Journal Jots – Blog
Welcome to my Journal Jots blog! This is a broad mix of what’s on my mind, allowing me to feel a little bit closer to some of the most important people in my life—YOU! From news on sales, freebies, giveaways, new releases, and excerpts from works in progress … to my thoughts on my walk with God, daily devotionals, or photos of my family, this is where you’ll find the most current glimpse into my books and my life. I invite you to subscribe in the “subscribe” box on the right side of this page to automatically receive an email whenever I post a blog. Till then, God bless and HAPPY READING!
Friday, October 12, 2012
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers:
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
—Hebrews 13:2
Angels unawares …
Mmm … you know what? I met one of these this week, and I gotta tell you—seldom have I been touched by the love of God more than through the hand of this very unexpected “angel,” who literally flew into my life.
You see, I am privileged to be a part of the amazing CHRISTIAN FICTION SCAVENGER HUNT to be held OCTOBER 25-28—a fun event involving 31 of the CBA’s top authors and LOTS of giveaways!! Not only will you learn exclusive tidbits never before revealed from each author, but you will be eligible to win TONS of wonderful prizes, including a grand prize of a Kindle Fire PLUS the latest release from each of the authors listed at the end of this blog.
But I digress—let’s get back to the “angel.” Her name is Tracy Higley, a Christy-Award nominee author who has written Biblical fiction a la Francine Rivers and Jill Eileen Smith for Thomas Nelson and B&H Publishing. I strongly encourage you to check out her books here: http://tracyhigley.com/books/.
Most of you know that when it comes to the Internet and computers, I am a virtual illiterate, bumbling my way through blogs, FB and Twitter, and don’t even get me started on Goodreads and Pinterest! In fact, I can’t count all the money and time I’ve spent paying people to do things like putting RSS feed on my Journal Jots or streamlining my blog so it is user-friendly. Other than the roller-coaster of emotions that comes with book sales, contests or bad reviews, the technical aspect of being an author has been my biggest handicap and pain in the tush.
Enter Tracy A.U. (Angel Unaware) Higley. In this very sophisticated 31-author scavenger hunt, each of us are sponsoring another author on our blogs, so I will be sponsoring Kristen Heitzmann here on Journal Jots and Tracy will be sponsoring me. It didn’t take long to see that Tracy was a technical whiz. You see, for my “exclusive” tidbit on Tracy’s blog, I wanted to post a Charity/Mitch scene that was deleted from A Love Surrendered when my editor asked me to cut 50,000 words. Trouble is, I not only write long books, I write long scenes, so too long of a post was a no-no that could cause the sponsoring author problems. Uh, not Tracy, apparently. She told me to send it in its entirety, which I did.
And this is where it gets good … You see, unbeknownst to me, Tracy checked out my website and noticed a lot of things that could cause me problems including the fact that Journal Jots loaded reallllllllly slow, which meant a lot of people might not wait for it to open. She is SO savvy technically that she was able to determine what the problem was, actually took the time to run a “load-time test” — AGAIN, totally unbeknownst to me — then looked to see what website company I was using, which is Squarespace. She then sent me a VERY detailed e-mail, giving me actual Squarespace links that she took the time to look up, which gave step-by-step tutorials on how to do what she said I needed to do.
Incredibly nice person, huh? No! Incredibly amazing angel who not only offered to do it for me, but ACTUALLY went in and fixed tons of other things as well, then offered to do whatever else I needed. HOLY COW … she even set it up so you can EASILY subscribe to Journal Jots with a click of your mouse (top right corner of page), which means when I post, you will get an e-mail telling you so!! All of this—simply out of the goodness of her heart, following a leading from God. OH MY … truly God’s tender hug to me during a very difficult time, telling me more effectively than He could have any other way that, “yes, Julie, I love you with an everlasting love and today—through an angel named Tracy—I am showing you that.”
Okay, where’s the Kleenex???
Angels unaware. A kind word, a gentle touch, a smile to let you know they care—all signs you’ve encountered an angel in your life, sent by God to show you HIS individual love for you. But a person who gives of their time and their heart just to bless you? That, my friends, is not just an angel, but a true gift from God, embracing you with His boundless love in a way few other things ever can.
Tracy—you, my friend, are a gift from God to me, healing my heart with the balm of His love. There is no way I can adequately express my gratitude, but as God is my witness, I will never stop trying. Bless you, dear friend, from the depths of my drama-queen heart and soul!
