Roseanna White - Roseanna M. White

Thoughtful About . . . Elevators

by Roseanna White | Oct 3, 2019 | Thoughtful Thursdays

How do we approach conversation? Is it just a means of exchanging information? Letting our opinions be made known? Are we trying to help others? Broaden our understanding? Do we go at it with no purpose–or with a self-serving one? If you’re anything like me, the answer is simply “yes”–we use conversation for all those things.

But how SHOULD we use and approach it?

After having some truly amazing conversations over the weekend with friends we don’t see nearly enough, I realized anew that conversation can be so much more than we usually allow it to be. Think for a moment about the power of our spoken words–the very things God used to create the universe. The very thing John calls Jesus. The very means Jesus himself used to express Truth to the world.

How often do we use it for that purpose? Sometimes (I hope, ha ha). But enough? I know I don’t.

But as I contemplated WHY I find myself falling into the comfortable, routine, surface conversations more often than not, I realized that this isn’t what I want to do.

I want to actually know what you think, believe, feel about things.

I want to know where our thoughts merge and where they digress.

I want to know why they digress.

I want to let my understanding grow based on what you teach me.

I want you to know that you have taught me.

I want to be able to share with you anything I’ve learned that might help you.

I want you to leave a conversation with me knowing that I heard you and value your words.

I want us both to walk (or tab, if it’s online) away with that certainty that the Lord was in our words.

I want, most of all, for our conversation to lift us both closer to Him.

I want our conversations to change me.

We need to be elevators. Not the metal box that transports our bodies upward in a building–but the spiritual equivalent. We need to use our words to lift others–and ourselves–closer to the Most High.

How do we do that?

I’ve been pondering that question all week. In part, it’s by teaching, when that’s appropriate. But it isn’t always, is it? What about when we’re talking to someone older, wise, and more educated? Is there just no way to elevate them?

I don’t think that’s the case. Because I think the true way to lift ourselves and others toward God in conversation is this: to ask good questions. To actually listen to the answers. And to adjust our thoughts accordingly.

That last part is key–the greatest conversation means absolutely nothing if both parties walk away and dismiss it. We have to let it change us. Change our opinions, our approach to a subject, our actions. We have to be willing to be the clay if we want the Potter to continue shaping us daily–and conversations with others is a way He’s done this throughout the ages.

Now, we can’t control whether other people will change–but we can control ourselves. And if we model it, if we demonstrate that they had a real effect on us, if we make it clear to them that we took their words into account and adjusted accordingly, they’re going to be more likely to do the same. Because it will allow us all to lower our defenses. And that’s where real change can occur.

This works whether we’re the teacher or the pupil. The shepherd or the flock. It works whether we’re talking about how to convince the world to entertain ideas about God or about our kids’ interests. It works if we’re talking about fashion, and it works if we’re talking about salvation. Why? Because it shows the other person that we value them, it gives us both the opportunity to entertain new ideas, and it lets the love of Christ Shine through us. It builds relationship.

This is a challenge I’m making to myself. I want to start THINKING about the conversations I engage in, and I want to be deliberate about how I participate in them. I want to always be looking for what I can learn from them, and also for places where I can share the truths of God’s love that He’s shown me. I want my conversations to reach for something higher than myself.

Words are some of the most powerful things the Lord has given us–and some of the most ill-used. Let’s change that.

How do you lift others toward Him in YOUR conversations?

Word of the Week – Pale

by Roseanna White | Sep 30, 2019 | Word of the Week

At church last week I was joking with my son about something and declared it “Beyond the pale.” At which point he, of course, asked what in the world that meant.

Hmm. Good question. This being me, I immediately pulled up etymonline.com (so not cool, Mom) and looked up what archaic meaning of pale had led to that saying–because obviously, it doesn’t mean “beyond fair-skinned.” Though my husband jokingly insisted it did.

