guest post

October 29, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

The Crossing of Your Heart | Guest Post by Joanna Weaver

Please welcome my friend and fellow author Joanna Weaver to my blog! Joanna’s new book, At the Feet of Jesus, just released at the beginning of October. To celebrate the release, she’s actually hosting a live webcast on November 8 (RSVP here), and now through 11/7, you can enter to win the iPad she’s giving away! That’s so exciting!

Thanks, Joanna, for guest-posting! Be sure to visit her website and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s harder to win back the friendship of an offended brother than capture a fortified city. His anger shuts you out like iron bars.” —Proverbs 18:19, TLB

My mind was in turmoil as I took the kids to school one cold winter morning several years ago. Yesterday’s slush had hardened into large, icy ruts that caused my van to lurch from side to side. I had to struggle to keep hold of the steering wheel. But the real struggle that morning was inside me.

A misunderstanding had erupted between a dear friend and me, and it was never far from my mind. Jessica’s sweet voice drifted from the backseat as she sang along with a popular Christian song on the radio. “Has Jesus ever crossed your heart?”

The words were strangely familiar. They echoed the words I’d used the day before to pronounce judgment on my friend. “Well, I guess you find out what people are really like when you cross them,” I’d told my husband in a moment of anger. But now I sensed the Holy Spirit turning my own words like a spotlight on the darkness of my soul.

What about you, Joanna? I felt the Lord prompt softly. What has this “crossing” of your heart brought out in you?

What He showed me wasn’t pretty. There were things in my life I’d left unsettled, core issues I’d refused to contemplate. But it was time to face them, and I knew it.

I’ve found that Jesus goes out of His way to prepare my heart to listen and learn from His gentle rebuke. If you haven’t experienced this sweet aspect of our Savior’s discipline, may I suggest you spend a little more time in the Living Room? Because when you’re busy in the Kitchen, the rebuke sounds harsh and demanding, just one more duty to fulfill. But when you listen from the Living Room, you hear the love in God’s voice and it sounds like life for your soul.

Excerpted from At the Feet of Jesus by Joanna Weaver Copyright © 2012by Joanna Weaver. Excerpted by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

October 26, 2012 by Tricia Goyer 3 Comments

For Them | Guest Post by Annie Downs

Guest-posting for me today is Annie Downs. Annie will be on Living Inspired in January, and she was kind enough to write this post! So mark your calendars for January, and check out what Annie has to say.

This was always for them. The twenty or so teenage girls who would show up at my house on Monday nights.

They weren’t a quiet bunch, in general, but that never seems to be the crowd that is drawn to me [not surprising]. Many of the girls I had known for years. Growing up in the same church where I now led a high school girls Bible study meant many of the same little children that I used to babysit or watch in the nursery were now sitting in a circle on my kitchen floor bemoaning the trials of high school.

It was our second school year of the She-Ra Bible Study. The boys met simultaneously at another home, they were called He-Man, so it only seemed fitting that we would invoke the name of his feminine and muscular counterpart. At the beginning of each semester, the senior girls and I would grab lunch and then head to the local Christian bookstore to decide on a direction for the She-Ra Bible Study.

This particular day, the four girls and I had soup in a bread bowl and then spent almost forty minutes perusing the young adult section of our local shop. Nothing really sparked their interest, nothing challenged them right in their spot of need.

We left empty-handed. I honestly didn’t know what we were going to do. I shrugged my shoulders as we headed back to my Toyota Camry and loaded up. Before the fourth door slammed, Ashley leaned forward and said, “You know what, Annie? Why don’t you just tell us some stories?”

And it clicked in my mind. Yep, I can do that. I’m a talker by nature, to be certain, and my love of writing had recently been set ablaze thanks to a Beth Moore Bible study in which I was participating. So I agreed and set to work.

A 4th grade school teacher during the week, I began spending my Saturday mornings hunkered down at my kitchen table, resources spread out, coffee in a mug, and music playing through the house. Fairly early on, I felt God download an outline of sorts- body parts. Start at the head, work down to the feet, write stories about how to worship Him with what He had given us, all based on Romans 6.

Romans 6:13

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

See, many of my She-Ra girls were in a unique place in their faith walks. These girls were committed to Christ, serious about their faith, but unsure of how to grow deeper as a teenager. We didn’t need to talk about how to resist getting drunk, we needed to talk about how to resist gossip. I wasn’t worried about whether they would show up to church, I wanted them to show up to serve at the soup kitchen in town. It was about their hearts, not their actions. And since I had known many of them for years (and, even though they hate this fact, I had changed many of their diapers in years past), I knew them really well.

