Sweet friends! I have a special announcement that I wanted to share with you gals first! It kind of feels like my first book baby, Dreaming with God, is having a sibling! My second book baby, (to be totally clear – this is not a human baby – BOOK baby :)) is now available to pre-order for a very happy mail day on February 5th, 2019. And today, I get to reveal the cover to you! Before I do, let me tell you a little bit about this book baby and why I am SO excited for you to have it in your hands in just a few months…
The thing about writing books, for me, is that the ideas marinate over time. They tug at my heart. They pull me towards them. And the very ideas and books I’m writing about are not from a place of having figured out the answers. They come from a place of wanting to navigate the questions of my heart with God. They come from a place of wanting to know what God says about a particular thing. It’s very much a journey of my own heart before it becomes a book idea or a word on a page. And this book baby idea seemed to be gnawing at me for quite some time as I noticed that life was feeling overly busy. Not just busy with things on the calendar, but a deep-down busyness of the soul. My soul and heart felt busy – yes, from my calendar and schedule, but also from my to-do lists, the constant flow of information via emails, texts, and social media, the dings and rings of my phone always alerting me, stress from keeping up with everything and the general pressure of feeling like I needed to stay busy and just keep going. All along, my heart was aching for a deeper peace.
I started noticing that I missed something very to dear to me. I missed the quietness with God. I missed the time I used to spend with Him, just me, my coffee cup, my journal, and my Bible on a porch. And while I was still having that time with Him, it felt like that time was getting more and more scarce and harder to keep. I craved alone time with God. I felt like I wasn’t hearing from Him. I felt too busy inside. I craved to feel more steady in my heart – a steadiness from knowing God in a deeper way.
I noticed over and over again as I journaled my way through that season that I would write down some kind of phrase that looked a bit like this: “I’m craving a retreat with You, God. I feel the need to pull away with You for a while. I need some time and space to just be with You.”
Those are the seeds of this book baby #2.
And what I’ve noticed over time is that a lot of gals feel the same things. They miss God too. They feel like they can’t seem to find the time or space to be with Him. They wonder if they are able to hear Him anymore in such a busy, noisy life. They feel more angst and stress than peace and joy because life is moving at such a rapid pace. They feel busy inside too. They long to experience close company with Jesus and to know the deep peace of God, no matter how busy life feels at the moment.
This book is for the gal who:
- feels so busy that stress feels impossible to manage.
- feels distracted and wants to return to the simplicity of walking with God.
- feels hurried and needs a real invitation to slow her steps.
- feels overwhelmed and needs to know the deep peace God offers her and how to find it again.
- feels cluttered and needs to find her foundation again in God.
- feels more pressure-filled than grace-filled and longs to get back to a grace-paced life.
- feels like she can’t hear God and needs to be reminded that He never leaves her and that He is speaking to her.
- feels unsure if she will ever find God because life just feels too busy, distracting, and full.
- feels desperate for a deeper connection to her God.
So I introduce to you, Dreaming with God’s book baby sister: :)
Let me tell you a little bit about how we came up with her name. :) (This is getting silly!) So this book is all about hearing God’s sweet whispers over our lives again as we draw close to Him. God is always speaking to us, and He wants us to become in tune to His whispers of love and grace over us. So whispers naturally became a part of the title. Wildflowers comes from the Message version of Psalm 30:11. Most translations say, “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy…” I’ve always loved that verse, but I fell even more in love with it when I ran across the Message translation which states it this way: “You did it; you changed wild lament into whirling dance; You ripped off my black mourning band and decked me with wildflowers.”
God is in the business of turning our wailing, our wild lament, our busy hearts, and weary souls into dancing and true joy again. And I can’t think of a more fitting expression of clothed me with joy than decked with wildflowers.
He wants to deck you with wildflowers and clothe you with joy. He wants to take all the busyness, inner stress, and exhaustion from a fast-paced life and turn it into something that looks and feels more gentle, more grace-filled, slower, and sweeter. As we quiet down our hearts and get away with Him, just as Jesus often withdrew to be with His Father, we will hear His whispers and we will feel the grace of His joy and love reaching out to us. As He decks us with His grace, love, and joy we will live differently. We will find the peace and joy and goodness we have been looking for in Him as we make space for Him again.
Whispers and Wildflowers is structured more as a devotional in style. It’s divided up into 30 days so you can go day by day and at your own pace. It’s 30 days to Slow Your Pace, Savor Scripture, and Draw Closer to God.
Her due date is February 5th, 2019! :) But you can pre-order TODAY! Pre-ordering ensures that you will have a happy mail day on February 5th! The book will be delivered right to your doorstep! So pre-order your copy today, and another fun idea would be to pre-order a copy for a friend or family member for Christmas (or all your friends and family!) and wrap up a little note of what you bought for them and stick it in their Christmas stocking! Give them the gift of a retreat for their soul! Here is the preorder link on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2RWHTuX
The book will also be available in stores via Barnes and Noble, Lifeway, and wherever books and ebooks are sold beginning February 5th.
Don’t forget to preorder your copy of Whispers and Wildflowers! Here’s the link one more time: https://amzn.to/2RWHTuX Please take a moment to forward this email to your friends and family and help me spread the word! Thank you in advance, and I hope and pray this book becomes a blessing to your heart. I can hardly wait for you to have it in your hands! And lastly, a special thank you to Baker Books, who makes all my book babies possible and who help me do all the behind the scenes work!
Love and grace,
Sarah
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