My review of The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery Paperback by Amanda Cox

 

The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery Paperback by Amanda Cox is a story that will keep you reading. From the sixties to present day, this book is a real page-turner. I’d have to say that The Secret Keepers of Old Depot Grocery surely joins in with some of my all-time favorite Southern women’s fiction.

I love dual time theme stories that go back to the sixties. This one did not disappoint. I’m really surprised at the depth of the writing from such a young author, surely mature beyond her years. The very complicated situations that arose with so much family drama was very believable to me. The characters were very loving to the highest degree as far as Clarence, Jimmy, Bo and Clay, as well as the women the story was about; the hardest thing to believe is the way Glory Ann was treated by her own mom and dad. Although I know there are people who can turn their backs on their own children, her parents really took it to an extreme. 

I will probably reread this book as it was the type of book that you devour as you just can’t wait to find the conclusion to this very complicated but beautiful story.

Although I received this book free of charge from Revell Reads in exchange for my honest review; I will now be on the lookout for any other books by Amanda Cox.

Don't miss THE HEALING OF NATALIE CURTIS by Jane Kirkpatrick

 

 

THE HEALING OF NATALIE CURTIS by Jane Kirkpatrick is a novel based on a real “wonder woman” of her era. She was a woman who caught the very soul of the indigenous people and the beautiful artistry that they created. She was truly a woman before her time. Reading this historical fiction book by Jane Kirkpatrick makes me want to look up others by her. I was startled to find out what a prolific writer she is.

Her love of the downtrodden and abused people will inspire you. Her passion to create and help create the music that was being silenced and get their story out, will stir you. She knew that to appeal to then President Teddy Roosevelt was the only way to have the power to help the people she came to know and love. Her mission was beautiful and I could sense a beautiful soul within her and those she chose to represent. To take away music from the heart of a child was truly abusive; she was able to return the song to their heart. They came to know her heart; a heart of pure gold.

You will want to read this book, probably more than once.

Although I received this book free of charge from Revell Reads in exchange for my honest review; I look forward to reading any other books by this author.

TGIF! “Just Call to Me. I guarantee I will answer you. I will make you strong & brave.” (Ps.138:3)

 “Just Call to Me. I guarantee I will answer you. I will make you strong & brave.” (Ps.138:3)

Praying for the many unspoken prayer requests today. I'll probably be reposting this declaration often: May we face the day without fear today Lord, praying for all who need help, resources, healing and more. This is my main declaration today:

No Weapon formed against us will prosper, we will be the head and not the tail, all of our children and grandchildren will be taught of the Lord, He will be sought by those who did not call our for Him and found by those who did not seek Him. We will not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble, for they will be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before we call He shall answer; and while we are yet speaking He will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, (what the Lord showed me in this today I'm inserting my version: families divided will eat together)

Let it be known O enemy of our soul that we PLEAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS OVER OUR FAMILIES/ YOU WILL NOT WIN, CONTROL OR DESTROY WHAT THE LORD OUR GOD HAS STARTED.

It's Wednesday! Halfway Through!

 

 

Praying for single parent families and their kids today. May our great God and Lord Jesus give you your heart’s desires, with strength and provision.

I pray that any negativity in your life and any fear for your children be replaced by love.

Thanking of many of you in particular and praying the Lord's breakthrough.

 

May the peace of the Lord surround us today.

 "Many of you have been in the fire for so long you have become used to the pain, but I felt the Lord say, that now you shall know the blessing of PROMOTION. You shall now know the blessing of seeing God move on your behalf in power and release you into greater fullness of your calling and destiny. Do NOT shrink back, this is the time for you to STAND and for you to TAKE YOUR PLACE." Lana Vawser

 

From Accidental Saints “You are a mess, and you are loved. You have a little issue with anger, and you are loved. I’ve not known you that long, and you are loved. You think you are going through this alone but you are wrong, and you are loved. The thing you are experiencing right now seems so big, but what is bigger is that you are loved.” Nadia Bolz-Weber

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrAdbH28gIg

Monday's Prayer and Quotes

 

On Mondays we pray for families, your family and mine, those who need us and those who push us away. Many today are off work; we pray for those essential workers who can’t take off. Do something today to make someone else smile and you will find yourself smiling, also.

 

This is an old post I found in my journal but I thought someone could use it again, today:

“There is someone you care about that has been in a hard place seemingly much of their life. It has been a constant concern. You have tried talking to them, you have succeeded in getting other people talking to them. But nothing has appeared to get them into the place where blessings are being poured out on them. They seem to have a block that cannot be overcome. It affects them personally and relationally. You have prayed again and again, and your prayers have seemed to hit the ceiling. I am telling you do not stop. Don't give up. Fight the fight of faith. Continue to believe. Promises will be fulfilled.” Bev Robinson

 

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 (AMP) "For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),"

 

"But there are times when you don’t feel like lifting up your hands to thank and praise God, yet you do it. Perhaps you feel very discouraged lately. Perhaps everything is going wrong for you and you feel like your life is in a mess. You can’t hold back the tears. Yet, you make a conscious decision to lift your hands and thank God for being in the situation with you. You open your mouth and begin to praise Him even though you really don’t feel like doing it." Joseph Prince Ministries

 

“If you haven’t healed it, every time you think about a negative event from your past, your body produces the exact same chemicals in your body as when it happened. This means you relive the experience hundreds of times simply because you have not let it go.” Unknown

“I want to be the best me I can. So I follow my natural rhythm, and don’t t try to imitate anyone else.” Unleash the Writer Within by Cecil Murphy

May your Sunday be full of peace, love and Jesus!

 

May your Sunday be full of peace, love and Jesus.

This is my main declaration today; help me to live it our, Jesus:

No Weapon formed against us will prosper, we will be the head and not the tail, all of our children and grandchildren will be taught of the Lord, He will be sought by those who did not call our for Him and found by those who did not seek Him. We will not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble, for they will be the descendants of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them. It shall come to pass that before we call He shall answer; and while we are yet speaking He will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, (what the Lord showed me in this today I'm inserting my version: families divided will eat together)

Let it be known O enemy of our soul that we PLEAD THE BLOOD OF JESUS OVER OUR FAMILIES/ YOU WILL NOT WIN, CONTROL OR DESTROY WHAT THE LORD OUR GOD HAS STARTED.

Closing up Shop

Closing up Shop

 

Does there come a time in everyone’s life when they feel like closing up shop? Does the body that once was youthful and healthy, seem to be working against you and any feelings of strength and agility? Does it take you twice as long to do what you used to do?

 

Do people around you that you love, perhaps unknowingly, make you feel as if you don’t count anymore?

 

Do you feel like closing up shop?

 

Is it normal to feel this way when you’ve passed the biblical allotted time of life: the three-score and ten? You notice there are many beautiful and lively people in their 80’s or 90’s who are cherished for their mind, thoughts, beauty and liveliness. You’re not sure you will be like them or make it till then so again, the thought, I’m ready to close up this shop before it gets any more worn and torn.

 

Closing up shop may help us prepare for the day we meet our Lord. Yes, it will be glorious and we will have no more earthly sorrows to contend with. Yet we all know that each day we live, each day we wake up to a new, untarnished day, we have an opportunity to make a difference in our world.

 

This world is not as it was back in the fifties when I was born. That was a simpler time, a time of a slower pace, a sense of community and perhaps more family time and fun.

 

Now everywhere we look there seems to be pain and untimely diseases and death. Fathers and mothers dying of COVID sometimes leaving little children alone in the world. Brave officers of the law, leaving their families too soon as well as the growing opioid crisis and loss from substance use disorder.

 

The sixties wasn’t the only generation that tuned in and turned on as we see a generation hooked on anything that will take them away from reality.