Turns out that back in ye olden days, in the 13th century, a pale was a stake or pole used to create boundaries between things. By the 14th century, it had taken on the figurative meaning of “any boundary or restriction.” I love that the website says this meaning is “barely surviving” in phrases like “beyond the pale.” So true! Something we still say, but without really knowing why we say it! So “beyond the pale” would literally mean that something pushed beyond the limits.

Are there any other phrases you use whose actual meaning you’re uncertain of? I’d love to look into them!

Announcing: The Nature of a Lady!

by Roseanna White | Sep 26, 2019 | Announcements, Book News

Though there are still two books yet to come out in the Codebreakers Series, they’re both already written and turned in…which means it was time for me to begin thinking of what’s coming next. =) After conferring with my editors (i.e. sending in a list of a dozen ideas and seeing which one they liked best), we decided it would be fun to leave behind the world of the Great War and go back to the earlier 1900s. Return to the world of aristocracy and the upstairs/downstairs feel. But of course, deliver some super fun romance and mystery.

I absolutely love that the team went for this idea. And I’ll tell you why.

When The Number of Love came out, my first order of business was packing up the pre-orders that had come in through my store. I had a ton of them, and as I signed books and affixed labels, I was entertaining myself by counting the number of people who had the same name. I had no fewer than four variations on Emily and something like six Elizabeths. At one point as I tackled one of those, I said to myself, “Oh, look. Another Elizabeth.”

Another Elizabeth.

The words stuck in my head all day. I knew there was a story there, but I wasn’t sure what it was. It would make a fun title, I thought. But I didn’t know what the concept would be…at first. A day or two later, however, I was out on our giant swing set, and the story began to trickle into my head.

A girl shows up at a new apartment. When she signs the lease, the landlady greets her with, “Oh, another Elizabeth, is it? Hope you’re more dependable than the last one. She left me high and dry…” Our Elizabeth thinks nothing of it, at first. But then she begins to find things in her new home, left there by the previous owner. Mysterious things. Made all the more mysterious when people keep knocking on her door, saying, “Elizabeth?” and then foisting more mysterious articles into her hands when she confirms that she is indeed Elizabeth. Baffling…until the first Elizabeth’s brother shows up, concerned for his sister and shocked when she doesn’t open the door. This would be our hero, of course.

That was the basic concept that I pitched to Bethany House. They were very enthusiastic–though they did instruct me to come up with a title that conveyed the nobility angle more. For about a week I cast around, looking for good locations, different titles, and specific plots and characters, before sending them an official proposal. I decided on the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall as a setting, and as I dug into the history of this island chain, other plot elements just fell right into place–you know, legends, pirates’ treasure, and an abundance of unique flora and fauna. So I’m now thrilled to announce the first book:

The Nature of a Lady

1908 – Lady Elizabeth “Libby” Sinclair, with her
love of microscopes and nature, isn’t exactly a hit in society. She flees to
the beautiful Isles of Scilly for the summer…and stumbles into the dangerous
secrets left behind by her holiday cottage’s former occupant, also called
Elizabeth, who mysteriously vanished.

Oliver Tremayne—gentleman and clergyman—is determined to
discover what happened to his sister, and he’s happy to accept the help of the
girl now living in what should have been Beth’s summer cottage…especially when
he realizes it’s the curious young lady he met briefly two years ago, who
shares his love of botany and biology. But the hunt for his sister involves far
more than nature walks, and he can’t quite believe all the secrets Beth had
been keeping from him.

As the two work together, along with Libby’s maid, they find ancient legends, pirate wrecks, betrayal, and the most
mysterious phenomenon of all: love.

I’m currently armed with these two fun research books, and I can’t wait to dive in and bring Libby and Oliver’s story to life! I have some time to really get to know them before I start writing, so I’ve been daydreaming about who they are and what will make them special. I’m going to be including some fun local legends from the islands, there’s going to be an antiquities smuggling scandal in the series, and undergirding it all will be the true history of one of England’s most terrible pirates, who made the Isles of Scilly his base of operations…and whose treasure still hasn’t been found.