WHOO-HOO … LOTS going on, so don’t miss the giveaways this week because they won’t last forever!!
OCTOBER 1-19, 2012:
Right now Revell is giving away FIVE copies of A Love Surrendered on The Book Club Network, so here’s the link where you can leave a comment to win one:
ENDS TODAY, FRIDAY, 10/12 (my giveaway only; other prizes continue all month)!!!
Have a character named after you in my next book or win a $50 gift card and signed book at my Seeker blog entitled “KISS-ology 303,” which features a “caveman kiss” you won’t want to miss!! PRIZES GALORE ALL MONTH … FREE BOOKS, KINDLE PAPERWHITE, GIFT BASKETS, COMPUTER … IT’S SEEKERVILLE’S BIRTHDAY, SO STOP IN TO WIN!!
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/2012/10/kiss-ology-301-love-scenes-mega.html
ENDS SATURDAY, 10/13, 2012:
Win your choice of any of my books including A Love Surrendered and my Christmas e-book A Light in the Window at a giveaway at OVERCOMING THROUGH TIME WITH GOD’S HELP blog at:
OCTOBER 15 – 22, 2012:
Win your choice of any of my books including A Love Surrendered and my Christmas e-book A Light in the Window at a giveaway at SARAH FORGRAVE’S blog at:
OCTOBER 25 – 28, 2012:
CHRISTIAN FICTION SCAVENGER HUNT!! Books and prizes and fun from each of the 31 authors below including the chance to win a KINDLE FIRE and 31 NEW RELEASES from said authors. HINT: My giveaway will be choice of my books, a $25 gift card and having a character named after you in my next book.
It all starts at Lisa Bergren’s blog on OCTOBER 25 at the following link, so BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!
Here’s the author list:
Tamera Alexander
Ruth Axtell
Lisa Bergren
Lyn Cote
Liz Curtis Higgs
Margaret Daley
Melanie Dickerson
Melanie Dobson
Laura Frantz
Sibella Giorello
Leslie Gould
Winnie Griggs
Robin Lee Hatcher
Kristen Heitzmann
Tracy Higley
Sharon Hinck
Vicki Hinze
Ronie Kendig
R. J. Larson
Julie Lessman
Judith Miller
Nancy Moser
Nicole O’Dell
Marta Perry
Sandra Robbins
Susan Sleeman
Janice Thompson
MaryLu Tyndall
Kim Vogel Sawyer
Stephanie Whitson
Jill Williamson
Happy weekend and Hugs,
Julie
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2012
Praise the Lord, my soul and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins … who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion.
—Psalm 103:1-4
WHOO-HOO!! DRUM ROLL, PLEASE …
THE WAIT IS OVER—A Love Surrendered is now in the bookstores!!!!!!! If you don’t have your copy, why not??? This is the finale to the O’Connor saga, so if you have to beg, borrow or win it on a blog, I strongly encourage you to do so along with purchasing a box of Kleenex. And for those of you who cannot afford the $9.16 for the Kindle version or the $10.19 for the paperback or even the $15.59 for the audio version, have I got good news for you!!
Right now Revell is giving away FIVE copies on The Book Club Network, so here’s the link where you can leave a comment to win one:
Or, you can check out one of the several giveaways I have going on right now on my website calendar at http://www.julielessman.com/julies-calendar/ where you can not only win A Love Surrendered, but your choice of any of my books, including Love at Any Cost. PLUS … you won’t want to miss my Seeker post next Wednesday entitled KISS-OLOGY 301, part 3 in my series on how to warm up the pages with romantic tension, WHICH includes the famous “Caveman Kiss” as well as snippets of favorite love scenes from some of my favorite authors!!
You can also check out the link in my calendar for a Fall Scavenger Hunt beginning October 25th in which there will be a grand prize of a Kindle and copies of brand-new releases from 31 of the following top CBA authors, plus exclusive insights into their books and a separate giveaway from each one!! HINT: My giveaway will be choice of my books, a $25 gift card and having a character named after you in my next book …
Tamera Alexander
Ruth Axtell
Lisa Bergren
Lyn Cote
Liz Curtis Higgs
Margaret Daley
Melanie Dickerson
Melanie Dobson
Laura Frantz
Sibella Giorello
Leslie Gould
Winnie Griggs
Robin Lee Hatcher
Kristen Heitzmann
Tracy Higley
Sharon Hinck
Vicki Hinze
Ronie Kendig
R. J. Larson
Julie Lessman
Judith Miller
Nancy Moser
Nicole O’Dell
Marta Perry
Sandra Robbins
Susan Sleeman
Janice Thompson
MaryLu Tyndall
Kim Vogel Sawyer
Stephanie Whitson
Jill Williamson
So … moving on, I guess you’re wondering just what today’s Scripture quote is all about, right? Well, let me tell you. Revell put together a blog tour for A Love Surrendered, so I get Google Alerts when one of these bloggers posts their review on their blog, but trust me, after this review I read the other night, I’m tempted to yank Google Alerts off my computer.
