Calming the Storm...or the Child?

by Lisa Jordan, @lisajordan

He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind, and who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth—the Lord God Almighty is his name. Amos 4:13 NIV

I awoke to the sound of gusting wind and branches smacking our metal roof. I hate storms, particularly anything involving wind or lightning.

When I was a child, a tree had fallen on our house. Even though I had spent the night with my grandparents, who lived down the road, that accident created a domino effect of events that changed my life forever.

As the wind howled and prevented my return to Dreamland, I prayed and asked God to calm the storm. And if He wouldn't do that, then would He please calm this child.

For the next two hours, my mind drifted to my current WIP, the previous day's activities and the week ahead. For the most part, I didn't focus on the wind until it picked back up again, then I repeated my prayer.

These gusts of wind are nothing compared to storms others have endured, but they caused anxiety and sleeplessness in me. For me, for that moment, the wind was troubling. God heard the whispers because the wind died down at times, and I managed not to dwell on it.

Wind can be cool and refreshing on a hot summer's day. Or it can be devastating and wreak havoc. Even the strongest tree can crack if the wind is strong enough.

In my newest release, Season of Hope, Jake and Tori aren't strangers to the storms of life. They learn how adversity allows them to lean on God.

He stays constant, never bending or breaking. And no matter how small or heavy are the wind gusts in our lives, He hears every prayer, every cry of our heart. Sometimes we may think He can't hear us, but not only has He heard, but He's at work calming the storm...or the child.

Does howling wind comfort you or keep you from sleeping? How do you handle adversity in the storm?

His dreams can all come true...but only if his ex-wife will agree!
Jake Holland’s peaceful dairy farm is a sanctuary—one he wants to share with other worn and weary veterans. He just needs one more piece of land to start his program...and it belongs to Tori Lerner, his ex-wife. A collaboration could benefit them both, but with a past full of secrets between them, is there any hope for renewed love?

Heart, home, and faith have always been important to Lisa Jordan, so writing stories with those elements come naturally. Represented by Rachelle Gardner of Books & Such Literary Management, Lisa is an award-winning author for Love Inspired, writing contemporary Christian romances that promise hope and happily ever after. Her latest book, Season of Hope, released in March 2019. She is the Operations Manager for My Book Therapy. Happily married to her own real-life hero for almost thirty years, Lisa and her husband have two grown sons. When she isn't writing, Lisa enjoys family time, kayaking, good books, and creating with words, stamps, fibers, and photos. Visit her at lisajordanbooks.com.

Ask Elnora--About Storms--Again??? Lenora Worth

This has been a strange week for Elnora. Full of storms and those things that make you want to stay in bed under the covers. I can't even muster up anything sassy to say, except "Hold on to your pearls, girls." It started with worrying about our townhouse in Florida. Isaac was making a path right toward the Panhandle. A few days later, Isaac changed his mind and moved a little more Northwest, right toward the state of Louisiana. Which is where Elnora lives, too! Now instead of worrying about my favorite dishes down in Florida, I had to worry about making sure I had my flash drive with me at all times in Louisiana. (As every writer knows, that flash drive goes with us, no matter wind, rain, sleet or snow!)We have a pantry underneath the stairs or as I call it, The Harry Potter room. I used to grab children and my flash drive and the cat and pull all into that pantry each time a tornado threat hovered over us. But all this talk about storms, and all the graphics and live shots I saw on The Weather Channel and CNN, got me to thinking about South Louisiana. I just happened to be reading over AAs for the second book in my LI Cajun series, Sweetheart Bride, which is due out next February. In that book, a hurricane comes through the little town of Fleur, located on a bayou near the Gulf of Mexico. As I proofed those pages, they read with an eerie similarity of what was going on in real life. I didn't plan it that way, but all the emotions I'd poured into that story were now swirling in my own head as I thought about yet another flood down South and many displaced people moving into shelters here where I live. I hated to see that happen again and on the seventh anniversary of Katrina, at that. But this is life. This is a world where anything can happen. When we decided to settle in Florida, some people fussed at us and reminded us about the storms. I told those people that I couldn't worry about things I couldn't predict or change. We live in a beautiful world, but there is no completely safe place to live. You just have to go out there and enjoy life and get through the bad stuff with the help and kindness of strangers, with the love of family and with God's grace covering you. Isaac was a massive storm, full of wind and rain and a dangerous majesty. I'm blessed that I'm safe and dry. What kind of weather do you have where you live? Let's discuss life in an unpredictable world. What do you do to calm youself in a storm?

Ask Elnora--about regrets (I have a few)--Lenora Worth

Hello, my beautiful bloggers. Elnora has been inside most of this week. We had rain all week. Lovely, beautiful, wonderful rain. Some stormy moments and some flooding, but for the most part just a lot of nice rain. My garden is smiling again. It seemed so sad. My mood was kinda of sad, too. Which brings me to the question I've pondered over and over this week. Have you ever done something you regret? Said something you wish you could take back? Acted in a way where you later thought about it and realized you shouldn't have acted like that? Or am I the only person in the world who's ever put her foot in her mouth or acted before thinking something through? Whew, did I see a few hands being raised out there? When we write, we write about reality and our characters often make big mistakes. They have flaws, they have regrets, they have a past that seems to hinder their futures. Alas, this is so true in life, too. Where else would we get our stories? Human nature has always been the same through history and we use that universal truth in our writing. Now if only Elnora could remember that in real life. So the question of the day is this--How do we get over a deep regret and get on with life? Are we like the flowers after the rain? Can we smile again after we've gone through a drought of doubt and despair and sadness and regret? I took the above picture after it had rained all day and promptly posted it on Facebook! We were driving home from dinner and the sunset was in front of us. The clouds were so beautiful with the sun's rays parting them in the middle and the fringes of a rainbow somewhere behind those clouds. I think this picture answers my question. After the rain, comes the sun. Life goes on and God sends us messages in moments of regret that shine through the darkness and doubt. We have a chance to redeem ourselves with each new day and after each fresh rain. What do you think?