Faithchick

With Grace

WITH GRACE

 

I have a beautiful Christian friend who is dealing with a serious health issue and has been for several years. She struggles to make life as normal as possible for her and her family. I so admire her for her strength and hold on her faith that may be shaken but always finds firm ground again. Recently, that faith was shaken hard when her husband strayed. When I first learned he had broken his marriage vows, I determinedly prayed for him, as well as my friend—prayed for them to be reconciled and that forgiveness would come. But with every month that brings new hurts and betrayals to light, it gets harder to pray for this man and the reconciliation of his marriage. And so I have to remind myself repeatedly that anything is possible with God and far be it for me to believe nothing can be done. Only God knows, and whatever happens, He will be there with my friend. He will get her through this painful time—with grace and gracefully.

 

Following the publication of seven mainstream medieval romances, Tamara Leigh entered the inspirational market with Stealing Adda in 2006. This was followed by Perfecting Kate and her November 2007 release, Splitting Harriet. She is currently at work on her August 2007 release, Faking Grace.

"G" Material

     There I was, sitting in my SUV in front of church waiting to carpool to the girlfriend retreat and thinking, What are you doing? Pajamas? Fuzzy slippers? Games? Chick flicks? You are not “G” (girlfriend) material. You don’t giggle, squeal, or breezily engage in tête-à-tête. And what if they decide to give each other facials? Manicures? Paint their toenails? Not your thing.

     As I was thinking about slinking back home, along came our music minister’s wife, Heather, and out of my mouth popped, “Wanna ride with me?” The unblinking answer: “Sure”. Ooh. Shouldn’t she have come up with an excuse to ride with someone she knows?

     Heather didn’t give me time to grieve the lost opportunity to slink away, but attempted to engage me in one of those breezy tête-à-têtes that I’m not good at. Did she succeed? It’s kind of blurry, but what should have felt like an endless drive was anything but. When we arrived at the lodge, two dozen other ladies were already outfitted in pajamas.

     What followed was a night of fun and a morning of fellowship. I’ll start with the night. Um…chewy underwear. NOT what you think! The game was “Apples to Apples”, the adjective “chewy”, the noun that one of us sought to pair it with, “underwear”. Strange, but that squeal sounded a bit like me. At the other end of the lodge were sixteen women playing Bunko, all vying for… I don’t know, but they sure wanted it. Then there was scrapbooking, Indian Poker, a game of Bologna (I might have giggled), a showing of “The Notebook”, and rocking chair chats. At two a.m, I crept among Gs who were already in their bunks, slid into my sleeping bag, and inserted my purple earplugs.

     Daylight. A crick in my neck. A vague sense of having slept at some point. The smell of coffee. The taste of omelets. All good, as was the breakfast fellowship, the highlight of which was an older woman’s dream of India in which she was wearing a poodle skirt and lamenting a Sharpie marker. Following a hike, the retreat came to a close and Heather and I climbed into my SUV and chatted all the way back to church.

     There. A glimpse into a "G" retreat. As for the secret to being a "G", I'm working on that, but I have the sneaking suspiciion that the first step is just showing up. Being there. Not slipping away.

--Tamara Leigh

Perfecting Kate, Multnomah 02/07

Splitting Harriet, Multnomah 11/07

On Mistakes and Being Forgiven

Last night I finished reading “A Bigger Life”, a story in male first person point of view written by…a woman, namely Annette Smith. And now I’m wrung out. In a good way. A way that made me reflect on how, no matter how deep our faith, we all make mistakes. How, as imperfect as we are, God still loves us and wants us to draw near Him. How He wants us to return to Him after our selfish wanderings. How He’s always there ready to forgive even when those we’ve hurt can’t or won’t.                                                                                                                                                               

Joel’s story also reminded me of how precious our loved ones are and how fleeting our time with them. How we need to step back from worldly things and put that wasted energy into loving them alongside Him. When I read the last page of “A Bigger Life”, the tears cleared, and I was sitting amid crumpled Kleenex, I thanked God that He has so many gifted writers in His stable to point us to Him.

