Book giveaway!

“I realized I wasn’t alone in my suffering, and my wounding wasn’t just for me,” writes Tina Samples.

“I realized that God’s plan to work in my life, and my family’s life, had a broad scope; He wanted to bring healing to others facing the same issues.” (from newly published Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts; emphasis mine)

David Wolpe says it this way:

“When God, for whatever reason, has wounded you, 

you learn how to minister to others with the same wound…. 

Even the keenest anguish can be, as the poet put it, 

a ‘gauntlet with a gift in it’—

a challenge to use the wisdom to help others in the same pain.”

 David Wolpe

Tina understands David Wolpe’s message: She has both a gift and a challenge to share her story with others who need hope and healing.

Tina’s co-author, Dena Dyer, writes, “We’ve also seen God use excruciating wounds to purify, mold, and shape us into more resilient, hopeful believers.”

Dena, too, knows about the gift and the challenge.

In Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts, Tina and Dena have woven together stories of women in the Bible and stories of today’s women, and their prayer is that “you would find His peace for your pain, His joy in the midst of your trials, and His hope for your heartache.”

I am humbled and honored that Tina and Dena's book includes a story from my memoir, Grandma's Letters From Africa.

To celebrate Tina’s and Dena’s new book, I’ll give away a free copy to one of you readers!

Here’s how it works:

Between now and October 9, e-mail me a vignette about the ways God (a) helped you heal from a wound, tragedy, or heartache, and (b) in the process, taught you new things about Himself and strengthened your faith, and (c) used the incident for His glory and your good.

By sharing your story, you will be doing what David Wolpe and Tina and Dena encourage: You’ll be offering a gift of hope and healing to others who are suffering their own wounds.

That’s what 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 is all about: “the God of all comfort … comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Aim at 800 words. I will publish here the vignette I select (I’ll be happy to edit before publishing) and will send the author a free copy of Wounded Women of the Bible: Finding Hope When Life Hurts.

E-mail your vignette to grandmaletters [@] aol [dot] com (remove the brackets, replace the word "dot" with a period and scrunch everything together) and do me a favor: Write WOUNDED VIGNETTE in the subject line. Otherwise I will probably delete it as spam.

Here are a few quotes from Tina and Dena’s book which, I suspect, will resonate with you and give you story ideas:

“We can’t see what God sees, we don’t know what God knows, and we have no idea how God will deal with any given situation. But we can rest in the assurance of Psalm 56:8, ‘You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book’ (NLT). Psalm 147:3 says, ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.’ God will restore us in due time.”

 “God understands even when things don’t make sense to us: ‘Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit’ (Psalm 147:5).…  He will mend our broken heart so that we can find a way to fully live.”

Oh, how I appreciate those words: He mends and heals so we can “fully live.” Not just limp through life but fully live!

Tina writes: “One day … I came upon John 16:33. I remember weeping as I experienced a sense of the Lord’s presence. At that very moment, God revealed to me that through Him I could have peace in all things, and that although we live in a fallen world, I could have joy through Him—because the world has no power over God. He has overcome the world. He is the conqueror, defeater, and deliverer, and He reigns over all things. That Scripture has carried me through my high school years, until I left home and found healing. God used it to give peace to my heart during my toughest days.”

“God uses everything—even the most undesirable parts of our past—for His, and our, good.”

“…What looks detrimental to us, God, in His mercy, can make beneficial.”

Ready, set, go! Write!

Related post: Wounded Women

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Your memoir: a matchless Christmas gift

Are you in a tizzy trying to think up Christmas gift ideas for everyone on your list?

If you’re like me, you worry—Is this in style? What size does he wear? Would this color match her decor?

Today, people own more trinkets and gadgets and junk than they need, or can use, or even want, yet when Christmas comes around, we pace shopping malls ad nauseum searching for new kinds of trinkets, gadgets, and junk to give family and friends.

Let me suggest an alternative, something much better:

Give your family members a copy of your memoir—a gift of yourself and of their unique place in your family, God’s family, and the world.

If you haven’t finished your memoir—even if you’ve written only a few vignettes—no problem. Give what you have completed.

Tell recipients this is an early draft, just the beginning, and that you’ll add more stories later.

You still have five weeks to edit and revise your vignettes.

To help with your editing task, ask a “reader” for feedback on your vignettes. Frank P. Thomas advises:

“… Choose that person carefully. Remember that friends or relatives tend to overpraise, and others may criticize merely to impress you with their knowledge.

“What you are looking for is impartial, objective criticism. Pick someone who cares about writing besides caring about you, such as an English teacher, a teacher of writing courses, or someone in your local writers’ club. As you hand your edited manuscript to your reader (never show a first draft) ask specific questions. Are there any passages that will not be clearly understood? Are there any omissions or inaccuracies. Are any parts of the manuscript repetitious? What parts did you like best? Least? Are there any glaring errors of grammar or spelling?

“You may want two people to read your memoir copy. However, bear in mind: They are not passing final judgment on what you have written. You are.… Pick and choose from the comments made only what you believe will strengthen the memoir—then discard the rest.” (Frank P. Thomas, How to Write the Story of Your Life)

Revise your vignettes as needed, polish, and print them.

In coming days I’ll share a couple of practical ways to put your stories together, and I'll suggest items you’ll want to include in your gift, but for now, make a commitment to give what you’ve written—however long or short—as a down payment, a pledge of more to come. Promise your recipients a finished copy later. How about next Christmas?

Wrap your stories in Christmas paper and tie them in bows. Your stories—and your friends’ and family’s part in them—will never go out of style, and you don’t need to worry about buying the right color or size.

Your memoir: a gift that will live long beyond your lifetime.