direction!
I’m writing a new book! I am so very excited!
Many of you have asked when my next book will be out, so I wanted to share a bit of my recent journey. Although I love every book I’ve written, I’ve spent a decade researching and writing books set in dark eras, Tudor and Gothic. While they may only take a week or two to read, as their author, I’ve been marinating in grey eras for research, writing, and editing all year – every year – for a long time. My creative spirit was being snuffed out and it was time for a change. I spent some prayerful time researching a cherished book idea that has been nesting in my creative heart for about five years.
And now – it’s time to write it!
This book is both different from anything I’ve written, and yet very much like everything I’ve written. It’s women’s fiction set right here at home in the US, on Whidbey Island, and is a dual narrative: a contemporary story and one in the 1950s. The story entwines the lives of three generations of two families from two cultures – grandmothers, mothers, and granddaughters. It’s about the people we love, the challenges we face together, and how courageous sacrifices blossom long after we’ve planted them, bringing life and joy to those we love best and those we’ll never meet. It’s about keeping secrets and promises, and then not. It’s about deep friendships. It’s about real romance in all its many facets. It’s about sorrow met head-on, and joy and laughter, and victory.
Of course, it’s about food! 
I’m so grateful that I have an agent and a publisher who support my new direction and are as enthusiastic about my new book as I am! I hope you, my beloved readers and friends, will be eager to read this, too!
Mountain photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Cottage photo courtesy of Unsplash.
Old books photo used with purchase permission from Istockphoto.
December 1, 2020
Tokens and Treasures
Even as children, we are collectors: of pretty things, of tender hearts, of secret hopes and dreams.
When I was a young girl, my grandmother and I sometimes wandered around the empty elementary school playground across the street from her house on a summer’s afternoon, hand-in-hand. Heads down, we sought bits of smooth sea glass tossed among the rougher gray rocks used as ground cover. Once spotted, I’d deposit the pretty pebbles one by colorful one into the washed baby food jar which she’d brought along to protect and keep them.
On the way back to the house, I’d hold the jar up to catch the fading afternoon sun, wanting to capture and keep it, and our time together, too. Later, I graduated to collecting chunky agates from the shore of Lake Superior, stones the color of iron-rich blood and shot through with black and blue veins so that, when polished, they looked like nothing so much as slick hunks of liver. They remind me of the town in which I was born.
Why do we collect, and what is it that we find worthy of gathering and saving?
Sometimes we collect items that are very costly – pieces of jewelry, or art. Mostly, I think, we collect tokens, physical representations of personal connection and emotional resonance. Our tokens are our treasures and remind us of someone or something we love, of wishes, of memories we don’t want to lose. When my daughter grew up and moved out, she took one of my empty perfume bottles with her so that, when she was lonely, she could hold it to her nose, close her eyes, and remember home. You’ll find something very like that in Lady of a Thousand Treasures.
Not only do my collections end up in my books, like many of you, I also collect the books themselves. Perhaps collect isn’t the right word – hoard, stockpile, showcase, defend, and about which I become territorial might be better descriptions. The books I collect remind me of the years when I read them, after lights out in a blanket-tent in bed with a flashlight, sneaking in extra reading hours, or as a young adult escaping angst, or a grown woman stealing an hour of pleasure.
The first royalty check I earned on my own published works was spent at Powell’s bookstore in Portland, Oregon. I purchased hardback, dust-covered copies of the first edition of the Little House on the Prairie books which had been illustrated by Gareth Williams. I placed them in a glass-protected barrister’s bookcase, right next to my childhood paperback copies—edges yellowed and thin, frayed like old parchment, inside flaps claimed by a scrawled, “Sandie’s.” They remind me still of all I love in books, and why I have given my life to writing them. When I met my husband and he told me he’d saved the Sugar Creek Gang and Louis L’Amour books from his childhood, I knew we had a future together.
As a child, I would pick up a penny when I saw one lying on the ground and then I’d save it; that habit followed me into adulthood. As a child, I hoped it would bring me luck. As an adult, I took comfort in the reminder, embossed right into the metal, that “In God We Trust.” Happy to reach for a dropped penny at any time, they were especially welcome when I was fearful, anxious, or down. “In God I trust,” I whispered to myself as I tucked it into a pocket or purse. I think that’s one reason that – aside from books – I favor small collectibles. I can take them with me. They are portable prizes. I collect them in penny collector’s books, now; the sheer number of them suggests the many occasions God has used them to recall his constancy during times of strength and times of fragility.
A loved one’s recent bout with cancer proved just how fragile are the lives of those I love. And yet, those lives are firmly held in the hands of one who loves them and also loves me. The Lord walks hand-in-hand with me, like my grandmother did, collecting treasures with me and then helping me protect them. To remind myself of that, I sourced and purchased uncirculated pennies minted in the year that each of us was born: my husband, myself, my son, my daughter, and my son-in-law. When my son marries, I will add her birth year penny, too.
