They're back! Church Bulletins

These came to me in an email . . . and they're hilarious and worth sharing. Enjoy!

These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins or were announced in church services:--

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.-

The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."--

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in therecreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.--

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.--

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.--

-Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.---

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nurserydownstairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.--

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir willsing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.-

A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.--

-Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.--

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.-

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.--

-The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.--

This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.--

-Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.--

-The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.--

Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church Basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.--

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.-

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours."

Have a grand day!

~~Angie

From the DaVinci Dialogue.com . . .

New posting alert at The Da Vinci Dialogue.

See what Angela Elwell Hunt, Christy-Award winning author, has to say about The Da Vinci Code. Her commentary “Fiction and Truth” is now available. Click on the link below to read it now!

http://www.thedavincidialogue.com/expert.cfm?e=194

www.Thedavincidialogue.com

The Whole Wide World

Watched an interesting movie the other day--The Whole Wide World, 1996, starring Renee Zellwegger and Vincent D'Orfino (from one of those legal/cop shows).

The movie is the true story of pulp writer Robert E. Howard, who was at his peak in the mid 1930's. The story is not a romance, though it feels like one at first, and the ending is not happy. It's one of those "acceptance" endings, where the main character doesn't get what she wants, but accepts the way things turn out.

As I always do with "true" movies, I was Googling Howard even before the final credits rolled and found out that he was an even bigger success than the movie implied. His books are still in print, he's hailed as a master, and he didn't write past age thirty! You've probably heard of one of his most famous characters: Conan the Barbarian.

Writers have a reputation for weirdness, but this guy was really eccentric. I'd have said he was bi-polar or something, but apparently a psychiatrist friend of the family said he was as mentally sound as anyone else . . . just eccentric. Really.

In any case, if you enjoy stories about writers, this is an interesting tale. But keep the tissues handy.

~~Angie

Healthy Eating and Apples of Gold

Yesterday, during lunch, I read Lisa Samson's new book, Apples of Gold. Wow. As a youth pastor's wife, I often talk to our young girls about the need for sexual and moral purity, but I love how Lisa illustrates the lesson in a parable. This book won't release until August, but it's available now for pre-ordering at your favorite bookstore. (And yes, you really can read it in a matter of minutes. You'll want to take your time, though, to savor every word and the meaning underneath the story.)

And, LOL, it was encouraging to see that I'm not the only one who needs to begin a healthy eating program! Okay, here's how it will work: you decide on whatever program works for you--Weight Watchers, Weigh Down, counting calories, LA Weight Loss, Jenny Craig--I've done almost all of those, and I'm here to testify that any of them work if you stick to them faithfully and stay on the program long enough.

Aside: the late Dear Abby used to often get letters from people who wanted to go back to school, but goodness, "it'll take four years to get a degree." And she'd reply: "And how old will you be in four years if you don't get the degree?" Ah, I get it. We can get disciplined now and have a lighter future, or we can keep procrastinating and eating without limits and be four years heavier in four years. See my point?

Okay, back to the program: You choose what you want to do and let's all report in on Mondays. The rest of the week this blog will be what it always is (ha--as if that's definable!), and we'll save the food talk for Mondays.

Don't forget that on May 1 (which also happens to be Monday), we begin a new BOM feature. May's book will be THE CANOPY. Ah, that one was fun!

Okay--have a lovely Friday, stick to your program, and if you have a daughter, be sure to order your copy of Apples of Gold!

~~Angie

Bees and Things

About the Secret Life of Bees . . . our book club liked it, the ratings (we use a star system with five as the highest) ranged from three and a half to four. I gave it a solid four because I loved the writing and the characters. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was because I couldn't accept the mishmash of new age goddess worship that permeated the book. Someone else might have bought into that; I can't.