I am humbled.                                                                                                                                                

Following the publication of seven mainstream medieval romances, Tamara Leigh entered the inspirational market with Stealing Adda in 2006. In February, 2007, Perfecting Kate was released. Currently, she is gearing up to tackle revisions to her next novel, Splitting Harriet.

SLIPPING AWAY

It's hard watching someone slip away, and the older I get, the more I witness the struggle of those whose grip on life is failing. A year and a half ago, it was my God-loving mother-in-law who quietly went to be with the Lord--an expected passing, but still difficult. Since, my husband and I have seen an increasing number of friends and acquaintances go to be with the Lord, including a wonderful Christian man who left a wife and pre-teen daughter without a husband and father this past Thanksgiving. Now, according to doctors who say they can do no more, within the next eight weeks another Christian man we know will leave his family to be with the Lord.

"To be with the Lord". There's comfort in those words--as there should be. Not that we won't experience pangs of sorrow and loss and even anger when a fellow Christian goes to be with the Lord, but if we focus on the promise of "forever" with Him, there will be light beyond the darkness. And certainly greater motivation to reach out to those who don't know Jesus. For me, an introvert and expert in conflict avoidance, it's difficult to share my faith. However, beyond my writing, I'm determined to make more of an effort so that when those who don't know Jesus start to slip away, they'll also go to be with the Lord.

Tamara Leigh, author of Stealing Adda and Perfecting Kate (Multnomah '07)

ANOTHER YEAR OLDER

       I’ve always liked that there are only two days between my birthday and our oldest son’s. And I still maintain that the surprise party my husband threw for me on that birthday is the cause of it. After all, our firstborn wasn’t due for another two weeks, and I did begin to have labor pains the day after. So, only two days between our birthdays, which has allowed me to become so caught up in plans for our son’s celebration that there hasn’t been much time to think about turning another year older myself. A very useful distraction.

       However, this year was different, and all because our baby boy turned 13. That’s right. We are now, officially, the parents of a teenager. Meaning that our son is becoming a man, meaning that I really am middle-aged, meaning that I’m somewhere in the vicinity of 15,695 days old (you’re gonna have to work for that one). Yep, 15,695 days old. Woah! And Praise the Lord! Outside of issues related to vanity (Wherefore art thou, wrinkle decrease cream?), I’m thrilled. You see, my handy dandy calculator tells me that of all those days, I’ve been blessed to be married to a wonderful man for 6,570+; blessed with our firstborn son for 4,745+, and blessed with our second born son for 3,285+. Every one of those days is precious, even if, in bundles of 365, they add a year to my age (and put a ding in my pocketbook when the “age defying” beauty aisle is too much to resist).

       The only problem is that with each year I add to my age, I have to subtract a year spent with our sons as they grow toward independence and become men with lives separate from their parents’. As difficult as it is to accept, they will move out and eventually make families of their own. Hmm… That could mean grandmother-hood. And starting the count all over again. God is SO good!

Tamara Leigh is the author of STEALING ADDA

and the February '07 release, PERFECTING KATE,

from Multnomah 

Confessions of a Bible-holic

          It started when I made the commitment to read the Bible through in a year. Previous to that, I’d mostly poked around in God’s word when our pastor brought up scripture that impacted me, or when a Bible study required a look in the good book. So here I was on the Lifeway website signing up to have daily readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs e-mailed to me. The only thing I lacked was this lovely gray and orange Italian Duo-Tone NIV Student Bible. The need was filled (for the sake of my journey), and I was off! Highlighter in hand, I read the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible (well, not exactly). It was an exhilarating journey, an enlightening journey, a not a little overwhelming journey. But I made it through. In fact, around Christmas I started reading ahead and finished the Bible in ten months rather than twelve. With a feeling of accomplishment, I set the page-worn NIV on my bookshelf alongside my “old” Bible.