 

Many of us see unbelievable things occurring in our country and it saddens our hearts. Yet we can’t dwell on the negativity, the sadness, the pain. As much as the thought, closing up shop, isolating and every man for himself may come, we must instead listen to the Spirit each day.

 

We must train ourselves to look above and not below, we must focus on THE WORD OF THE LORD as our help and hope. Yes, we can’t all get out and change the world right now with actions, but we can with our prayers.

 

E. M. Bounds said, “God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death, the heart that that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world.”

 

So, instead of closing up shop, let’s open doors of prayers and gratitude. Smile, and make people wonder what you’re up to. Call someone up, write a letter, send a beautiful card to brighten a person you love up. Hug more. Love more. Make a new storefront for your shop in any creative way that the Lord leads you. Put the welcome mat out and shine like the sun.

 

I’m ending with a quote I learned and loved when very young:

 

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”― Stephen Grellet

My review of The Chase by best-selling author Lisa Harris

 

The Chase by best-selling author Lisa Harris was an interesting, fast-paced novel from the beginning to the end. The characters were believable and there was a recipe for romance from the moment Madison James’ partner, Deputy US Marshall Jonas Quinn, brought her a breakfast of wonderful choices on her first day back to work. My own stomach was rumbling as she described: raspberry vanilla croissants, apple Danish, and pain au chocolat, as well as salmon, bacon and spinach croissants.

Her plan to find out who’d shot her earlier took her and her partner much further than she’d planned to go.

This is the second book of a trilogy series. It definitely is making me want to look up and read the others.

 Although I received this book free of charge from Revell Reads in exchange for my honest review; I’d be happy to read any other books by this author.

My review of ...Or For Worse: Loving Your Husband Through Hard Times

 

...Or For Worse: Loving Your Husband Through Hard Times, by Emma Chambers

This is a long overdue review of a book that will make you think differently about your marriage and how you and your spouse interact together.

The second part of the title, Loving Your Husband Through Hard Times is something many wives will relate to.  If you’re married, the honeymoon stage normally doesn’t last forever.

This book although using a pseudonym is written by a Christian woman who knows the Bible well and uses it to get through the days, the years and even the next moments that may seem intolerable. A key quote, “Giving our marriage to God isn’t a one-time done deal; it’s something I have to do over and over.”

She has great sub-titles for chapters such as:
The Vow to Change Him

Entering Marriage With Wounds

Embracing God’s Love List

And God Can Resurrect Compassion.

Emma gives a course within a book on how to deal with an unhappy marriage and how to keep hope in a God who can restore. She used I Corinthians 13 as a guide to learn how to love her husband as God would have her to love him. She owns up to her own failings and sincerely shows a different way to love. Thanks, Emma for telling it like it is and showing us how we all may need to change along the way.

You can find this book on Amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/Worse-Loving-Husband-Through-Times/dp/0692163190/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

On Thursday we focus on families in recovery.

 "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I can see it, but because by it I see everything else." C.S. Lewis

They say, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and that first step may look impossible, but go ahead. Take that first step, do the next right thing and each step will get easier. I’m not saying it will not be without pain and discomfort and you may have to leave some activities and people behind. Down the road you will see it was worth it.

Remember, YOU ARE WORTH IT! Someone can't save themselves today, but it's Thursday and a great day for recovery in the state of Florida. Call in or ZOOM into a meeting, spread some love and hope and work your program! You can't save yourself, but Jesus can and a recovery program can make life easier to live.

Asking special prayers for Steven Scheffler who was bit by five pit bull dogs and is undergoing treatment. Also praying for the many who are sick among us.

Replaying our theme song for the words and message. Many thanks again to Steven Scheffler for doing what I could not, with my words. His production is awesome and he is a blessing to so many people with his gift of music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEzbIrTF5KE

(112) Restore Them To You - YouTube