☘️
If you are enough lucky to be Irish,you are lucky enough!
— Irish Proverb
💚 Happy St. Pat’s Weekend!
Okay, I have a confession to make.
My grandmother’s name was Cavanaugh, so I always thought I was 1/4 Irish and proud of it. I have loved everything Irish since the age of 12 when I read Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind for the first time, about an Irish-Catholic family.
In fact, as most of you know, I was SO enamored with GWTW that as soon as I turned the last page, I began to write my own Irish-family saga, which some forty years later became my debut novel, A Passion Most Pure. Which … as you already know … was about an Irish-Catholic family during a war. Only I didn’t have the guts to try the Civil War since nobody could top Margaret, so I chose WW1 instead.
Consequently, every single book I have written since has been about Irish families because let me say it again: I LOVE being Irish!
So … last year when I decided to find out just how Irish I was via a DNA test, I was soooooo excited and promised to let you all know the results when I had them. The problem was, I didn’t let you know the results back then and you want to know why?
Because my DNA test said I was zero Irish. Yep, you heard it — ZERO! Needless to say, I was devastated and kept the news to myself.
Then last Christmas, I decided to give Keith a DNA test and buy an extra for myself. I purchased DNA kits from a totally different DNA company that was more reputable according to all the research I did — Ancestry.com.
Now, let me just say that my hopes were not high because everybody I talked to said that your DNA results would be the same no matter what company you went to. So imagine my shock and surprise when my results came back as … drum roll, please … 30% Irish and Scottish, hailing from Leinster, Ireland!!!
☘️ WHOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! ☘️
So NOW, I want celebrate my Irish heritage with a HUGE sale that I will be announcing on my Facebook Live this Friday at 4:30 PM CDT, so I hope you can make it. I will also be giving away tons of free e-books AND picking one lucky person to get a character named after them in my next book and a signed paperback copy.
Again, that’s THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 15 AT 4:30 PM CDT on my Facebook Author Page, so please mark your calendars. And if you can’t make it at that time, you can always watch it later RIGHT HERE when I post the video below and leave a comment to be entered to win.
Needless to say, I am overjoyed over my Irish roots, because let’s face it, if you call yourself an Irish Family-Saga Author, you would be, right? And I love, Love, LOVE celebrating St. Pat’s Day because it’s fun to celebrate my Irish heritage. But guess what? My identity is not in my Irish roots. It’s not in being an author. It’s not in my family or my friends. My identity is in the God of the Universe and His Son, Jesus Christ, whom I celebrate every day of the year, every hour of every day, and every breath of every hour.
Why?
Because He is my hope, my peace, my joy, and my salvation, and without Him, I would be nothing and have nothing. But I didn’t always feel that way.
I suffered a lot of rejection as a child, so when I became a Christian at the age of 23, I learned about finding my identity in Christ, as a child of God. And I believed it, but it’s taken many, many years and many, many prayers to finally understand what that means.
When I became an author, I found my identity in that. I won awards and racked up 5-star reviews, but it was never enough. I sold a ton of books, but it still wasn’t enough. I would go to the ACFW Conference (American Christian Fiction Writers) each year and had scads of friends, got lots of notice, but it was never enough.
Do you know that at every single conference, I would end up in my room crying because I felt so worthless, felt like no one liked me? It’s true. Me, Miss Confidence and Socialbility who has lots of friends. I felt that way over and over. There’s a line in Lauren Daigle’s song, You Say, that has helped to heal me in this area, and I hope it helps heal you too. It says: “When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours.” All of my life, I didn’t feel like I belonged, but now I do. I belong to Him. And so do you!
The beginning of this transformation happened for me when I took my sabbatical a few years ago as many of you know, when I started seeking God like never before. He showed me that everything I want is in Him and only Him. There was a time when I would not have written this in a blog because I thought it would come off like I was a Jesus freak. But now that I know the truth, I am so very proud to claim my identity in Jesus.
In closing, I would like to share a video of a song by Lauren Daigle with lyrics that I hope will bless you as much as they have blessed me. Her words in this song is what it has taken me 68 years to learn, so I sure hope it doesn’t take you that long! 😳 I listen to this song (and belt it out) every single time I’m on the treadmill because the truth of it is SO very powerful! I love all the lyrics, but especially these lines:
The only thing that matters now is everything You think of me.
In You I find my worth, in You I find my identity.
So, yes, I’m thrilled to be Irish, but I am OVERJOYED to claim my identity in Jesus Christ, because HE is our all in all. Here’s the video. Enjoy!
You Say (with lyrics) by Lauren Daigle
Hugs and Happy St. Pat’s Weekend. Hope to see you on Friday!
Julie
