Cara C. Putman's Blog, page 77

4 Ideas for Transmitting Faith

One of my goals as a homeschooling momma is to transmit my faith to my kids. I want them to have a personal relationship with Christ from a young age. But I also understand they can’t ride on my coattails, or my husband’s or their grandparents, or aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.  You get the picture.

Transmitting #faith to your kids have you stymied? @cara_putman shares 4 tips.
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So I long for them to catch sight of who Jesus is so they can spend the rest of their lives chasing Him and His will for their lives.

Here are a few things I do to try to cultivate that.

1) Most school days start with Bible reading. I found if we didn’t do it at the beginning, it often got lost. So a couple years ago we switched to doing it first thing. I’m so glad that very simple change worked!

2) Read the Bible so the kids know what it says. Right now, we’re reading the Story. It’s a stripped down version of the Bible, meaning it focuses on the story, the history, without the prophecies, law, etc. As a result, it’s not the full Bible, but it’s giving them great context to how it all fits together. Next year, we’ll expand on that by reading the whole Bible, but this is working very well for us. 

3) Transmit how faith works in your life. I’m always talking about how God opens doors. The times I turn to Him for strength. I let the kids see me doing Bible study. I share how much I need Him to live life. We talk about how hard it must be to live life apart from Him. The key is it’s a natural, on-going part of our lives.

4) Encourage them when you see them seeking God on their own. If you notice they’re reading the Bible, ask what God is showing them. Place a value on time spent with God. Incorporate the need for them to seek God on their own. I’ve always talked about how they can be anything God calls them to be. Apart from Him life doesn’t work as well.

These are just a few of the things we do. What about you? How are you transmitting faith? What worked in your family (whether you were the child or the parent)?

Confessions of a Book Addict

I have a confession to make. 

I am a book addict.

There is absolutely nothing recovering about it.

I adore the feel of books, the smell of books, bookshelves overloaded with books. I LOVE BOOKS.

In many ways, it’s why I became an author. My favorite authors as a teen (no offense, Janette Oke, Michael Phillips, Bodie Thoene, and Frank Peretti) simply could not keep up with my voracious, all-consuming appetite. I read too fast. I inhaled books in hours rather than days. It got so bad that the small Christian bookstore owner would see me walk in and grab the publishers’ catalogs and shoot them across the table to me.

I’m a book addict. Any others out there? #amreading #chrisfic
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I would salivate over the new, yet to be released books…much as I do to this day.

If I bought the first book in the series, I had to buy them all…though I did peter out on the House of Winslow series about book 35.

I was faithful to tried and true authors, purchasing each new book just as soon as I could, yet open to trying new authors.

I read across genres…but never really developed a taste for science fiction. My apologies to all those who adore that genre.

My TBR pile is ever growing. It seems a book is added the moment (or a bit before!) another is pulled off. It towers and shivers its way into boxes. 

My lending library rivals many public and church libraries. My friends adore me for it. And when I’m done, I donate most of the books to church libraries so that others can enjoy my friends. Even so, my bookshelves threaten to buckle from their burden of books.

I. Adore. Books.

Always have, always will.

Thus said, the unrepentant book addict.

Oh, and have I mentioned I’m raising a future generation of book addicts?

(Please tell me I’m not alone. Are there any other book addicts here?)

Fiction Friday: No Place to Hide

Yesterday I was over at Inspired by Life & Fiction confessing that I am a book addict. (I started by typing was a book addict,” and then corrected it — I will always adore books!). So it is perfectly fitting that today I’m talking about Lynette Eason’s new book: No Place to Hide.

Love #RomanticSuspense? The try @lynetteeason new book No Place to Hide. A page turner @cara_putman…
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No Place to Hide is the third book in a series but stands very well on its own. In it two childhood friends get thrown together on the run for their lives as the nation believes they are terrorists. Through multiple points of view, the action ramps up, consistently cork-screwing tighter and tighter as Jackie and Ian try to find out who is behind the actual terrorist threat before they are captured … or killed.

The plot inNo Place to Hide is interesting and one that kept me coming back. If you like suspense that has romance playing a strong secondary role, then this is a book you will love. It’s a classic someone-saw-something-they-shouldn’t-have-and-now-bad-people-are-after-them-and-they’re-not-sure-why. The chase is intense, the fight scenes vivid but not overwhleming, and the why the bad guys are so close realistic. The bad guys aren’t hidden but some of the supporting folks stand in the shadows adding to the puzzle of how the book will unfold.

Characters from earlier books play low-key supporting roles, but it’s always fun to see them again if you’ve read the books. Lynette’s books are similar to Irene Hannon and Dee Henderson. They are perfect for readers who love a good mystery/suspense with strong romance threads. If this is your perfect book equation, then you should check out No Place to Hide.