As many of you know, between the emotional month I’ve had with Aunt Julie passing away coupled with countless deadlines/edits/promotions for my three books coming out within six months AND desperately trying to write the next book, I have been exhausted and pretty darn close to TILT. But never, unfortunately, more so than this last week.
You see, that’s when I found a review for ALS that all but broke my heart, literally causing me to break down and cry. Keith and Amy heard me, so they rushed in and suffice it to say that I was SO emotionally drained at that exact moment that I was more upset than I have ever been over a review before. Keith and Amy comforted me, of course, even though Keith was pretty ticked, too, because this person not only attacked my book, but me, my husband and my marriage. Now many of you know I’ve gotten some pretty colorful negative reviews in the past (i.e. “This is simply a horrible book” or “scum reading”), but none of them attacked me personally more than this reviewer did on her blog and let me tell you—I had half an e-mail written to her when Keith shook his head. “Don’t do it, babe. You just need to pray for her.” “No!” I said through red-rimmed eyes, “I refuse to pray for her!” a statement in total contrast to what I ALWAYS normally do when people hurt me (i.e. “bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” — Luke 6:28). Keith and Amy immediately prayed for me right then and there, and then I contacted a few close friends to do the same.
That night as I got ready for bed, I stared in the mirror and FORCED these words through clenched teeth. “God, forgive me for my anger and losing my temper. I ask you to help me forgive this woman who obviously has a lot of anger and bitterness toward me and help me to love her. Bless her, Lord, and please draw her closer to You and heal the hurt she has inside that my book obviously triggered.” I then brushed my teeth and went to bed, getting up several times in the night for a powder-room break, during which I continued to pray for this reviewer each and every time.
What happened next is nothing short of a miracle. I awoke the next morning, expecting to have to battle the anger all over again and you know how you tentatively open your eyes and verrrrry slowly test your thoughts to see if the bad feeling is still there? Like when you tentatively dip a toe in the water to see if it’s cold? Well, that’s what I did, carefully edging toward the memory of that review to see if the hurt and anger would sweep through me again. And you know what? It didn’t. Nope, not one, tiny, itsy-bitsy bit of anger or hurt or frustration or revenge or malaise remained—NADA!! The only thing I felt was peace and hope and I know you all are going to find this as hard to believe as I did, but, yes—love!
All at once I felt a swell of love for this woman who Jesus loves with all of His heart, and in the blink of an eye, I saw her through His eyes—a human being for whom He not only died, but who is the “apple of His eye,” just like you and me. Our precious Jesus sees the hurt in her soul and for one brief, heart-wrenching moment, I did too, allowing me to open my heart to her and pray for her with a fervor I wouldn’t have believed possible the night before. And I know this is going to sound really strange, but I feel like this person is a friend. A hurting friend, to be sure, but a friend I choose to embrace and pray for like I would for any of my other dear friends. If you would have told me the night before that this would have happened, I would have thought you were crazy. And I’m a woman who has applied these precepts of praying for those who hurt me for almost 40 years!!
What’s my point? Well, today’s Scripture was my daily reading this morning, pretty much confirming to me—again—that God’s Word is true and faithful and powerful and as Hebrews 4:12 says, “alive and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” Because as today’s Scripture states, Jesus “redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.”
Oh, my. What a God a we serve! What a Lover of our Souls! What a Healer of our pain! If only we choose life instead of death—choosing to act according to His precepts instead of our own anger and pain!
In closing, I’d like to ask each of you reading this today to join with me in a prayer for a beautiful friend of both mine and Jesus—let’s call her Wounded Spirit—to ask God to bless her and draw her even closer to his heart and ours. And while we’re at it, let’s say one for ourselves. Because the truth of the matter is that I suspect each of us have been in both her shoes and mine at various times in our lives, and neither situation is fun. But we are, after all, flesh and blood and rife with emotions, hurts and pride, and I dare not cast stones lest I hit myself square in the eye.