Word of the Week – Apple

by Roseanna White | Sep 23, 2019 | Word of the Week

Since last week we looked into peach, I thought it would be fun to move to an autumn fruit this week and explore the history of the word apple.

Apple is from Old English, which means it’s been around pretty much forever. But it didn’t always mean that specific fruit we identify as an apple today. Nope, is used to mean “any kind of fruit.” (Excluding berries, but including nuts, interestingly.) And English isn’t the only language that can claim that. The same was true of the similar words in French, German, Dutch, Norse, Irish, and even Slavonic. That would be why we then get words like pomme de terre in French–“apple of the earth” for potato.

It also explains why the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden has come to be thought of as an apple. Because it was called an apple for hundreds of years–not because people meant that specific rosy-skinned, white-fleshed fruit, but because it simply meant FRUIT!

Thoughtful About . . . Soul-Tidying

by Roseanna White | Sep 19, 2019 | Thoughtful Thursdays

I’m not the world’s best housekeeper. This is no secret–I mean, I put it right in my official bio. 😉 Yes, “pretending my house will clean itself” is part of my charming naivete. Ahem. Or at the very least, keeping everything put in its proper place isn’t my priority. That goes to educating my kids, writing books, designing covers, feeding the family, exercising, reading…pretty much anything else, LOL. I do keep up with the dishes and laundry. Just not with putting everything away.

Over the weekend, even I had had enough of the clutter, so I spent a few hours reorganizing the utility closet, breaking down boxes that were trash, and clearing off counters. And, as usual, as I did so, I kept coming across things I’d forgotten were there. “Oh, so that’s where that was.” Or “Why in the world didn’t I throw this away yet?”

Even the neatest people probably have little corners or drawers that gather clutter, right? We’ve all experienced this. And as someone who has experienced it more than, say, my sister (LOL), allow me to explain how it happens:

When something’s been there for a while, we cease to see it. It becomes part of the background. Normal. Our eyes adjust to it being there, and it no longer strikes us as wrong, as worth fixing…until eventually, the mess gets too big to be ignored.

When it comes to the empty boxes that pile up in my kitchen, this seriously isn’t that big a deal.

But what about when it comes to our souls?

Sin, my friends, works a lot like clutter. It sneaks its way in, and maybe when we see it the first time or two, we think, “Oh, that won’t do. I’d better take care of that…” But then we don’t. Why? Because it’s easier to ignore it. We’re busy. Because, frankly, clearing out sin is no fun and usually involves a bit of humility (much like cleaning out my junked-up counters does). It’s easier to say we’ll take care of it soon. Tomorrow. Sunday. Next week. Sometime when we’re not running out the door or overwhelmed by “more pressing” matters.

But then we cease to see it. It becomes part of the background. Normal. Our spiritual eyes adjust to it being there, and it no longer strikes us as wrong, as worth fixing…until eventually, the sin gets too big to be ignored.

And then where are we? Exactly where I am when my house has gotten to that point–in for a long clean-up effort.

Because let me just tell you, it’s a whole lot easier to nip jealousy in the bud the first moment it rears its ugly green head than after we’ve let it fester into resentment and hatred. It’s easier to apologize for that nasty thing we said right away than after we’ve walked away and let it keep on battering the recipient.

It’s easier to choose to love and forgive the moment we’re hurt than to have to wrestle with it years later.

Hmm…not sure of that one? I wasn’t either when the example popped into my head. And I’m not going to say it’s humanly easier. But isn’t that exactly the example Christ gives us? While He’s still hanging on the cross, He’s forgiving those who put Him there. What would our lives look like if we forgave those who hurt us while we were still suffering the first throes of consequences?

I try to find little ways to train myself into better housekeeping habits–things like watching something fun while folding laundry, and vacuuming the floors before I sit down on them to do that. Things like certain days being Bathroom Cleaning days.

But far more important is tidying my soul. What are we doing to make sure we stay clear of the clutter of sin? Are we vacuuming up the filth of this world from our selves, keeping our spirits white as snow?

We know we need to tidy our houses…but let’s not forget to tidy our souls with far more care and attention.

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