So I wrote for them. I wrote for the girls that I knew. I wrote for the ones who showed up at my house, drank all my coffee and sampled any food they found. The ones who trusted me with their hearts, their struggles, their teenage years.

I would photocopy each chapter, or “lesson” as it was at the time, at the school where I worked and have them three-hole punched and ready to go when the girls showed up. With their coffee snack, highlighter, Bible, and stack of papers, they would spread out all over my house. While music played over the speakers, a hush would fall as the girls dove in. It was a dream come true for me- I bought a house specifically hoping and praying for moments like these- when every room was full of teenaged girls digging into the Word and pursuing deeper relationship with Jesus.

So they would read. Highlight. Make notes. And then we would come back together and talk about it. Before I even had the twinkle in my eye about making these pages into a real book, I made notes as they talked. What they loved and wanted more of, I highlighted. What they didn’t understand, I made a mark to myself. What they hated, I crossed out. Mainly for my own knowledge and for future Bible study writings, I wanted to remember the things that teen girls didn’t connect with easily and the parts that moved them.

A few years later, those girls have gone off to college, gotten married, had babies, started churches with their husbands, moved to the mission field. And that little notebook of photocopied stories? It’s a real book- Perfectly Unique– that many more girls are reading than I could have ever imagined.

Every email from a reader of Perfectly Unique surprises me. The girl in Canada that is finally learning to love herself. The mom in New York who feels like she is better equipped to mentor her daughter. The college student in Alabama who simply needed permission to dream about missions. They are dear to me- even the idea that God would take these writings out of my hand and launch it into the hands of many women who are knowing Him better because of it? It’s almost too much for my emotions to handle. I am so honored to be a part of this story, a part of each of the women’s stories who read Perfectly Unique and learn how to better love God, love themselves, and love others.

I am so glad that teen girls around the world are reading this book. “But in my heart, and in the hearts of those twenty gals from Marietta, Georgia, that are no longer in my living room but instead spread across the globe, serving God in their own ways. This was always for them.”

Annie Downs is an author and speaker who loves living in Nashville, Tennessee. Flawed but funny, she uses her writing to highlight the everyday goodness of a real and present God. Her first book, Perfectly Unique, released in stores September 2012. Read more at annieblogs.com

October 20, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Podcast for Living Inspired: Julia Ziglar and Yvette Maher | PLUS a Q&A with Julia

Be sure to head over to the show’s landing page to see if you won one of this week’s prizes!

Download Julia Ziglar and Yvette Maher’s interview here.

Check out this Q&A with Julie, too!

1. Tell me about this important event in your life, and how did it affect you?

The most important event happened when a friend of mine told me that she’d had a dream and God made it clear to her that she was to tell me that He couldn’t use me fully until I’d done the thing I’d been asked to do. I knew immediately what she was talking about, and though I didn’t tell her what it was about and it was the last thing I wanted to do, I was obedient and signed up for the post-abortion Bible study my sister had invited me to earlier that week.

2. What was the saddest moment?

The saddest moment was when I finally allowed myself to own the responsibility, feel the totality and finality of what I’d done and repent for killing my own babies. In that moment I was set free to grieve for them with a mother’s heart, and though I was afraid I’d never stop crying, I was relieved to feel my love for them . . . denying that love had been hurting all along . . . allowing it to surface was the beginning of God healing my heart.

3. What was the happiest moment?

When I realized that my children were alive in my heart and that I had a mental picture of what they look like . . . and over the years the image has changed . . . I can see them growing up in my mind. I think of them as my children; I grieve the loss of them as if they had been born and I lost them. I can’t wait to get to heaven to see them and hold them. It took me accepting the forgiveness that God had long ago given me. I had to study His Word, come to know His promises and His character before I could grasp how He is able to forgive me for killing my children

The moment that has resulted in my most constant joy came to pass on November 13, 2007, when I realized my life was none of my business and I surrendered it fully to live for Jesus Christ. I’d been saved a long time, but I had never lived for Him fully until that moment. There was serenity in that moment that I’d never had before. God was in control, and I finally knew and understood it. I would not be doing what I’m doing now if both of these things hadn’t happened. I’m glad God can finally use me for His glory.