All I can say is—thank GOD for a God who forgives … and God help us, PLEASE, to follow His example.
Hugs and more hugs,
Julie
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
“Surface impressions.
Never would he trust them again.”
— Mitch Denney from A Passion Redeemed
I won’t lie to you—this has been a pretty rough week. My precious 94-year-old Aunt Julie, for whom I was caretaker and who was like a mother to me after my own mother died when I was sixteen, went home to be with the Lord this week. It began with a midnight phone call on Saturday night that my aunt was listless and breathing hard, so Keith and I spent the night at the nursing home beside her bed because the nurses said she wouldn’t last the night. Of course, many of you will remember a month ago when AJ spent a week in the hospital where she almost died three times, making a liar out of the doctors and nurses over and over again. She was good at that! 🙂
She made a liar out of the nursing home nurses as well, it seems, who said her death was only hours away because she was in a open-eyed coma, eyes glazed and breathing shallow. Two days later, she passed away peacefully in her sleep, and I have spent the entire week making funeral arrangements and learning to let go of a very important woman in my life. The main thing that got me through was knowing that AJ is now dancing on streets of gold, hobnobbing with her mother and father and six siblings and her beloved husband, who died three years into their marriage. From the moment she went home, I saw her in my mind’s eye as the young woman in this picture, hugging those she loved who had all gone before her.
It doesn’t really seem like anything good can come from losing a loved one and planning a funeral, but you know what? Something good did come of it, over and above the fact that AJ is now playing Uno with Jesus (and beating him soundly if precedent has anything to say about it!). You see, I learned, like Mitch Denney in our quote above, that it’s wrong to trust surface impressions.
Little did I know that AJ’s funeral would bring me face to face with two people that I had preconceived ideas about based on surface impressions. Whether it was their cool manner with me, their association with certain people who did not like me or my own mistaken notion about their lifestyle that I didn’t particularly approve of, I made snap judgments that were not only wrong in God’s eyes, but they could have robbed me of getting to know two incredibly godly and wonderful people.
Why do we do that? Who knows? Maybe we don’t like the way they comb their hair. Or maybe we feel like they don’t like us, so we react accordingly. Whatever the reason, it took my aunt’s death to bring me into an emotional situation where barriers of judgment were dismantled and I was able to see the real people behind the facade I’d given them. And you know what? I am a MUCH richer person for getting to know them, even for just a day, and I shudder to think how many wonderful people I have missed out on because of shallow, selfish surface impressions.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Oh, how easily that rolls off our tongue, but how quickly we disregard its true meaning. With everything in me, I vow to try to recognize that tiny twist of unease or dislike that occasionally comes when I meet someone, praying that God will use it as a check to my spirit to give that person the benefit of the doubt, a clean slate like I want them to give me … and forgiveness when my slate is marred with infractions.
And so, I thank God for my Aunt Julie, for all the years I had her in my life and for all the joy and blessing she brought my way. And I thank God that even in her death, she — and our truly amazing God — are both blessing me still.
My deepest thanks for your prayers and your support during this difficult time.
Hugs,
Julie
GIVEAWAYS!!!
NOTE: I am doing VERY limited giveaways this year, so I hope to see you at the following blogs this week!!!
SEPTEMBER 27-30, 2012:
Win your choice of any of my books including A Love Surrendered and my Christmas e-book A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story at a blog interview/giveaway on BOOK REVIEW SISTERS blog at:
http://www.bookreviewsisters.com/
OCTOBER 1, 2012:
Win your choice of any of my books including A Love Surrendered and my Christmas e-book A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story at a blog interview/giveaway on FICTION HERO FEATURES blog at:
http://www.fictionherofeatures.com/
OCTOBER 1-12, 2012:
Win your choice of any of my books including A Love Surrendered and my Christmas e-book A Light in the Window: An Irish Christmas Love Story at a blog interview/giveaway on WRITING FOR CHRIST: AN AUDIENCE OF ONE blog at:
http://enjoyingthewritingcraft.blogspot.com/
OCTOBER 1-19, 2012:
FIVE CHANCES TO WIN!!! Win A Love Surrendered at a giveaway on THE BOOKCLUB NETWORK blog at:
Meet Julie