         Now what? There was so much I’d come to understand over the past ten months, and yet there seemed more I didn’t understand. Hmm. Maybe a different translation…? Maybe that bright pink God’s Word Translation that had caught my eye? Yes. Definitely the pink. Once more, the need was filled, but this time I decided to read front to back. A very nice translation, and yet… What about The Message? I ordered it online and it arrived on my doorstep with this really nice messenger bag that I’m certain I’ll find a use for one day. Up on the shelf went The Message to be read once I finished the God’s Word Translation. Then one day I came across this hot pink and lime green, cross-embossed NIV Bible (I know, I already have an NIV, but this one was sooo pretty). Up on the shelf it went, to be read after The Message. And yesterday…

          Honestly, I only intended to pick up a copy of Escape From Fred by Brad Whittington (love that series!); however, there was this display of itty bitty Bibles in a Bag, and rather than the $29.99 price tag that had held me in check for the past few months, a special promotion had them priced at only $10! And they came in all these adorable colors. After much consideration (and heavy sighs from my nine-year-old son, Maxen, who kept looking longingly at the door), I chose a lime green and baby blue NIV (I know, I have two others) in a striped lime green and baby blue bag that I can take anywhere. No excuse whatsoever for not having a Bible handy. But just in case…

          I waffled. Really, I did, but that special promotion for Bible software was staring me in the face. It’s not inconceivable that one of these days when I’m out and about with my laptop, I might forget my itty bitty Bible in a Bag. And that just wouldn’t do.

          Okay, so I have a Bible “thing”. It could be worse. I wouldn’t be able to find books of the Bible without fumbling through the table of contents. While listening to our pastor, I wouldn’t experience that thrill upon hearing a familiar scripture. During prayer, I wouldn’t be able to recall specific promises. I wouldn’t understand God’s plan for my life to the extent I’ve come to understand it. And when our sons ask, “Does the Bible really say that?” I wouldn’t be able to say with confidence, “You better believe it!” Yes, it could be far worse.

Visit Tamara at TamaraLeigh.com!

FRIENDSHIP: Straddling The Picket Fence

Sitting in my Ladies Sunday School Class this week, I found myself straddling the fence—you know, the “picket” variety with spear-like points that make one intensely uncomfortable? On one side of the fence was my automatic reaction to the topic of “friendship”, as introduced by the story of Ruth and Naomi: Friends are all good and well, but one must be cautious. On the other side of that fence was the annoying thought: How wonderful it would be to have a “to the ends of the earth” friend like Ruth. Not that I don’t have friends. Not that I’m not a friend. It’s just that my introverted personality, combined with some painful experiences as a teenager, has made me cautious with the depths of those friendships. And so I continued to straddle the fence until our leader, a beautiful, God-breathing woman named Susan Davault, demonstrated what the Lord intended when he commanded us to love one another.

Susan asked if one of our ladies would read a passage from the book of Ruth and pause after each sentence. Then she knelt before a surprised lady and, with each pause between sentences, put Ruth’s words into her own words while holding the woman’s gaze with an intensity that made me duck my head behind my Bible (I don’t do drama).

Ruth 1:16-17: Don’t force me to leave you. Don’t make me turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and I will be buried there with you. May the Lord strike me down if anything but death separates you and me!”(God’s Word Translation)

After the second sentence, I peeked at the scene. Back to my Bible. Deep breath. Another peek. A glance at the floor. My, I really ought to repaint my toenails. Maybe one more peek. This time, however, I made it through the end of Susan’s demonstration without looking away. And when she rose from before the speechless, visibly moved recipient of her words, it was obvious all the ladies were affected on one level or another. Including me. Though I didn’t want to be, I was awed…and touched…and suddenly needy. At the risk of vulnerability, I knew I had to get off the fence on the side of Ruth. Not that I’m yet ready to toss out that tea bag tag I’ve been holding onto for years that quotes sixteenth-century Diane de Poitiers: To have a good enemy, choose a friend; he knows where to strike, but the reminder to never allow a friend too near really doesn’t belong on my refrigerator door. Baby steps….

We’re commanded to love one another, and so I’m going to work toward not only gaining a friend like Ruth, but being a friend like Ruth. We should all be so blessed and a blessing to others.

Tamara Leigh is the best-selling, award-winning author of seven medieval romances from Bantam, HarperCollins, and Leisure.  Her first Christian novel (yay!), STEALING ADDA, was released by NavPress this past March. In January '07, look for her second Christian "chick lit", PERFECTING KATE, from Multnomah. www.tamaraleigh.com