4. Or what was the most difficult decision you have ever had to make? Why? How did you make it and what happened?

The decision to separate from my husband of eleven years—we were both Christians, but we’d gotten together when we were both drinking alcoholically and we’d never learned how to communicate after we got sober about two and a half years into the marriage. We hardly spoke by the time our last child left home—that’s when he got involved with Internet chat rooms/pictures/etc. That discovery was the final straw for me. We’d had counseling, sought help, etc., but it only helped for a little while. I was tired and wanted out. Fortunately our new church family and pastor got behind us to help us make it work. It was the first time a church fellowship had done that.

We were apart, working on the relationship more than a year, but when God restored us to each other, we had the kind of marriage He’d always wanted us to have and we’ve been happy ever since.

5. How did you experience God during this event?

I had a peace when I moved into a separate house. I knew the time apart was to be spent getting my relationship with Christ right. If I could do that, then I’d become the wife God intended my husband to have. My husband and I decided we’d continue to go to church together every week, but our counseling sessions with our associate pastor, a certified marriage counselor, were done individually for the first six months. When we learned how to communicate, God removed our resentments and even the majority of our memories about how we’d wronged one another.

6. What hope or encouragement do you have for others who may be facing the same situation?

Women can be healed from the pain, grief, shame, and regret of abortion if they will let God and those He has to help them help them through it—and it is possible to save a marriage that is as dead as Lazarus and make it amazing!

October 4, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Perspective. Kris Jenner vs 9/11. Kris Jenner won. | Guest Post by Nicole O’Dell

Reported by Fox News:

“Every year since the attacks of September 11, 2001, a moment of silence has been observed at 8:46 a.m., the moment when the first plane slammed into the Twin Towers. President Obama and the First Lady led the moment of silence at the White House, and newscasts on other the other two broadcast morning shows — ‘Good Morning America’ and ‘CBS This Morning’ — aired the solemn ceremony.

But not NBC’s “Today Show.” Instead new co-host Savannah Guthrie spoke to Kris Jenner about the new season of the hit E! reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and her breast implants.”

Oh, the glory of a Kris Jenner interview! I’m sure the ratings for that were higher than the moment of silence . . . after all, silence doesn’t translate to great airtime, quotable moments, or any sort of scoop.

Flip side:

This family. Oh, Lord in Heaven, even writing this post I feel such grief and awe. Heather and Caleb King discovered that Heather was carrying conjoined twins who would not survive. She carried them to term anyway. They chose life in the most brutal and beautiful way I can imagine.

Brutal in that Heather’s body grew as those precious lives did. She felt them move. Mommy and Daddy named their little angels Adalaine and Amelie. Each day those little hearts beat inside her body, Heather loved them more, all the while knowing she’d never have more than a few hours with them on this earth.

Beautiful because they sacrificed so much in the name of faith and convictions. That lovely mother put herself dead last when it came to the hopeless life of two babies who had no chance—her babies. And in return, she had a few hours to hold them and a lifetime to remember them.

As a mother, I cannot imagine what she went through, and I pray for that family as they come to my mind throughout the day. There are just no words to really capture all that couple went through in the months leading up to the birth. And, in Heather’s poignant words, to have to fit it all in the small space between hello and goodbye . . . how tragic.

Extreme love. Extreme Sacrifice.

I can think of another example of extreme love and sacrifice:

And another:

Image courtesy of artemisphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Let’s keep our perspective, and shame on you, Today, for choosing to honor the Kardashians and Kris Jenner’s breast implants instead of the lives lost on 9/11.

To counteract Today’s insensitivity in the only way I can think of, I’m not going to post a bunch of links back to my website or to my books. Instead, take a few moments and say a prayer for the King family. Read Heather’s words and have your faith strengthened as mine was.

Blessings,

Nicole O’Dell

October 2, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Five Extra-Special Tips for Making it through the Day | Guest Post by Nicole O’Dell

Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m not kidding. If you’re like me, you’re flat-out busy. You’re overbooked, under-slept, and de-energized. Your schedule is packed with all sorts of honorable, godly things, but you’re at your limit. You’ve heard the standard rules for being effective: get eight hours of sleep, drink lots of water, exercise, pare down your expectations, take a break, etc.

While all of those things may be healthy and very wise approaches to being a balanced person, I have my own set of rules.