Discovering Joy in the Moments

 

 

 

Joy is such a powerful and misunderstood word.

(I may not be as creative as some of my friends here on The GROVE, but I wanted to share my heart )

So often we think JOY means I’ll be HAPPY. Such different words. Websters says that JOY is “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires : delight.” Dictionary.com defines Happy as “delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing; or characterized by or indicative of pleasure, contentment, or joy.”

Both definitions make me smile. What else is a gal to do when confronted with JOY and Happy?

Can #joy invade our lives? @cara_putman explores the tension at @TheGROVEStory.
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You’ve probably heard (like me) that JOY is that undergirding decision to find joy regardless of our circumstances, while Happy is an emotion that comes and goes.

You can read the rest of this post at The GROVE.

Perfect for Historical Fans: To Win Her Favor

Tamera Alexander is one of my favorite historical authors. Her novels set in Reconstruction Nashville are sweeping and consuming. To Win Her Favor, her latest novel, is a perfect addition. (You can preorder the Kindle version for $4.99 until the 12th, so snap To Win Her Favor up while you can at that price!)

In To Win Her Favor, Maggie Linden finds herself married to Cullen McGarth as the only way to save her family’s storied farm and keep her amazing thoroughbred. Cullen has left Ireland and England behind, only to be confronted with intense prejudice in genteel post Civil War Nashville. The two have to choose whether they can make their marriage more than a business arrangement.

The thread of prejudice and running from the past while someone else wants to embrace a different past brings a poignant tone to the book. There’s also something so compelling about learning to love two characters who have to choose whether to love.

The book is also filled with action, twists, turns, and enough mystery and hard choice to make it an absolutely compelling read. This is a book I will read again

All in all, this book is perfect for those who love a rich, sweeping historical, with equal parts history and romance.

Love #Historical Romance? Then @Cara_Putman suggests @tameraAlexander To Win Her Favor.
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ABOUT THE BOOK

To Win Her Favor (Zondervan, May 2015)

A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who could help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing forever.

An Irishman far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once prosperous life in England because of a horse racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He’s come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and begin farming, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. But starting over proves harder than he’d wagered, especially when Maggie Linden’s father makes him an offer he shouldn’t accept yet cannot possibly refuse.

Maggie is certain that her mare, Bourbon Belle, can take the top purse in the inaugural Peyton Stakes, the richest race ever run in America. Maggie only needs the chance to prove it. To give her that chance—and to save Linden Downs from being sold to the highest bidder—Maggie’s father, aging, yet wily as ever, makes a barter. His agreement includes one tiny, troublesome detail—Maggie must marry a man she’s never met. A man she never would have chosen for herself. Learn more at Tamera’s site. Or purchase a copy here.

TAMERA ALEXANDER

Tamera Alexander is a best-selling novelist whose deeply drawn characters, thought-provoking plots, and poignant prose resonate with readers. Having lived in Colorado for seventeen years, she and her husband now make their home in Nashville Tennessee, along with their two adult children who live near by. And don’t forget Jack, their precious–and precocious–silky terrier.

Book Friday: Heart Sisters

Today I’m thrilled to introduce you to my friend Natalie Chamber Snapp’s brand new book Heart Sisters. Be sure to read to the end because I’m giving one copy away. You’ll want a chance to read this!

Let’s have an honest moment.

Yeah, I know. Those are soooo rare around here.

But seriously, if you’ve been a woman for long (like since birth!) you’ve had the opportunity to be burned by friendships. There may be a part of your heart that is leery of letting other women know you deeply. Yet, you may also have a deep knowing in your soul that you need heart sisters. Women who get you. Women who have earned the right to challenge your stupidity. Women who will cry when you cry.

That’s exactly why Natalie wrote this book. She knows the pain of burned friendships. She also knows the joy of risking and discovering deep friendships.

As I read this book I was reminded of all the times in my life it was easier to have guy friends. And of the deep, sweet grace of the women God brought into my life. Joy in college. Amy, Kelly, and Carrie in D.C. Kim and Katie in the neighborhood. Stephanie, Beth, Sue, and more at church. Then there are all of my writing sisters who know me deeply and love me anyway.

Friends, there is nothing like the richness that comes into life when you are known and loved anyway. This book is a great way to develop that in your life or intentionally study to add it in. The discussion questions at the end of each chapter are a great aid to dig deeper on your own or with a group. At the same time, this book reads like a quick chat over coffee or iced tea with a friend who’s learned a few things along the journey of this life.

Heart Sisters is for women who want to both be and have better friends and want a helpful guide to take them through the process.

