Lyn & Sentimental September

Happy Autumn! I know it's not going to be fall officially till later this month. But with the school children back in class and the days getting shorter, let's not quibble--it's fall.

I like fall. I'm looking forward to the leaves changing (some maples here are already red-tipped) and baking apple and pumpkin pies and watching the season change again.

I've called this month Sentimental September. First of all, because my two books Finally Home & Finally Found have been reissued as a Love Inspired Classic. It's hard to believe that I've been writing long enough to have books being re-issued. But I know many readers only discovered Love Inspired romances in the past few years and they are eager to read our earlier books.

That's quite a compliment to us. You support by buying our books and telling friends and booksellers and librarians about them. Thank you from the bottom of my heart (and theirs).

And the second reason for Sentimental September is that I'd like to take a few moments and recall good advice that I received from other women. I think first of my mother. She was a strong woman. She had to be. Nowadays being a single mom is commonplace, but not in 1960. When my father deserted her, she was left with two pre-teens and a five-month old baby.

I won't go into the struggle of those days. However, since she and my father shared a business, she not only lost a husband, but also her way of making a living. But she shouldered on. We never missed a meal and we stayed together. Those were rough years, but they taught me a lot about strength, pulling together as a family and not giving into despair.

The advice my mom gave me came years later and unfortunately, it was advice that she should have followed herself so she gave it to me with great regret. Her advice?

She said to me when I was a young mother, "I see now how so much would have been different if I'd just followed God and depended on Him each day."

When she said that to me, I broke into tears. Because I knew what she meant. She had gone it alone through those hard years and had not known that God could be with her in a very personal way. She believed in God and sent us to Sunday school but she never discovered a personal relationship with Christ till she as well into mid-life.

I found Christ early and never strayed far and HE has blessed me. Sometimes I like to take credit for my accomplishments because I am a hard-worker. But my mom was a hard-worker too and she said to me when she was in her sixties, "I have never gotten what I wanted in life. None of my dreams."

That made to cry too. My mother was a wonderful woman in so many ways, but she always wanted to be in control. She never let God take charge and she missed so much.

So it was sad advice that my mother gave me. I've tried to give the same advice to my daughter, teaching her to depend on Christ every day. We pray together but I don't know God's mind for her. I just pray for her and my son every day and hope that they will never feel the regret my mother did.

Finally Home & Finally Found have a scene at the end of the second book where an old secret is uncovered by the three sisters in the story and healing and joy comes. Let me know if you enjoy it--if it speaks to your heart.