Freebie Friday: A Tradition of Giving!

Traditionally Freebie Friday is when I vet Amazon’s kindle store and give you the links to what’s currently free and worth your time! (or at least looks that way!) Well, today I’m breaking tradition but offering a gift… so someone will still get a freebie, no false advertising here.

Christmas is right around the corner! As an adult (and parent) it’s easy to start seeing this mad dash between Thanksgiving and Christmas as a season of spending. We spend and yes we give but the stress of finding the right gifts for that ever lengthening list of people to shop for becomes a little bit less about the joy of giving that gift and more about getting everything bought and wrapped and under the tree before (ahem) Santa comes.

But there’s something special about giving a gift that we miss this time of year simply because gifts are, well… expected. Whether big or small, when someone surprises you with a gift it’s hard not to get that swell of meaning in your chest. That touch of gratitude and reaches down into the part of you that sometimes feels over-looked or forgotten or unappreciated. Just like spontaneous flowers are better than Valentine’s Day roses any day, a gift from the heart wins against that luxury price tag. Hands down.

Now, nice things are lovely. But not when they come wrapped up in obligation. At least. Not to me.

Just yesterday my husband made a point to tell me about the barista in the Starbucks drive-thru who gave him a free cup of coffee when he tried to cancel his order because he’d his forgotten his wallet. I still remember the bagger at my grocery store pulling a dollar out of his pocket for the used VHS Star Wars movie my son was mooning over that required cash when I’d only brought in my debit card. These were random acts of kindness, and not elaborate or expensive, but the spirit in which the gift was given was something special. Something I longed to capture and emulate in my everyday giving. Whether it’s a hand drawn Lego man picture for my son’s lunchbox or a quick love letter under my husband’s keys, I’ve found it matters very little what the gift is and very much what the unexpected gesture means. It’s buying a great book for a friend just because it might brighten their day. That is the tradition of giving I want my kids to see. A generous heart behind every ribbon.

So on this unconventional Freebie Friday I want to bless someone with a gift simply because it blesses me to be able to give. And all you need to do is leave comment about your favorite Christmas tradition to help get us in the spirit. I’ll draw a winner who will get an e-book bundle of Alley Cat New Releases! (I'll announce the winner and how to collect your gift in the comments on Sunday night! So check back!)

 

Hope you have a blessed Christmas season! Give with your whole heart!

 

 

 

 

 

 

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Amy Leigh Simpson writes romantic mysteries with honesty and humor, sweetness and spice, and gritty reality covered by grace. When she’s not stealing moments at naptime to squeeze out a few more adventures in storyland, she’s chasing around two tow-headed miscreants (Ahem)—boys, playing dress up with one sweet princess baby, and being the very blessed wife to the coolest, most swoon-worthy man alive. Amy is a Midwestern-girl, a singer, blogger, runner, coffee-addict, and foodie. Her Sports Medicine degree is wasted patching up daily boo boo’s, but whatever is left usually finds its way onto the page with fluttering hearts, blood and guts, and scars that lead to happily ever after.

Check out her debut romantic mystery novel WHEN FALL FADES available now for $3.99!

 

Writing Is My Song

It's funny, a year after I wrote the post below, I can say it's my heart's state now-- BUT NOW, I am in a much bigger trial than no publishing contract (although I am still there!!!) This season, I find myself in a personal trial that has pretty much turned my heart upside down.

Yet, it is in that state of brokenness that I find God calling me to that very thing He told me a year ago: ABIDE. That is the only way my heart begins to tip the right way up again.

Enjoy this re-post of a pretty real-time revelation.
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On my last morning of vacation, I forced myself to wake up and do something I wanted to do that entire week. Watch the sunrise over the ocean. It had been an amazing time to relax, rejuvenate, and just release all the stress from life and parenthood. Funny though, I began the week there against a vow I had made to myself.

To leave my passion of writing behind.

I wanted complete solitude from everything I focused on up North. :) But, something happened, and I allowed the writing to remain a focus, even as the waves lapped to the shore, and the sand swallowed my feet.

And suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant tidal wave of doubt and frustration threatened to knock me down. Funny thing is, I had just accomplished two big feats in my writing pursuit. It all makes sense now. But at the time, it threw me into a swirling downward mess.

My view from the balony

The pinks and golds of a rising sun took me from the balcony of my hotel room, and sat me right down at the water's edge. I tried to listen, tried to hear God's call for me. What should I DO, Lord? Am I DOING what you want? I am so frustrated with this process. So defeated in the DOING.

Some people might claim to hear the voice of God, clear as the sun's glitter on the waves. I am not one of those people. God doesn't speak to me in an audible way. That day, I begged to hear His voice. I wanted answers.

The Spirit knows better though. I wasn't moved to listen. I was moved to worship. And everything came into focus. Well, not everything, just One thing. It's like I was searching the horizon with a strained zoom lens, and once I zoomed out, clarity sharpened the Image my heart needed most. The answer my heart craved, even against what I thought to be the answer I wanted.

Through a prostrate heart, as prostrate as the sea foam submits to the shore after a crashing wave, I realized the answer to all my questions...all my concerns: God wants me to abide in Him.

That's it.

Nothing more.

He's the One that's in the business of DOING. NOT me. I am worthless if I think that if I just DO something, life will be better, God will be happy, Love will flow freely.

Eh, eh.

No. In a world where DOING is often the answer...where success is built upon a foundation of effort and stress, where power is built upon pushing and trampling those in the way....I have discovered that nothing is worth anything if the DOING is my focus. Because it is when I ABIDE, when I allow the LORD to be in control, just as He's in control of the ocean waves--they never stop, they continue to approach and retreat, to swell and to dissipate--God is the ONLY one in control of the DOING.

Only when I ABIDE in Him, and give Him the power to DO through me, will I be moved.

Only in HIM.

What happens when we ABIDE? We worship and fall prostrate. And it's there where we have focus, because it's through the heartbeats of the Almighty that gives us Life. Through the tug of the Almighty's hands that we are led to do. Not because a person, or pursuit, or preacher tells us to DO. It's because when we ABIDE in Him, our heart beats in rhythm with His own. And from the overflow of HIS Love, we DO.

I felt like I cried an ocean after my time on the shore. And I hadn't. But my body felt like it. Such release. Such PEACE. Such abiding.

So, after this long schpeel...you might wonder what this looks like for my writing. Honestly, I was about to throw in the towel on this pursuit to publication before that morning. There are a few things I have discovered after worshiping at the water's edge:

1. I can remember the exact moment God bestowed this craving to worship through stories. It was at a time of my life I had prayed for something more...for something to satisfy amidst the colicky babes, the clinging toddlers, the monotonous days of motherhood (and I LOVE my kids...don't judge...my heart needed something else). As much as the Christian writing community talks about writing as a Gift from God...that morning I grasped that it REALLY WAS a gift from God...an answered prayer of giving me something more...something all my own. He gave me the outlet at just the moment I needed it most... a mother of three small children, in a season of chaos!

2. With the help of some amazing women (you know them as the Alleycats), I can finally understand that, because this writing thing is truly a gift, truly an avenue to joy in my life, truly Spirit led to bring me to abiding in Him, publishing really is just a worldly perk. Yes, it's still my desire to see my name in print some day, but it's not the culmination of this gift. Far from it. I think there will be a much grander finale to my story writing, and I will dream that it involves a more Heavenly audience.

3. The DOING is not up to me. Abiding is. And like I said, the writing thing is one way God allows for me to ABIDE with Him. AMEN! Wow, He gifted me in a wonderfully joyous personal way to ABIDE in Him. I feel BLESSED!

My husband and I talked a lot about creation that trip. It's hard not to when you have the vast ocean before

The sunset on our last night

you, the rising sun, and the sea of stars at night. And when I sit and allow myself to absorb the creation around me, I burst with an urge to cry and write all at once. If writing wasn't God-given, then could I be so moved to write by merely observing His Handiwork?

Writing is my song. It is my worship. Writing is the pursuit God has given me to ABIDE.

