Faith

  • Faith,  Relationships

    My Heart is Torn

    As I sit here writing this, I am literally tearing my hair out. Every time I write a book my life seems to go through a major transition. First there was Faithbook of Jesus. When I was writing my first book I realized how much my heart couldn’t handle serving two masters. I made the extremely difficult decision to quit my dream job to move back with my parents and write full time. Then there was Not Another Dating Book. It came as such a surprise. My second book had just been canceled the day I finished writing it. I wasn’t confident in my writing abilities or the direction of…

  • Faith,  Relationships

    New eBook Loves Me Not

    I wrote a new eBook entitled Loves Me Not: Heartbreak & Healing God’s Way that released on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords on May 6th for only 2.99! If you’ve read Not Another Dating Book, you’ll notice I don’t talk about my story. That’s because it wasn’t until after I submitted my manuscript to Harvest House that I met my husband Marc. That’s why I’m excited to release my follow up with features including: + Why Guarding Your Heart Isn’t Enough + Can Men and Women Be “Just Friends”? + Desperate Singles + Breaking Up With “The One” + Why Changing Your Significant Other Won’t Work + The…

  • Faith,  Relationships

    My Married Story Has Ended

    [Guest Post by Sue Birdseye. I met Sue through my friends at Tyndale Publishers about her book When Happily Ever After Shatters. If your story has ended and you feel like a failure because of it–I hope her story will encourage you.] My story ended and began with these few little words uttered by my husband of 17 years. “I think I’m going to leave.” As our 5 children and their friends raced around us, my husband spoke words that changed the course of my life, our lives, and our family forever. The next few days and weeks were a desperate attempt on my part to convince my husband to…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    When Dreams Become Reality

    [Guest Post by Joanna Hyatt – Thanks to my other site, Quarter Life Conference, I got to know Joanna. She said she would be glad to share about it on her site, and one thing lead to another, and now she’s sharing an encouraging piece on when dreams becoming reality for you all!] This time a year ago, I was the Director of an established Non-Profit program with a growing national presence. The job could have been mine for as long as I wanted it, bringing the opportunity for broader influence. Yet by May of 2012, I had walked away from that to pursue a different dream. As great as…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    Succeed By Failing

    [Guest post by Matt Appling] – I don’t even remember how I got connected to Matt, but I know it was many years ago before my first book, Faithbook of Jesus, was published. I’m so excited to see him finally come out with his first book and I hope you enjoy his piece on pursuing dreams through failure. How do you succeed by failing? Is that even a real question? Certainly, it is. Most of us just never learn the skill of failing wonderfully, spectacularly, unabashedly. But I think failing is one of the most important skills you and I can learn. When you and I were in school, the…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    No Wasted Dreams

    [Monthly Columnist – Rebekah Snyder – I always appreciate her brutal honesty and child-like faith. I wonder, though, has anyone ever told you that your dreams were a waste of space? Be encouraged today!] According to my co-worker, my dreams amounted to a wasted life. When I first decided to abandon everything else in order to pursue my writing dream, a co-worker decided to shower me with statistics of writers who actually “make it” in the “real world.” While his words were certainly not encouraging, I could accept them as his way of showing concern. But then he felt the need to inform me I was screwing up my life.…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    The Day I Almost Quit

    [Guest Post by Paige Omartian – I’m so excited to introduce you to a fellow Harvest House author (and musician). She is a young 20-something with an amazing story, which I’ll let her share with you below. Enjoy!] With every reason in the world to pursue the dream God had given me, I stepped into the infamous Music City. During my junior year of high school, my parents and I visited Nashville, Tennessee for a special week of seminars and meetings to gain insight into Christian music industry. I’d been singing since I was four years old, and writing songs since I was seven. And after battling cancer at the…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    When Your Dreams Change

    [Guest Post by Amanda Casanova – I’m excited to introduce you to a new voice today. I’m sure everyone, like Amanda, has experienced the every day changes life can bring including shifting dreams. If you aren’t sure what dream to pursue and how–be encouraged by her story.] What happens when your dreams change? I was in the news business. That meant you probably didn’t like me. That meant I was either too liberal or too conservative. It meant I asked a lot of questions that were probably none of my business. It meant I couldn’t tell you I loved Jesus. Now, I had wanted to be a newspaper woman for a…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    For Such A Dream As This

    [Guest Post by Tiffany Dawn – My friend Rayni Peavy introduced Tiffany to me, and I am in-love with her story. Like her, I also quit my job to pursue writing and speaking. It shows just how much passion she has to follow God first. If any of you are struggling to follow His leading, keep reading!] Wherever you are, God has known about this for years, before you had a clue. He has strategically set pieces in place so that at this moment in history you could do what He’s called you to do. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to walk into the dreams God planted in my heart…

  • Devotionals,  Faith

    When Dreams Die

    [Monthly Columnist – Jaimie Bowman – I appreciate her honesty each month to write on something close to her heart. This post is for anyone who’s waited months and months for their dream only to watch it die. May you be encouraged to see a miracle and the resurrection of your dream or even for new dreams!] “You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one” (The Beatles) That was me in my early 20’s–the visionary, the dreamer, the idealist. I could sketch a dream on a napkin and have the zeal and fervor to actually carry it out. It’s what propelled me to graduate college,…