But the writing was beautiful, and as a reader, I couldn't help but love Lily and the Calendar sisters. There's something about female ensemble casts . . . like the movie Calendar Girls, and the book Secrets of the Divine YaYa Sisterhood and the Yada Yada Prayer Group. Our club talked about why women seem to need this kind of group bonding more than men do, and we decided that we're just more given to that sort of group sharing. You can take a group of women who hardly know each other, and they'll be spilling their guts in a matter of minutes. Men don't do that as easily as women do.

Today I am finishing up the revisions on The Elevator. My editor promised only "minor" revisions, and happily, our definitions of "minor" meshed! I had to write a couple of scenes though (I tend to write thin), so I'll finish up the last of those this morning, Lord willing.

And now--drum roll--I'm going to do something I never thought I'd do on this blog. For reasons of health and wardrobe, I need to go back on a healthy eating plan (notice I'm not using the d-word) and take off a certain number of pounds. I lost sixty of those pounds a couple of years ago, but some of them have crept back on as I fell back into old habits. Fortunately, healthy eating can become a habit, too, it's merely a matter of switching gears.

So--one reason I kept up with the 90 Day Bible Reading was because I keenly felt the need to remain accountable on this blog. So I'm going public here, too. I'll report in each week, probably on Monday, to tell you the results of the previous week. If you want to join me, let's be accountable to each other. No need to share eating plans or recipes (any restrictive plan works if you stick with it!), just little comments like "down two" or "up one" will do. Okay? Anybody want to join me? If so, just chime in on the comments, and we can encourage each other. :-)

That's it from my end! And yes, I love the new header, too. Hooray for Team Samson!

~~Angie

New Header!

Good morning! I was up at 6:30 a.m. trying to publish this lovely new header to my blog--itsn't it cute? Lisa Samson and her daughter created it for me and they did such a cool job that I'm going to let them take a stab at a header for my web page, too.

BTW, I'm blogging over on Charis today, if you want to take a peek. But if you're a regular reader of this blog, it'll be a rerun. (VBG).

If you'd like to hire Team Samson to do a header for your blog, they would do a great job! Contact Lisa through her blog . . . and the link is listed in my favorite blogs column.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

~~Angie

One of those Days

Have you ever had one of those days when you just needed a break? Work is going well, but deep thoughts and prayers left me feeling a little stressed this morning. Then the Lord sent Allison Bottke into town, she called, we went out, and the day looked a lot brighter!

I've met Allison many times at writers' conferences--she's the woman behind the "God Allows U Turns" books, and those books began with her own life story. Allison had a surprise with her today--a hot off the press copy of her first novel, A STITCH IN TIME. I mentioned it on the blog a few weeks ago, and now the book exists in print.

Allison and I drove out to the beach for lunch, then came back to my house to trade writing tips and talk about books, then we drove out to the beach for dinner. In the mean time, she made friends with Charley Gansky, as you can see from the photo. I'm not sure if Charley wants to kiss Allison or eat her book!

Allison and I have decided we are sisters born from different mothers. We both make lists (and if we finish something that wasn't on a list, we PUT it on a list simply so we can have the pleasure of marking it off!), we both keep three different pairs of glasses in our purses, and we both like going to the movies alone. We're very much alike, except that she's an extrovert and I'm an introvert. That's okay--someone has to be the life of the party.

So I didn't get a lot of work done today, but my spirit was refreshed. The Lord knew I needed it, so thanks, Father. Thanks for friends.

~~Angie

Scrabble Again

A couple of months ago I reported on my delight in discovering a new way to procrastinate--computer Scrabble. Imagine how my heart rejoiced this morning when I read in the paper that Scrabble has now recognized new words!

I can't tell you how many times I've used words in the game only to have the decidedly unimaginative referee whisk my tiles away. But now, perhaps, I stand a chance of winning . There are 41 new three-letter words, including def, vid, duh, and app. There are 289 new five-letter words including skank, 540 new six-letter words (doodoo, doowop); 901 new seven-letter words, among them suckier and ziplock, and 1,333 eight-letter words, including snarfing and snarkily. (Oh, my!)

Don't forget those words that use Q without a U: faqir, qat, qaid, qanat, qindar, qintar, qivut, qoph, qwerty, sheqel, suq, and tranq.

Finally, every Scrabble player needs to know two-letter words, particularly those which use the high-point letters x and z: qi, az, fe, ki, and oi.

Now, if only I can find a way to teach my old computer game new tricks . . .

~~Angie

Quick Responses

Thank you, Carrie and Kristine and Sally, for your kind comments (and thank you, Carrie, for the lovely review on your blog!) Kristine asked why I didn't have the disciples go get the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem during the triumphal entry . . . the answer has to do with POV, or point of view.

Since Mary/Miryam couldn't be with Jesus all the time, she didn't hear Jesus tell the disciples to go fetch the donkey. She merely saw him with a donkey and made an assumption. Interestingly, the apostle John makes the same sort of blanket statement in his gospel: John 12:14 simply says, "Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, 'Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt."

I'm sure POV is the reason the gospel accounts give slightly differing accounts of some events--it's not that they contradict each other, it's just that each writer is coming at it from a different point of view. John saw Jesus sitting on a donkey and wrote, "Jesus found it." Miryam saw Jesus sitting on a donkey and said, "Some man offered it to him." Luke tells the story of how Jesus sent two of the disciples ahead into the city with the instruction to bring him the colt . . . and when asked why they were taking it, they replied, "The Lord needs it." (And I think we can assume that the owners then said, "Okay." (VBG)

You see? All are accurate. (Well, I wouldn't place my account on a par with Scripture, but you get my drift.)

P.S. Isn't the weather pixie cute? She's synchronized with my home town, so when I'm traveling I can look at her and know what weather I'm missing!

Have a blessed Lord's day!

~~Angie

A Word Fitly Spoken

Friday we spent some time with our dear friends Mike and Paula Walker of Lafayette, LA. Mike is a pastor there, and Paula is his lovely red-haired wife.

Mike led my hubby to the Lord many years ago, and soon afterward suggested that my hubby and brother-in-law might want to work with the youth. So my hubby and BIL began to do just that . . . and today my brother-in-law is a Campus Life missionary in Louisiana and has influenced hundreds of kids in the name of Jesus. My sweet husband has been in youth ministry for thirty years . . . and it all began with a word of encouragement.

I'm a writer because Pastor Derric Johnson once told me I had a way with words so, "why don't you try writing?" I don't think I would ever have thought of it without that nudge.

Someone asked the other day why I speak in schools . . . and I had to ask myself the same question. For marketing? LOL. I'm not even writing kids' books these days, so it's surely not marketing. Sales? Not really. I sell a few books, but not nearly enough to justify leaving home and losing a work day. The paycheck? There were some months last year when I truly needed the honorarium provided by my school sponsor, but again, it'd be a lot easier to stay home and work.

So why do I do it? Because someone once told me I had a way with words . . . and someone once told my husband he ought to think about working with kids.

I don't tell the kids they should all be writers, because I know they're not all cut out to be. But I do tell them that I've learned it's far better to obey God day by day and listen for His voice than to chase dreams that may or may not be part of His plan for them. "If you'll do that," I tell them, "what you become will be so much better than anything you could dream."

That's why I do it. Because kids look up to authors, and if even a single kid from each school remembers the gist of my message, that'll count for something in the perspective of eternity.

We never know when our words are molding soft clay . . . so may the Lord remind us to make sure our words are "fitly spoken," like apples of silver.

~~Angie

Thank Heaven for Fridays

Heard a report this morning that novelist T. Davis Bunn was bitten by a shark. Shudder. Davis lives part of the year on Florida's east coast, near where I grew up, so I know about those waves and those particular beasties. I checked the online versions of that local paper but found no news, but it's unlikely we'd have heard that story unless it was true. So we'll remember to pray for him. (We like to tease Davis and say that the T. in his name stands for "the." I have no idea what it really stands for!)

Update: the story has been confirmed. The accident apparently happened Wednesday. Davis required 100 stitches in one leg and 20 in the other, and had to have a skin graft. He's in good spirits and recuperating . . . and joking about how writers will do anything for publicity. Ha! I don't think I'd go that far . . . Pray for Davis's speedy recovery!

