by Roseanna White | Feb 4, 2016 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Last weekend my husband, dad, and I went to visit a local church and speak about the missions trip they had taken in October, and of the service organization we’ve begun. After speaking of the trip for so long, the mike got handed to me to cover the org–though I’d said I was just there for moral support, LOL.
As I stood up there in front a group of strangers who are my family in Christ, as I tried to convey why this was important, a truth settled in my mind.
We’re not all called to foreign missions.
We’re not all called to domestic missions.
We’re not all called to adopt.
We’re not all called to minister to refugees.
We’re not all called to any one thing.
But we’re all called.
We’re not all asked to sacrifice our riches.
We’re not all asked to sacrifice our houses.
We’re not all asked to sacrifice our days.
We’re not all asked to sacrifice our hold on our children.
We’re not all asked to sacrifice our dreams.
But we’re all asked to sacrifice.
And if we don’t think we’ve heard a call or been asked to sacrifice…then it’s not because God hasn’t spoken. It’s because we’re not listening. And if we’re not listening, how long before He asks someone else to do, in our place, what He’d intended for us?
My husband put it like this on Saturday, and it’s so good an analogy that it’s stuck in my mind. Let’s look at our relationship with God like a romantic one. We’re told, over and over, that we need to learn to listen to God’s voice.
So maybe we sit around on the phone with him. We pray, we read the Bible. We concentrate on that voice.
Then one day, God says, “Hey, wanna catch a movie?”
We say, “Well…not tonight. I’ve got all this other stuff going on.”
So the next week, God says, “How about dinner?”
And we say, “Well…I’m kinda busy.”
If this plays out time and again, how long is it before you can’t honestly call yourself “dating” anymore? If you have the opportunity to DO and choose not to, is that an active relationship?
God doesn’t call us to an inactive faith. The Great Commission doesn’t say, “Stay ye at home and pray.” Jesus doesn’t answer the rich young ruler’s question about what he needs to do to be saved with, “Give a nice offering every week and pray you use your wealth wisely.”
He calls us all to GO.
He asks us all to GIVE.
Where to go? What to give?
That’s where we’re all different. But I say this: the example of the rich young ruler is a good one. Because He doesn’t ask for the easy way. He doesn’t ask for a sacrifice that costs him little. He asks for complete dedication. He asks for the removal of the thing that the man valued most.
What do you value most?
Family?
Security?
Ritual?
Comfort?
What if He asks you to sacrifice that? What do you do? Do you give it all up? Let your family members go? Give up the steady job and good insurance? Leave the comfortable confines of the denomination you know best? Give up your home?
Or do you just stop picking up the phone when God calls?
Because here’s the thing. He always calls. And if we don’t hear that phone ringing…maybe it’s because we ignored it too long.
American Christians are very good at talking. We value hearing His voice. And honestly, we’re good at throwing money at things…so long as it’s not enough that we’ll notice it missing when we’re at Walmart or browsing Amazon.
But when it comes to sacrificing…when it comes to going…when it comes to doing…
Are we really Christ-like? Or are we content with a mask of Christianity that costs us nothing?
by Roseanna White | Feb 3, 2016 | Announcements, Book News, Remember When Wednesdays
I’m so excited! We’re at the 2-months-to-go mark for the release of The Reluctant Duchess. In my world, that means chatting with Bethany House about fun things like bookmarks, personalized tea bags, Facebook covers, and when I can share the cover for the third book in the series.
I’m beginning the process of gathering influencers, so if you’re interested in being on my launch team this time around, be sure to check my blog Friday morning (10 a.m. EST) for a link to the sign-up form! (Last time some folks missed out because the list was filled before they even saw my blog, so this time I’m giving you warning, LOL!) An influencer will get a complimentary copy of the book from Bethany House with the understanding that they’ll help spread the word about the book through reviews, tweets, posts on Facebook, talking to family and friends, requesting libraries carry it, etc.
When The Reluctant Duchess releases, I’ll be having another big giveaway. This one’s piece de resistance will be another necklace. Not crafted by me this time. No, this one is from the lovely folks at Tiara Town.
This red crystal necklace is a fair imitation of the famous Nottingham rubies that play a vital role in the story of Brice, whom readers met in The Lost Heiress, and Rowena, the heroine from the Scottish Highlands. Who grew up in a castle modeled on Eilean Donan.
(No, I’m not sending anyone there as part of the giveaway. If only I were…I’d send myself along with them!)
But that’s not the only fun in the works! Next week I’ll be doing TWO fun reveals. First, the cover for book 3, A Lady Unrivaled. Cover reveal will be on February 9. Then, on February 10, I finally get to share some exciting news about my next series!