I can't DO. Just WRITE.

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous, mothering days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across historical cultures and social boundaries. Angie is an ACFW member and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.

The Ugly Duckling of a Writer

"We find all sorts of ways to take away [distract] from the gift God gave us," Patsy Clairmont stated in her talk at Women of Faith in 2007. My women's group recently watched these dvds, and I thought how timely her message was for my post today.

Before I heard Patsy speak, I was going to title this post, "Distractions: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly". The good being our other gifts from God: our family, our ministries, etc. Sometimes, when these distract us from our writing, it's a needed time to step away. For the bad distractions, I wanted to mention social media. Cringe. Yes, don't hate me, but sometimes social media (Facebook, blogs, pinterest...etc.) is a bad distraction. While it isn't "bad" in itself, when you've carved out a time to write then click over to surf your newsfeed, the distraction will be detrimental to your writing.
I wanted to finish my original post with the "ugly"--what is inside of us that distracts us from our writing: our insecurities, our laziness, our striving to push along the process to publication.


from www.christianphotos.net

Well, God is amazingly faithful in speaking to me about what NEEDS to be said, and when I heard Patsy Clairmont speak, I realized that there was a lot more to be said about the "ugly" than what I first intended. A whole post-ful.

"It's not who you are, but what you're going to become." -Patsy Clairmont

Do you ever sit at your computer and have an internal battle against the distracting whispers of "I'm not good enough," and "what was I thinking"? Perhaps you're not a writer after all? Perhaps you are an ugly duckling, trying to be a swan? This is a deeply rooted distraction from our writing, and can send us into a spiraling chasm of fear and stagnation.

Patsy so poignantly said the above quote when referring to an example in the Old Testament. When the angel came to Gideon in Judges, the angel called Gideon, "a mighty man of power," Gideon was distracted from this amazing visitor by his own insecurity, declaring that he is no man of power because he's from the weakest clan. God is bigger though. God called him to a higher calling. He knew Gideon would be powerful, and if Gideon wasn't distracted by his insecurities and leaned on his faith in God, then he wouldn't need to be convinced by the angel in the first place.

God is El Roi, the God who sees. He sees your insecurities and disabilities, but He also is the giver of your gift to write, and He knows His higher purpose for bestowing that gift upon you.

from www.christianphotos.net

What is so beautiful about this, is that God sees the "swan" that will come from the ugly duckling. A duckling is still learning to swim, to fish, to make it in the great big pond. But if the duckling gets distracted by his mistakes and struggles, then he can't grow to be a self-sufficient duck. What would his Father think if he continued to ignore his purpose, and focused only on the growing pains along the way? And imagine his surprise, when His Heavenly Father promised him more than life as a duck, but the beauty of a glorious swan? God has so much more in store for us than we could ever imagine! Power to a weak man like Gideon, life-changing words to a growing writer like YOU!

When we are distracted from our gift because of our own insecurity, then we are telling God that our Flesh is greater than our Spirit. We are leaning into a lie, not a promise. Ultimately, our ugly distraction becomes a broken trust in God's ability to use us through our writing.

God has great plans for us, and if we allow Him to work through us by weeding out our internal distractions and standing firm in our calling to write, then His promise to bring about His glory through our gift, will begin to sprout copious amounts of fruit! Without that internal distraction, imagine how efficiently you will grow as a writer.
 Don't let your "ugly duckling" syndrome stop you from venturing onward into the waters of His glory. Push aside the distraction.

This type of distraction is disobedience.

Might God whisper, "Obey while I'm fixing you."** Give your gift your full attention, and God will prune away those tawny feathers and promise you the beauty of a glorious swan.

**This quote is from Patsy Clairmont's talk. She is so wise! :)

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Angie Dicken first began writing fiction as a creative outlet during the monotonous days of diapers and temper tantrums. She is passionate to impress God's love on women regardless of their background or belief. This desire serves as a catalyst for Angie's fiction, which weaves salvation and grace themes across historical cultures and social boundaries. Angie is an ACFW member and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency.