by Roseanna White | Oct 26, 2015 | Word of the Week
About a month ago, a lady at our church volunteered to teach knitting classes. Having been crocheting since she was 9 and then knitting as well when she moved to our area and began working in a yarn store, Ms. Judith knows her stuff!
I joined mostly because Xoe has taken a few classes and needed a few more, LOL. And I figured, this way I could help her. I wasn’t expecting to fall in love with it, but boy have I!
So today, our word of the week is knit.
The word has been around since Old English, meaning “to tie with a knot, bind, fasten.” And while the art of knitting has been around so long no one knows exactly when it started, the word has been in English with the particular meaning of “to do knitting” only since the 15th century. (Only . . . LOL)
Interestingly, referring to a piece of knitted work as “knitting” is quite new! That only joined the English language in 1848. (Wondering now what they called it before…)
(Those are my knitting projects thus far in the photo – starting at the left, we have a stitch I just wanted to try so did something that ended up the size of a pot holder, LOL. Didn’t like the yarns though so stopped. Then I decided I’d do a cable knit scarf. I still had lots of the yarn, so I made a cable-knit hat to match [it’s finished, but I didn’t take a finished photo yet]. Those are the same yarn in the two middle pictures, just different lighting, LOL. And finally, I’m trying some toy patterns, so I did a star fish. Just finished that this weekend, and am currently working on a bat!)
by Roseanna White | Oct 22, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
In my circles, we hear about the refugees flooding Europe from Syria and the Middle East, driven out by ISIS, and we’re horrified. We want to help. We want to learn more.
I was a bit surprised to realize that the opinion of my circle wasn’t the norm (though I guess I shouldn’t have been). Scrolling randomly through Facebook one day showed me that most people’s opinions are that this is just another ISIS tactic to infiltrate the world–that the refugees are terrorists in disguise, not to be trusted, not to be helped. Or that even if many aren’t, it’s not our problem. We have an immigrant problem of our own, I saw one lady say on a friend’s post. We need to deal with our own issues before we go taking on theirs.
That, my friend, is a dangerous, dangerous philosophy. That, if you carry it out in all aspects of your life, is an excuse for turning a blind eye to any problem–because seriously, when will we not have something to deal with already? Does that mean you let every other atrocity go on, unchecked?
Last week, my husband and father were in Bulgaria, and they went to the refugee camp there to interview some of the refugees. Do you know what they found?
They found people who just want respect, who want to be treated as people, not as a disease. They saw people who manage to smile and joke and talk of their hope of going home, even while they admit that they still have family in Syria, and they haven’t heard from them in months, don’t know whether they’re alive or dead.
These people said over and again, “Syria is beautiful. Syria is wonderful. Syria is even better than the United States. Until DASH [the local name for ISIS] we all lived in peace. We all helped one another. Of course I want to go home. As soon as it’s safe, I’ll be there. We’ll rebuild.”
I’m not sure Americans understand that–that these people aren’t fleeing by choice, aren’t trying to find a new life in Europe or America or anywhere else in the world. They’re just trying to survive, to help their children to survive. Their goal isn’t to stay in those countries to which they flee, it’s just to earn a living there until they can go home. That’s the ultimate goal–to go home, to a place they swear is the best place in the world.
Are there terrorists trying to take advantage of this? There are. Bad people will always try to take advantage of the hardships of others. But those people will find ways in no matter what. To those who live in fear of that, I say this:
41 “Then
He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you
cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25)
When I stand before God, I don’t want Him judging me for the thousands of innocents I chose not to help for fear of the few evil men among them. When I stand before God, I don’t want to be on the left hand, begging and pleading and saying, “But Lord, I might have helped an enemy by mistake!”
I think He has an answer to that, don’t you? Love your enemy. Pray for those who persecute you . . . if your enemy is hungry, give him food. If he is thirsty, give him drink.
Already there are stories coming out of terrorists who were trying to do what we fear . . . but who, being met by the love of Christians in the camps, changed their minds. Because never had they seen such love, and they couldn’t deny it.
Christianity has an opportunity here–to show the world what it really means to serve a loving God. A merciful God. A God who loves you so much that He would make the ultimate sacrifice. That’s a love that changes people. That’s a love that changes the world.
Are we willing to Shine that love into the darkness? Or do we turn our faces away and pretend the darkness can’t reach us here?
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing opportunities as they become available–opportunities to support those ministering to the camps, and hopefully to take some more active roles too.
And if you’d like to see more of what my husband and father did last week, you can listen to their presentation to our church this coming Saturday, October 24, at 11 a.m. We’ll be broadcasting the service here: FGSDB Live Stream
Please, please join us in praying for the thousands of displaced Syrians. Pray for their safety. Pray for their provisions. Pray for their hearts and souls.
If by chance you’re ready to give right now, you can donate through our not-for-profit organization, the Appalachian Relief Mission. Just put a note that it’s for the refugees–we’ll be sending money to our contacts at the camp in Bulgaria (the poorest country in the EU, just FYI). https://www.paypal.me/anarmoutstretched
by Roseanna White | Oct 21, 2015 | Remember When Wednesdays
Last week I had a super-exciting email from the folks at Bethany House, asking for my input on poses for the book cover of A Lady Unrivaled, the third and final installment in the Ladies of the Manor Series.
Yes, if you heard giddy squealing, that was me. 😉
Now, they hadn’t selected a model yet, so this was purely an in-general question, but a fun one. And it got me thinking. As a cover designer myself, I know how much poses matter–and it’s especially true on a book cover where the figure is the majority of the composition, like in these.
(I’m still so in love with these covers!)
But in the email last week, my editor asked if I’d like to see them use any props this time (props! squee!), how I’d like to see her positioned. And oh, the possibilities!
Just looking through Edwardian photographs gives such a wide variety…
We’ve got the parasol-as-a-cane.
Which was very popular.
Or hey, just a cane!
We’ve got the show-off-the-waist ones…
(I can’t breathe just looking at that one…or this one)
And of course, some softer poses.
Endless possibilities, of course. And I love how much attention Bethany House gives this as they prepare for their photo shoots. Just look at some of these fabulously posed covers.
We tossed around some ideas, and I can’t wait to see what they settle on during the shoot and the photo selection.
But now I’m curious. What are your favorite types of poses for models on book covers? Close-ups? No faces? Something quirky? Serious? Action shot? Obviously much depends on the type of book, but which ones tend to draw you?
by Roseanna White | Oct 15, 2015 | Thoughtful Thursdays, Uncategorized
Freedom.
It’s a subject being discussed quite a bit these days in hot-topic conversations . . . though sometimes I don’t think people realize that is at the heart of what they’re talking about.
Freedom.
It’s the heart of the Christian faith, something Americans certainly make a show of valuing . . . but often atheists’ main objection to Christianity is–though they rarely realize it–our freedom.
Freedom.
Something we want so desperately, but understand so poorly.
Last week, a friend of mine had changed her social media profile picture to be a little thing that said “I Am a Christian.” For some bizarre reason, this triggered attacks on her by total strangers on Twitter, who took it upon themselves to insult her in some rather colorful language and accuse her of “liking to be a victim then.”
I was so very impressed with how my friend handled herself. Not at all confrontational, she just asked the person to explain what they meant. The root of their argument? That there had better not be a God, because if there were, He was doing a lousy job of protecting people. Just look at all the violence and crime!
My friend’s response: “So you want a God who controls you completely?”
The confrontational person certainly didn’t take kindly to that. But it sure got me thinking.
That is, in essence, what people are asking for when they say, “Why doesn’t God stop these bad things from happening? Why didn’t He stop that shooter? That bomber? ISIS?”
When those are the questions churning through our mind, we see only one side of the equation, and it looks grossly unfair. God should put a halt to these terrible thing! Right?!
Wrong. So very, very wrong.
Because if God put a halt to those terrible, terrible things–things people choose to do to each other–then He, being perfectly just, would also have to put a halt to everything you do that isn’t perfectly pleasing to Him.
Is that how you would want to live? With God controlling your every word? Your every action? Your every thought? Do you want to live as nothing but a puppet?
I daresay no one, even those of us who strive to be better and live according to God’s will, want that. We, by nature, value freedom. Free will. We, by nature, want to choose whether we love God, whether we serve Him. He doesn’t demand compulsory service–He softly requests our hearts.
But if we grant that He should give us free will, we have to extend it to all humanity–including those who abuse it.
And there will always be people who abuse it. There will always be people who heed the whispers of the enemy rather than those of God, who take perverse delight in hurting, killing, abusing, misusing other people. Could God stop them? Of course He could. But except for a few occasions where His people are praying and His glory needs to be demonstrated, He doesn’t. Because He already let us choose–He granted us that most basic freedom. We don’t really want Him to take that away.
Not from us, anyway. But we still wish He would take it away from them, don’t we?
At least until we realize that God loves them just as much as He loves us. And because He loves them, He wants them to have that freedom to choose Him too. He wants to reach their hearts, not to bind their hands.
But freedom, as much as we treasure it, terrifies us when it’s extended to those whose views are different from ours. Because what if they abuse it? How do we stop them?
Well, as I know I’ve said before, we don’t accomplish it by tying their hands, since God won’t. We don’t do it by taking away guns. We don’t do it by limiting everyone’s freedoms.
We do it by praying a revival into the world. By turning hearts to Him. By reinstating the morality that God, in fact, gave us to try to guide us away from these abuses we find so heinous . . . but which also include Him guiding us away from abuses we find pretty nice. You know, like sex with whomever we want, whenever we want, married or not. Like getting rid of whatever child (oh, I’m sorry, fetus [which, now that you mention it, means “child” in Latin, no differentiation between born or unborn]) we find inconvenient. Like putting anything and everything before Him in our priorities and loyalties.
We call those things freedoms, proving how little we understand the concept. Free choice. Free love. Free time.
Those things aren’t free–they come with a cost. One America and the world are paying every day when we create a generation, a people, who value life so little that they see no reason not to end the lives of those they disagree with. We, as a culture, have taught them to do that, then we wonder why God didn’t stop them?
Freedom.
It’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? Something we want so fiercely . . . understand so little . . . and don’t know what to do with once we’ve got it. Something we go to war to protect . . . and then give away in terror. Something we say is a basic human right . . . even if that requires changing the definition of “human” so it doesn’t have to apply to those to whom we don’t wish to grant it.
Freedom.
It’s one of God’s sweetest gifts to humanity. And one of the things that make people doubt His very existence.
Freedom.
A gift we can’t accept without extending it to others too.
by Roseanna White | Oct 12, 2015 | Word of the Week
Last week, Rowyn was reading Amelia Bedelia, who classically misunderstands commands that include words with more than one meaning. Early on in the story, she’s working on a list of chores from her employer, who instructs her to “draw the drapes.” Naturally, she sits down with a marker and paper and draws those drapes.
I’m totally raising my kids up right–Rowyn asked, “Why does that word mean both things?”
So Mommy the Lover of Etymology replied, “I think it’s that draw means, ‘to pull across.’ So you draw the drapes closed, along their rods…or your draw your pencil across the page, which eventually got shortened just to draw. It’s also why drawers are called that–because you pull them out.”
Score one for Mommy, who was right on. 😉
Draw dates from about 1100, its meanings including both those things, plus to “draw a weapon.”
As a noun (specifically, when something like a game has no winner), it has existed since the 1600s, and in the sense of “something that will draw a crowd” from about 1881. To draw a blank is an expression that came about from the lotteries and dates from 1825.
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.