So, to sum up:
1. Come back here Friday at 10 a.m. EST to sign up for a few select influencer spots for The Reluctant Duchess, if you’re interested
2. Tuesday, February 9 is the cover reveal of A Lady Unrivaled
3. Wednesday, February 10 you’ll hear about the series I’m working on now
Have a fabulous Wednesday!
by Roseanna White | Feb 1, 2016 | Word of the Week
I’m busy working on a new project, which means the chance to look up a bunch of random words as I write them and then go, “Wait a minute. Did that exist yet?”
Last week, I looked up brainstorm. I knew I’d looked it up before for a book set pretty early and deemed it off-limits, but I couldn’t remember when it came about. As it turns out, it’s recorded in 1849, meaning, as one would expect, “A brilliant idea, mental excitement.” (The figurative use of storm entered English waaaaaay back in the Old English days.)
Here’s the only thing to keep in mind with brainstorm–it was only a noun. You didn’t brainstorm an idea. You had a brainstorm. The verb form didn’t follow for another 70 years.
Now off I go to see what my characters’ brainstorm results in. 😉
by Roseanna White | Jan 27, 2016 | 17th-19th Centuries, Remember When Wednesdays
It was 1783. The Treaty of Paris had been written, peace was a tenuous string between England and America. There was a deadline for getting the document signed, ratified, and returned to France, where Benjamin Franklin was waiting to present it to the English delegates. The hopes and fears of two nations were on the line.
And the document sat, unsigned, in Annapolis, Maryland, where the Congress was meeting. It sat, and it waited, while delegates from the 13 newly-christened states failed, and failed again to show up.
When I was writing Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland many moons ago, I kept reading about how the delegates weren’t there, but it took me a long time to find something that told me why. And given the “snowpocalypse” that just closed in on Maryland again this past week, it seemed like an appropriate time to tell y’all about it. =)
I lived in Annapolis for 6 years, so I knew what normal winter weather looked like for the town. Windy. Very, very windy. Nasty windy. Cold. The occasional just-above-freezing rain, a few days of ice. Snow once a year or so. Overcast aplenty, but some days of nice sunshine too.
Not so in the winter of 1783-84. No, Jefferson and Franklin both termed this “the long winter of 1783-84,” and Jefferson further added that it was “severe beyond all memory.” Even the oldest men alive at the time couldn’t remember a winter that was worse for the eastern seaboard. The snow kept coming. And coming. The temperatures were frigid.
.jpg/220px-Laki_fissure_(2).jpg) |
| The Laki fissure, from which toxic gases fumed |
Yes, I’m geeky enough to find weather patterns cool, but here’s why it’s really neat. This winter not only ravaged the eastern seaboard of the U.S., but it also hit Europe just as severely. And Franklin, who was in Paris awaiting the return of the aforementioned Treaty that he and his compatriots had penned, hypothesized that this great winter was a result of a series of volcanic eruptions in Iceland. It was the first time anyone had thought to associate volcanic activity with weather patterns, but modern scientists are now very certain that he was right, and that Mt. Laki’s continuous eruptions had led to gases being trapped in the upper atmosphere, which in turn resulted in this awful, seemingly-endless winter. (There were also toxic fogs recorded in Northern Europe.)
So as we sit beneath our three feet of snow in 2016 and watch the plows come through, as we thank the Lord that electricity has stayed on and our houses are snug, I can’t help but think back to the winter that nearly kept peace from being ratified, and the snows that trapped delegated and statesmen in their homes for weeks and months.
Even after they eventually made it to Annapolis and ratified the Treaty, the ordeal wasn’t over. The ships meant to carry it across the Atlantic were iced in well past the deadline…but Franklin managed to get said deadline extended. And since the winter was just as brutal in Europe, everyone was understanding…and very ready for peace.
That long winter of 1783-84 recorded the most below-zero temperatures ever in New England. The most snow in New Jersey. The Chesapeake Bay was frozen solid. The Mississippi River froze at New Orleans, and there was even ice in the Gulf of Mexico.
But peace prevailed. The people hunkered down and got through. And now, all these many years later, we can rest safe and warm inside.
by Roseanna White | Jan 25, 2016 | Word of the Week
Last week, one of Xoe’s vocabulary words was bedlam. And while her book told her what it means, this is my daughter. She also wanted to know where it came from. So naturally, Mama hops over to etymonline.com
And I learned something!
I never had any idea where the word came from, but it’s a shortened form of “Bethlehem,” apparently. In medieval London there was a priory called “Saint Mary of Bethlehem,” which became a hospital in the 1300s, and specifically one for lunatics by 1400. In wills as early as 1440, it was referred to as “Hospital of Saint Mary of Bedlam,” or sometimes “Betleem.” Bedlam was the most common abbreviation, though…and the place was infamous for its scenes of confusion and madness.
Because of that, bedlam was used for any scene of mad confusion by the 1600s.
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.