I keep them close to me – the beloveds and the pennies – to remind myself that God created them in a certain year. He has them in his eye with more affection and oversight even than the sparrows. In God We Trust. I trust you, Lord. Those portable pennies are tucked into a drawer in my office and sometimes carried in a pouch in my purse, close at hand when my loved ones cannot be.
What do you collect, cherish, display, or tuck away? Whatever it is, you can be sure that your treasures whisper truths about you. As Matthew 6:21 reminds us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be, also.”
All photos © Sandra Byrd.
November 24, 2020
A Wee Advent Gift for You!
I love Advent, preparing for the coming celebration, drawing it out, lengthening and deepening my appreciation and understanding of the Reason for the Season. If you like to celebrate, too, please download this free list of Advent verses to help guide you through the season. Share at will!
Click link below to view fullscreen or to download or print a copy!
Advent
Click here to purchase a copy of The One Year Experiencing God’s Love Devotional.
November 22, 2020
A Devoted Life: Chicken Noodle Soup
My son-in-law and I were speaking of the practical ways we see God at work in our lives when he recounted this story to me.
“My first year in school, I had very few benefits. I was living with a roommate in very poor circumstances, and we had no financial margin. I could scrape together rent and just the barest amount for food. However, my school was having a food drive for Thanksgiving, and I wanted to participate in some way. I was embarrassed by the little I had to offer—I didn’t have enough for myself—but I knew I could give a can of soup. I love chicken noodle soup, so that is what I gave.”
He continued, “The teacher in charge had put together a significant number of donors, and so the boxes of food grew and grew. We left that week happy that we all could contribute something. I, however, still had no idea what I would be eating for Thanksgiving.
“Imagine my surprise when my teacher drove up and delivered all those Thanksgiving boxes. She knew what my circumstances were and had been planning all along that I would be the recipient of the boxes. I gratefully unpacked every one—the food would last me long beyond the one-day feast. When I came to the final box, I plucked out the can of chicken noodle soup. I had donated it as an offering of the highest cost to me, and God sent it back to me many times over.”
As he recounted that story to me, my first thought was, Thank you, Lord, for bringing this man as a husband to my beloved daughter. And second, How good you are, Lord, to show us your love, attention, and generosity in such tangible ways.
“And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased,” Hebrews 13:16 reminds us.
Do not be ashamed of what you little you might have to offer God in thanksgiving this month, or any other. He knows our circumstances and honors our sacrifices while delighting in showering us with bounty.
Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.
Luke 6:38, NLT
If you enjoyed this devotion, please consider purchasing the book, Experiencing God’s Love, which may be found at fine retailers everywhere through the publisher’s portal.
Purchase Experiencing God’s Love here.
Photo by Calle Macarone on Unsplash
November 17, 2020
A Devoted Life: Bus Stops
One day, while on vacation, my husband and I were tempted by the smell of coffee and a rhubarb custard crumble displayed in a shop window. The problem? We had very little left in our daily budget. If we were going to indulge in the dessert, we would have to take the city bus back to where we were staying, not a taxi. Ordinarily, that would not be a problem, but we were in a foreign country. It would be navigating new terrain.
But gazing at the crumble, we were emboldened to take the bus. After all—how hard could it be? So, after indulging in the treat—totally worth it, by the way—we walked up the road and stood in front of the bus stop. We could not make sense of the bus guide, but thankfully someone helpful saw our bewilderment and offered direction. “You will never get where you want standing here,” she said. “You are on the wrong side of the street. The buses here go in the opposite direction of the one you’re looking for.”
We crossed the street, and soon enough the right bus arrived. A thought came to me as we traveled out of town. We must be on the right street—and on the right side of the street—to get where we want to go in life. If we are not standing smack in the center of where the buses run, we will never board. If we are on the wrong side, we may be headed in a direction we do not want to go!
As Christians, we do not know what the future holds. Jesus tells us to be dependent upon him day by day—for our daily bread—and in Matthew 6:34 he reminds us, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
If we stay in the center of his will, day by day, we will be exactly where we need to be to get exactly where we want to go, every day. Make sure you are headed in the right direction, friend!
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances,
for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NLT
If you enjoyed this devotion, please consider purchasing the book, Experiencing God’s Love, which may be found at fine retailers everywhere through the publisher’s portal.
Purchase Experiencing God’s Love here.
Photo used with purchase permission: Paolo Paradiso / Shutterstock.com
October 28, 2020
Teacups & Coffee Mugs From Our 6th Annual Exchange!
Thank you so much to the nearly seventy friends who participated in this year’s TeaPal, especially those who sent in a picture of their exchange mug or cup!
Pat Caffrey Rzonca is the winner of this year’s general prize, and Catherine Wofford is the winner of Sandra’s Readers Inner Circle prize of a customized mug.
So glad you joined us, and see you for our Seventh Annual Event next year!
TeaPal Prize!