Author Natalie Chambers Snapp uses her own and others’ stories of successes and failures to illustrate what she has learned about girlfriend relationships. Healthy boundaries, honesty, tact, sharing, and agape love all play a part in being and maintaining a circle of close confidants. She also deals with the inevitable challenges that face many relationships including how to handle conflict; life changes like a new baby, move or divorce; and when it is right to “break-up” with your friend.

Discussion questions, space to journal, photos, and quick interviews of healthy female friendships are included within each chapter.

“Each chapter has great exploratory questions at the end, to help readers dig deeper, and become the kind of friend they ultimately want to have.” —CBA Retailers + Resources

Natalie Chamber Snapp is first and foremost a follower of Jesus, then wife to Jason, and mom to one spunky daughter and two spirited sons with a crazy amount of energy. Choosing to follow Jesus at 27, Natalie is passionate about sharing the grace, mercy, and truth of God’s love. She lives in the Midwest with her crew and tries to keep it simple by writing about the faith found in the everyday mundane. The outpourings of her heart can be found at www.nataliesnapp.com in the fleeting moments between being a wife and mother. She is also a contributing writer for The Mothers of Boys Society, the Whatever Girls Ministry and Group Publishing.

Learn more and purchase a copy at the Abingdon site.

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5 Tips to Tailor Social Media

Social Media.

I know…I’m cringing with you.

There is so much pressure on writers to have an ever-growing social media presence. If you want to have a writing career, whether as a traditionally published author or one who publishes your own books, you have to become comfortable telling the world about them. After all, a book isn’t really a book until it’s read.

Have a love/hate relationship w/ #SocialMedia? @cara_putman shares 5 #tips to harness it.
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Because it is part of the writing life, here are five tips to hopefully remove some of the angst from building your social media presence.

1) Get to know the platforms. There are so many different social media outlets available, take the time to explore them. Not every outlet will be one that you enjoy. That’s okay. For every platform you aren’t fond of, there will be another one, two or three that you love. So play around. Try them out. See what you like.

2) Pick one or two to focus on.  You can’t be an expert on all formats, but you can develop skills in a few. Take it slow. You eat an elephant one bite at a time after all. So focus on Twitter until you figure out how it works for you. Then try Facebook. Maybe you’ll decide Pinterest is your sweet spot. Could it be Goodreads? You’ll never know which one is a good fit for you until you get on a platform and take it for a spin. Invest a few months in it and see how it develops.

3) Realize each Social Media Platform has its own system. What works on Twitter does not work on Facebook and vice versa. So you will need to invest some research and time into what will work for you on each. Some good sources of information to get you started include: Social Media Examiner, Author Media, The Marketing Nutz, and Edie Melson. There are many more resources out there, but if you start with these three, you can begin to develop your strategy.

4) Strategy? I don’t need no stinking strategy! Well, actually you do. I’ll admit on my blog, I don’t always look like I have a strategy, but I do. It’s buried in there. One day a week I try to post on parenting/homeschooling. Wednesday are faith days. And Fridays are fiction/book days to coincide with the weekend. On social media, my strategy is to provide a ray of hope in a dark world. This could be through quotes, pictures with Bible verses, questions for engagement, etc. But I decided a long time ago that selling books is why I’m on social media, but it is not the only or even primary reason. Prayerfully evaluating and altering why I’m on social media helps on the days I really don’t want to be.

So can I be efficient? Are there ways to funnel content from one to the other? Yes! Experts debate about whether it’s a good thing to do, but it can save you some precious time. Which leads me to…

5) Maximize Your Limited Time with Tools. There are many great tools that can help you feed content to your social media presence so that you aren’t constantly needing to be online. You might choose to be, but you won’t need to be. There is a difference. Rather than recreate it, I have a post that gives you five of my favorite tools to maximize social media. You can read it here.

Do you have a social media presence? Which is your favorite application?

 

5 Verses to Encourage

Today I am so grateful for all that God has seen me through — as yet another journey ends. Graduation is the 15th, but the work of the MBA is behind me! WOOT!

Some days we all need a little #encouragement for the journey. @cara_putman shares 5 verses.
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So to celebrate, here are five verses that I hope will encourage you. Four I designed, one was designed by one of the awesome GROVE ladies. I bet you can figure out which one. My prayer is that each of these verses would encourage you today. And feel free to share them so they can encourage others.

Fiction Friday: Books I’m Reading & My TBR Pile

Today starts my last weekend of MBA classes. Woot! If you missed my happy dance, be sure to go here. It’s six seconds of sheer silliness that had my 14 year-old rolling her eyes. Because of the intensity of these last days of classes, I haven’t finished a novel this week. Scandalous! But I’m in the process with two I’m really enjoying.

Need summer reading? @Cara_putman on TBR piles & #giveaways of books.
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The first of those is Shelley Shepherd Gray’s Secrets of Sloane House. I’ve heard excellent things about this book, so it’s been fun to dive into the pages, though I wish I could immerse myself in them. So far, it’s an intriguing story of social classes, the World’s Fair, and a mystery that might just turn suspenseful before the book ends. Not sure about that yet.