Spent most of yesterday reading books about the funeral industry and embalming--still have several books I need to get through before I start outlining the WIP. Am also dealing with the three day migraine--fortunately, it leaves me during most of the work day, and resurfaces in the middle of the night.

The fellow who led my husband to the Lord more than 30 years ago is coming to town today, so we're going out to lunch. That will be a nice visit--we don't often get to see Mike Walker, though he does speak at our summer camps every other year or so.

My book club meets Monday night, which means I have to get busy reading THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, our book for the month. I've read the first chapter, which assured me the writing was exquisite, now I have to read the rest of the story.

~~Angie

Back Home and Catching Up

Spoke at Pine Castle Christian Academy yesterday and had a wonderful time. Drove home through tons of Tampa traffic in time to watch the return of Alias . . .

And you'll have to excuse me while I revert back to my seventeen-year-old self. Vaughn is alive! (I knew it). Syd had her baby! (In about two minutes-ha!) SpyMommy is a reluctant rat! (We knew this, too). Weiss is back! (I missed him!)

Back to reading about embalming and funeral homes. Enjoy your day!

P.S. What do I do in Christian schools? I talk about writing, give my testimony, and teach writing workshops in a program sponsored by Thomas Nelson book fairs.

~~Angie

I'm So Dizzy (My head is spinnin')

Remember that song? Came out when I was in high school . . . loved it!

And it's especially applicable right now, as I've just finished my last chapter in today's theology reading. Here's a paragraph--one of many, mind you:

We may put the matter pedantically by saying that the goodness of a state
of affairs p is balanced off by a wider state of affairs q provided that the
following is true: q obtains; q entails p; p is good; q is not good; and q
entails a state of affairs r such that p does not entail r, r does not entail p,
and q is better than r. But it is simpler to say that when goodness is balanced
off, then a whole that is not good has a part that is good, and, outside of it,
a part that is worse than the whole.

LOL. Did you get all that? I'm a little nervous because it's actually beginning to make sense to me!

Here is today's lesson in a nutshell:

Walter learns that something bad happened to Sam. (Whether it really happened or not)
Walter feels bad for Sam.
Walter's feeling bad is a Good Thing.
Therefore, even a perfectly good world should have bad feelings in it.

Got it? Makes perfect sense to me.

Spent most of the day at Orangewood Christian School in Orlando . . . had a wonderful time with the kids. Will try to write up my theology lesson in a slightly more elegant form later tonight, when I am back from dinner.

~~Angie

On the Road Again . . .

Tuesday and Wednesday I'll be speaking at schools in Orlando . . . and I think this is the last of the schools for this spring. I've enjoyed them, but I also enjoy being home.

Hubby had his first colonoscopy today--that's a milestone of sorts, isn't it? Had to drive him and pick him up, but he reports that it was no problem. He went to sleep and woke up with it done and everything all clear. Best of all, he doesn't have to do it again for another five years--when he's sixty-one!

About Catherine, the talking head--thank you for your opinions. Some of you love her and some of you hate her, and I'll admit that's she's been fun . . . for a month. I'm afraid she'll get old, though, so I think I'm going to let her go at the end of the month. So enjoy her, because her days are numbered.

I'm reading all kinds of research books to prepare for my funeral home book. Today I read this self-published book by a mortician. The information on how to embalm bodies and how a funeral home operates is wonderful, really useful stuff, but the author called it a "novel" and he's written in . . . . well, perhaps he thought he'd make more money with a novel, and successful novels had to have a certain number of sex scenes.

So far two (living) female characters have shown up, and both of them seem to be walking breasts--at least, that's the impression the reader gets. I have to believe that normal American males see women as more than mobile mammary glands.

Please tell me I'm right.

