Journal Jots – Blog

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:

http://www.bookfun.org/group/revell-books/forum/topics/october-2012-featured-author-julie-lessman-a-love-surrendered-5-b

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 25^th 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

 “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:

http://www.bookfun.org/

“WHERE’S WALDO???”

 +

Or better yet … WHERE’S JULIE???

HAPPPY FRIDAY, all, and let me tell you I felt like Waldo last week when my sweet biking-fiend hubby stole me away for a week-long trek across a very lovely state that shall remain nameless so we can see if YOU can figure out:  WHERE’S JULIE?

Since all my buds and writing friends are now whooping it up in Dallas at the fabulous ACFW Conference, I figure today would be a good day to share some pix of my own travels from last week to get my mind off of NOT being at ACFW. But my prayers and my support are behind everyone there, and I am hoping for MEGA good news from tons of aspiring authors, so go get ’em, guys!!!

Can you guess what state I biked 100 miles across??? Well, the good news is that there’s a HUGE clue in the last pic, so see if you can figure it out before then, okay?

Really??? We’re going to bike HOW many miles????

All geared up and ready to go!! And, YES, hubby actually made me buy those tight,

little pants with padding in the butt!!

Hey … this is fun!!!

Check out this pic taken at a location voted the prettiest place in the U.S.A.!!

We biked around some of the PRETTIEST lakes I’ve ever seen!!

We had a BLAST … but not the “cannon” variety!!

Getting warm on where we might be???

Note the absence of cars — NOW do you know where we were??

A cold day, but a GORGEOUS winery!! But the next pic will tell you

where this all happened!!

Thanks for going on our biking journey with us. I guarantee my legs

and butt are A LOT sorer than yours!! Happy weekend and be sure

to check out the giveaways below!

Hugs!!

Julie

GIVEAWAYS!!!

NOTE: I am doing VERY limited giveaways this year, so I hope to see you at the following blogs this week!!!

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 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 part 2 of my Seeker blog entitled KISSOLOGY 201: Warming Up the Pages With Romantic Tension at:

http://seekerville.blogspot.com/

 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/