It’s an enjoyable read with an interesting mix of characters. I’ll be interested to see who the villain is because right now all signs are pointing one direction and I can’t quite believe it’s really him. It’s almost too easy, if you know what I mean. But I can’t wait to dive back in and consume the rest of this book…Saturday night!

The other book I’m enjoying is Rosanna Huffman’s Hand Me Down Husband. This is completely different from Secrets of Sloane House. Where Shelly’s book is a historical mystery set during the Gilded Age, Hand Me Down Husband is a contemporary romance with strong women’s fiction themes. But unlike many women’s fiction books that I’ve picked up, this one doesn’t have me bogged down. Instead, I’ve really come to care about Suzanne and Mitch. It’s not 100% given that they will end up together — so many factors are destined to keep them apart. It’s a really enjoyable first novel from an author that I’ve known for several years. It’s been so fun to read her novel! If you like contemporary romances with some meatier overtones, then this is one I bet you’ll enjoy as much as I have.

Now for fun, here’s a photo of my TBR pile. I CANNOT WAIT to dive into these as soon as I leave class on Saturday. Which would you pick to read first? Enter the Rafflecopter, and I’ll pick a lucky reader to receive a copy of the ARC to Tamera Alexander’s latest book To Win Her Favor. It’s hiding there in the pile. And don’t forget, To Win Her Favor is currently on ebook sale for $4.49. Preorder it at this price while you can!

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5 Tips to Develop Your Public Speaking Skills

This last mod of the Weekend MBA program at Purdue, I’m taking communications. It’s a class that comes fairly easy for me because I’ve spent the last 20 years intentionally working to become a better public speaker. When I graduated from undergrad many moons ago, I knew I wanted to develop as a speaker. I’d had a speech class in college, but the standard was so low, I could literally get up on days when no one else was prepared, extemporaneously give a speech, and get an A. Nice for the GPA. Not so nice for developing real skills.

Want to become a better #speaker, but not sure how? @cara_putman shares 5 #tips.
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Because I wanted to develop skills in this area, I intentionally sought a job in D.C. that would allow me to try, fail, and try again. I’m blessed that my bosses at the Leadership Institute gave me abundant opportunities.

I kept looking for them.

Today, public speaking is relatively easy for me. People often assume it’s always been this way. It hasn’t. Here are 5 tips that I hope will help you become more comfortable speaking.

1) Seek opportunities to practice. When the fear of public speaking ranks right up there with death, it’s often the last thing we want to do. Why on earth would we seek opportunities to do something that makes our knees quake, our stomachs tremble, and our vision blur? Because being comfortable speaking is an important skill that opens doors. So push yourself. Join an organization like Toastmasters.  The key is to practice.

2) Develop an area of expertise that you are passionate about. It is much easier to talk about areas where our passions lie. I can talk about the Monuments Men all day. I could elaborate on why I think it is so important to mentor young people consistently. You have areas of passion, too. Tap into those and your voice and gestures will be more enthusiastic and lively.

3) Watch other speakers. What do they do well? What could they improve upon? What can you learn from watching them? How do they engage with their audience? How do they use words and their voice to catch your attention. Imitate what you learn until it becomes natural to you. There are some masterful speakers to study.

4) Read Public Speaking Books. Wait. That sounds an awful lot like non-fiction, and we love fiction around here! There is a place for non-fiction and this is one of them. A lot of really smart people have written books sharing their secrets…we don’t have to learn the hard way. We can jump ahead to a new level of skill. There are a host of public speaking books out there.  A few I have in my library are Well Said by Darlene Price, The Exceptional Presenter by Tim Koegel, and How to be a Presentation god by Scott Schwertly. Others would add different books to this list. The key is to find a couple books, read them, and slowly incorporate suggestions into your speaking. The Exceptional Presenter has great tips on how to move, gestures, etc. Well Said has great basics on every aspect of speaking. Each has a strength. Taken together they form a strong picture.

5) Listen/Watch your speeches. Eric teases me when I listen to the podcasts or radio shows I’ve been a guest on. It’s not a matter of hubris, but a matter of listening to what I said and how and using that information to look for areas to improve. In the MBA class, each presentation is videotaped and we have to review and critique our performances. You should do the same. It’s only when you listen to yourself that you notice fillers (umms, uhhs, etc.) and note the speed you talk. It’s when you watch that you pick up nervous tics you’re completely unaware of. It’s not always comfortable, but it is a great way to learn.

What would you add to this list?

This video is of a short motivational speech I gave in class on Saturday. I look at it and still see areas to improve. We all have them. The only way to erase them is to keep speaking or stop altogether.