~~Angie

The Problem of Evil

Yesterday I started my doctoral program with "The Problem of Evil," a class I am sure I can use in the soon-to-be-started WIP. As a pastor's wife, the one thing I heard over and over during tragic times is "How could a loving God allow THIS terrible thing to happen?" I've seen people get angry at God and even turn away from Him because they couldn't understand that yes, bad things do happen to God's people. Jesus promised persecutions.

I've developed a theology that allows suffering, but I want to be able to present it, defend it, and explain it with grace and truth. So I opened the first textbook (there are three), and started wading through the material. Actually, I started yesterday at the hair salon, but between the denseness of the material and the drowsiness of the stylist's chair, I didn't get very far. I had to read each paragraph three times just to let the material sink through my brain fog.

Paragraphs like this: "There are, in fact, many so-called solutions which purport to remove the contradiction without abandoning any of its constituent propositions. These must be fallacious, as we can see, but it is not so easy to see in each case precisely where the fallacy lies. . . . in order to solve the problem one (or perhaps more) of its constituent propositions is given up, but in such a way that it appears to have been retained, and can therefore be asserted without qualification in other contexts. Sometimes there is a further complication: the supposed solution moves to and fro between, say, two of the constituent propositions, at one point asserting the first of these but covertly abandoning the second, at another point asserting the second, but covertly abandoning the first."

You still with me? LOL! I think the best way for me to learn this stuff is simply to rewrite each chapter in plain English!

In any case, every Sunday afternoon for the next two years will be filled with reading like this . . . and writing my down-to-earth summations. But I got three, count 'em, THREE great book ideas from my master's work, so I'm looking forward to learning more in my next program.

I'll be traveling again this week, speaking in Florida schools on Tuesday and Wednesday, then home to do some more reading for the WIP. Hope your week gets off to a great start!

Oh--BTW, about Catherine, the talking head (here and on my web page)--what's your verdict? Keep her or lose her?

~~Angie

A Blessed Easter to You All!

I once heard the story of two boys who were working on a float for the Easter parade. They made a cross and covered it with ribbons and flowers, then put it in the center of the float.

"Oh, no," their pastor said when he saw the float. "You've got it all wrong, boys. The cross wasn't a beautiful thing--it was old and ugly and rough."

The youngest boy looked up at the preacher. "But Reverend," he said, "I thought Jesus never touched anything and left it the same."

Ah . . . truer words were never spoken. May you take time today to appreciate the true miracle of Easter.

~~Angie

Eleven Rules for Happy Air Travel

Home again, and facing a desk and house full of little tasks that are clamoring for attention. Correspondence to answer, thank you notes to write, laundry to be done, rugs to be vacuumed, books to be put away, etc.

But first, a couple of suggestions for Those who Travel Often . . . or Even Infrequently.

1.) It does no good to argue with the people at the counter. If you are late when you arrive, you should have allowed for traffic, security, etc. The bigger the airport, the more time you should allow for check-in. So if you show up with thirty minutes before your plane takes off, you may as well smile and kiss that flight goodbye.

2.) At the security station, go ahead and strip down without being told. You know the drill, so remove your shoes and jackets and pull the change from your wallet. Go grab your own plastic tray (and screeners--don't be stingy with those trays. The lines will move faster if you just let us grab however many we need) and put in it your shoes, laptop, purse, etc. Just remember to hang on to that boarding pass.

3.) If your drivers' license picture is unattractive (and whose isn't?), use your passport instead.

4.) Bring a book to read, a movie to watch, or knitting to do at the gate. You're probably going to have to sit and wait, so you might as well redeem the time.

5.) When they call zone one, if you're zone five, don't rush the gate entrance. Sit back and relax. The zone folks who have been called can't get through the crowd if you're blocking the approach. What sardine is in a hurry to get into the can?

6.) Tsk, tsk--you folks at the back of the plane shouldn't be stuffing all your carry on luggage into the forward overhead storage bins. I know you're thinking that you can grab your suitcase as you file by on the way out, but where are the people beneath those seats supposed to put their stuff? Furthermore, you're usually on the plane first, which is doubly unfair. Remember the golden rule.

