A Good Word Wednesday #25 💐

The WAIT is over! BIG Good News!

Good Word of the Week — WAIT

Happy new year to you! I hope you celebrated well. Now it’s time to get to work on 2023.

What good word of the year did you select for yourself? I heard from some of you this week. You chose words like, Service, Blessed and Renewal. Great words! It’s not too late to pick one and focus on it for 2023.

Because I’m a word girl, indulge me. I’ve chosen five words, not just one. (Actually, six. See the extra one in the recommendation section below.) When I was a freshman Communications major at Ouachita Baptist University, my Introduction to Communications professor explained how to write a basic journalism-style story. It would include at the top of the story, 5 “Ws” and a “H.” Do you know what they are? 1. Who 2. What 3. When 4. Where 5. Why and How. So, just for fun, I chose 5 Ws and a H for my words this year. They are:

1. Wait 2. Walk 3. Water 4. Worship 5. Wisdom and Help.

   Today: WAIT (I will unpack each word throughout the month and into February.)

Scripture tells us to wait patiently on the Lord. (See the Wednesday in the Word below.)

Part of our Christian life involves praying and waiting on the Lord to answer. What prayers do we pray often for God to answer? What do you do while you wait?

One of my consistent prayers has been, “Lord, please open the door for my book to be published.” I’ve written a book that I want to share with the world. It contains words I think can enrich the lives of us all. I’ve rewritten, submitted to agents, rewrote again, submitted to publishers, rewrote more… prayed… and waited. And waited some more.

Guess what?! The wait is over! I told you I had BIG news to share today. You are the first to publicly hear it. Ready? Here it is:

Ambassador International Publishers accepted my manuscript submission and offered me a publishing contract a few days before Thanksgiving.

After prayerful consideration, I signed it. I’ve been waiting with this news and gathering all my requested documents to send to the publishers. Now that I’ve sent all that in, it’s time to share this good news with you. It it tentatively titled, Unseen People: Sharing Light and Life with your Neighbors and the Nations. Within the pages, I share stories about the people I’ve met on my street and people around the world, many of whom are overlooked, underserved, and unseen, either because they are just average, ordinary people, or because the pain they carry causes us to look away.

I can’t wait to share it with you. I think it will help all of us focus our vision on unseen people, meet them at the point of their need, and share the hope of Christ with them.

It will be published later this year. In the meantime, will you help me get the word out about it? You can:

• Keep reading this newsletter each week and SHARE IT! I will give you updates on the publishing process.

• Follow me on my Facebook Author Page,

  Twitter page,

  or Instagram page

  where I will also share book info.

• Visit my new author’s website.

  

  There is a special offer at the top of that page. Invite your friends to visit it and click on the yellow link in the header. It is inviting them to sign up for this newsletter. Since you already do that, invite someone to subscribe, let me know that you did that, and you can get the special offer too!

• Be on my Launch Team. You can share book info with your circle of friends and families. More info on this later on, but please consider it!

• Pray! This is a whole new world for me. I’ve been writing forever, but I’ve never been a published author of my own book. Uncharted waters.

• Tell me about some of the unseen people in your life. I’d love to know.

I will keep you posted when I get more info on my publishing journey. Thank you for joining along with me.

Wednesday in the Word

“Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.” Psalm 27:14 NIV

Words I Recommend

A GOOD BLOG: In honor of the word WAIT, here is a post from the archives of Stories for Global Good, Waiting Well at the Waiting Place

ANOTHER GOOD WORD OF THE YEAR: Resilient. And A FEW GOOD BOOKS: Here are a couple of good books that will help you grow stronger in your faith walk this year: Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad, and Resilient: Restoring Your Weary Soul in These Turbulent Times both by John Eldredge

A GOOD PRACTICE: Do yourself a favor and download this: One Minute Pause and 30 Days to Resilient. Get the free App, Pause.

A Final Word

This has been a long newsletter since I had so many good words to share with you at the beginning of our year. So I will let my words be few at the end of our time together this Wednesday.

I pray God’s abundant blessings on you in 2023. I can’t wait to meet with you here each week. I truly thank you for reading and sharing time with me. You are a blessing to me.

Until next Wednesday,

Gratefully yours,