Saturday, June 19, 2010

"Computer Thing" Or "God Thing"?

Have you ever thought that God can use your computer to be a source of encouragement in your life? No, I’m not talking about the many devotionals and inspired writings you can find. I’m talking about a computer putting words that you need right in front of you several times until you get the message.

Funny thing about computers: sometimes they work great and sometimes you really want to throw them out the window. That’s how I felt the day I was trying to copy and paste a phrase into a search engine. Let me back up and say I was having a really hard week. I was fighting feelings of depression. Some family situations were making me sad and although I was trying to be diligent with writing, I found I was just using the computer to occupy my mind.

I keep a file of quotes that I find in books or on the Internet. This file is getting pretty full as I have people from W.B.Yeats, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, and Cowper to Erma Bombeck. As you can see my mind goes to many extremes in the course of a day. From poetry to funny things of living with teenagers and hormones, I read all sorts of articles. But recently my husband had signed a card to me with a really sweet phrase: I decided to put him at the top of my quotes file.

Every time I went to copy and paste into my search engine a research question, out of nowhere, it inserted the phrase from my husband “You are the single most important on going event in my life. All my love, Bill.” After trying several times to get the information, I gave up. Was it a computer error or was it a “God thing?” I needed encouragement that day and that was what I got. No one but God could have done that, as it was several months before that I had put the phrase from my husband in my quote file. I guess I won’t be throwing the computer out the window. Because when I needed encouragement the most, God worked with my computer to lift my spirits. A "computer thing" or a "God thing?" You be the judge.

email me at thornrose7@aol.com

Monday, June 7, 2010

Read Life in Defiance: A Novel (Defiance Texas Trilogy) by Mary E. DeMuth

I was torn between wanting the savor the book as I knew it was the last one in the Defiance Texas Trilogy and hurry up and finish so I could see who killed Daisy Chance. It was so hard to put down and go about what I needed to do during the day; my reward was coming back to the book as often as I could. I will savor it the second reading. I love everything that Mary E DeMuth has written! I will always be a fan of her writing, her overcoming spirit and her fiction story telling.
Daisy Chain (Defiance Texas Trilogy, Book 1) A Slow Burn (Defiance Texas Trilogy, Book 2) must be read first, although there is enough background for this to be a stand-alone book. But you don't want to miss a word that Mary has written. Powerful, scorching, melodic and spiritual words that will sear your soul.
I will always love Mary's characters and Hixon is still my favorite but Emory grew to be a close second. Strange how things can change from the first book to the second. And in Life in Defiance she became a woman after my own heart.

Perhaps it was a bit harder for me to read this one as I lived through seeing my own mother abused horribly when I was a young child. Not only her, but I still remember the purple welts on my brother's back. Maybe I didn't want to read deeply and find those memories and flashbacks are still deep within me; forgiven but who could forget memories like those?
I so love this trilogy that I had to email Zondervon Publisher and ask: Why would you let Mary end with only 3 books when the story's characters call out to be elaborated on in many other books; Defiance, Texas trilogy surely is only a beginning? Mary's readers are crying for more.
Mary, you are a magnificent writer and I feel you deep in my soul. I only wish I could buy all your books for all my friends and family. Blessings, peace and fruitfulness I pray for you and yours.