7.) In flight, unless it's evening or the seat behind you is empty, resist the temptation to put your seat back. The airlines are cramming us in like never before, and there is simply no room for the other person's knees if your seat is reclined. Furthermore, it's next to impossible for a person to work on his/her laptop if your seat is back--unless the computer is under the other passenger's chin. Do the person behind you a favor by remaining upright--and hope the person in front of you is doing the same thing.

8.) When the plane lands, I know the temptation to leap up out of your seat is strong--we're all like jacks-in-the-box, ready to spring into action. But what good does it do to stand up with your head cocked at a 45 degree angle for fifteen minutes? Might as well sit back and enjoy your neighbor's cell phone conversation.

9.) Speaking of cell phone conversations: pretend the people around you are CIA spies, and lower your voice a little.

10.) Let the folks in front of you exit first--the entire row--unless they're obviously sitting their turn out. If so, thank them with a smile.

11.) At the luggage carousel, pretend there's a solid line painted on the floor two feet out from the edge of the luggage "runway." Respect this space until you see your luggage and it's time to grab it. Then step forward, take your luggage, and retreat from the zone. This will prevent the maiming of toddlers, inquisitive children, and elderly folks who wanted to visit the grandkids, not the emergency room.

I do believe that's it. I feel better now. (VBG)

Angie

Tackling the Squeamish

I watched "Cinderella Man" last night--a very enjoyable movie, even though I cringed with every blow and every time my Lord's name was taken in vain. Most of all, I enjoyed learning about a real person, James Braddock, a man who apparently was worthy of hero status . . . a rare thing in today's world. (Of course, I haven't done any research into what he was really like, so I have no idea how accurate the movie is.)

As I read and research more about funeral homes, etc., I realize that another goal for the Fairlawn series is to help people get over their fear of death and all things associated with it--to overcome the squeamish factor, as it were. Easy to do if my heroine is initially squeamish, because the reader should "desensitize" along with my heroine. I hope so, anyway

I spoke in two more Atlanta schools today, and had a rare treat--a young woman walked in with her daughter and said, "Remember me?" She was Laura Columbus, whom I taught 26 years ago in Lynchburg. She hasn't changed a bit, and she's now married and teaching students at another school in the area. So nice to see her!

Well, it's been a long day. Two more schools tomorrow, then I'm flying home. Yea!

~~Angie

Thoughts on Using a Divorced Heroine in the WIP

Photo: Visiting with some students . . . and I'm presently visiting schools in the Atlanta area.

My heroine for Fairlawn, my WIP, is divorced. And I know going in that I'll encounter some resistance from some readers because I've chosen to put her in that condition.

But I'm going to go ahead with my plan for several reasons: 1) Divorce is common in our society, even in Christian families. My hubby and I serve in a church filled with divorced families--in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that no-divorce families are in the minority.

2) Jesus did say that divorce was allowed in the case of adultery, and while I've never been one that would urge couples to divorce quickly, I do think it's permissible if one party refuses to reconcile and adultery has occurred. Furthermore, once one of the parties remarries, adultery has definitely occurred, so the remaining spouse is free.

3). Christian fiction seems to have an overabundance of widows . . . and in the real world, most single mothers are single because of divorce.

I don't like divorce, I don't encourage it, but I think my writing has to reflect the world around me. So--my heroine is going to be in the "moving on" stage after a divorce. Her former spouse has remarried, leaving her free to get on with her life and try to make a home for herself and her sons.

I'm a member of a theological loop that has discussed divorce extensively, and we've come to the conclusion that divorce should never be quick or undertaken without an attempt at reconciliation. Divorce almost always occurs because of a hard heart, and no one can deny that hard hearts are part of the human condition. So my as yet unnamed-heroine will find herself in that condition, and part of the struggle will be seeing how she rises above her sadness and makes a new life for herself.

~~Angie

Charis

Forgot to mention that I'm blogging over at Charis Connection today, too. You can visit by clicking http://charisconnection.blogspot.com .

~~Angie