Lose the laundry! Pick the household chores that weigh you down and assign them to a teenager. I’m serious. Your teenagers should be supporting the day-to-day functioning of your household. My teens know that if they’re too busy to keep up with their chores, they have to cut out an extra-curricular activity. Their chores include keeping up with their rooms, doing their own laundry, and rotating responsibility for daily kitchen clean-up. They also surrender a few hours each Saturday for the major cleaning tasks.
Waste some time. This one is hard for me, but it’s so necessary. Take thirty minutes to troll Pinterest, search for an old friend on FB, shop on eBay, or whatever provides an escape for you. The key to this one is that you can’t double up your time-waster with work stuff. It defeats the whole purpose.
Say thank you. Sometimes busy people also develop a sense of resentment toward the people closest to them who have managed NOT to create an existence of stress and panic for themselves. It becomes a balance sheet of who did what, but that’s not fair because the other person—OK, my hubby, lol—didn’t sign up to live the kind of schedule I’ve chosen for myself. So it’s not fair to base my expectations on my own habits. Instead of allowing resentment to take hold, just say thank you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for working so hard. Thank you for doing all you do.
Treat the day like a business. Step back from your schedule and examine what works and whether or not the return on your time investment is worth the effort. Realize that your time belongs to you and to your family. Everyone deserves the best version of you which means sorting through it all to figure out what’s really necessary and beneficial to your family.
Invest in expensive chocolate. Just for you. Yes, I said invest. It pays out in dividends, trust me! And no sharing!

Nicole O’Dell, founder of Choose NOW Ministries and host of Choose NOW Radio: Parent Talk and Teen Talk, is a youth culture expert who writes and speaks to preteens, teenagers, and parents on preparing for life’s tough choices. The mother of six, including toddler triplets, she’s author of YA fiction, including the popular Scenarios for Girls interactive fiction series and the Diamond Estates Series, and non-fiction for teens including Girl Talk, 2/1/12, based on the popular advice column she writes with her two daughters. Hot Buttons, O’Dell’s non-fiction series for parents, pre-empts peer pressure by tackling tough issues and was recently endorsed by Focus on the Family. Visit www.nicoleodell.com for access to her bustling blog network and other resources.

October 1, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Hot Topics and Hot Buttons | Guest Post by Nicole O’Dell

I’ve asked my friend and fellow author Nicole O’Dell to do a few guest posts for me this week, and she has so graciously agreed to do so! I hope you’ll take the time to visit her website (which is awesome) and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. She has some amazing wisdom to dish out over the course of this week! Here’s Nicole!

If you’ll indulge me for a moment, I’d like to tell you a little story.

The summer before I entered jr. high, I contracted encephalitis. To make a long story short, I’ll skip the gruesome medical stuff and get right to the end result. It messed me up. It threw my thyroid and hypothalamus out of whack so much that I was virtually unrecognizable in a very short period of time. I started jr. high nearly twice the person I was when the summer started.

Day one of jr. high: A boy I’d known my whole life called me Butterball. In front of everyone.

In short: It was horrid. I was bullied in every sense of the word and hated trying to get through the day at school. My parents weren’t thinking about preparing me for temptations and peer pressure; they were more worried about me having friends and feeling OK about myself.

But things change very fast in the life of a teenager.

The summer before I entered high school, I went through puberty with a vengeance, and the hormonal shift threw my body back into working, at least to a degree. I went on a major diet and added in a ton of exercise . . . and I started high school a very normal weight.

Day one of high school: That same boy who called me Butterball hit on me.

The lesson I learned in that moment was that looks were all that mattered, and if I wanted to get the attention of boys or anyone, I’d better capitalize on them. So I did.

Then I was date raped and everything I thought I believed—everything I’d been committed to—was ripped from me. I spiraled out of control.

But those changes in me seemed to happen overnight. My parents had no idea what was going on; their heads were spinning trying to keep up with all that happened that year. And it wasn’t long before I ended up checking in to a teen challenge residential home where I lived for a year trying to put the pieces back together and find Jesus.

Looking back on my life, it’s not the moments of being bullied or the pain I felt as an overweight middle-schooler that stand out to me. It’s the pain I continue to feel for trading portions of my heart for moments of attention and approval. That regret doesn’t ever go away completely.

Why am I telling you this?

It’s why I do what I do. It’s why I work so closely with parents in efforts to get them to reach out to their tweens and teens before the issues surface. It’s why I work with teens to make them aware of the pressure they’ll feel and why it’ll be tough to stay the course in the face of those temptations, and to point them to the cross as their source of strength.

Those overnight changes can happen to any tween or teen for all sorts of reasons. Better than playing catch-up or reacting as things happen, why not take charge of the issues now and walk your tweens and teens through them with a godly outlook. Lay the foundation for good choices with information.

Here’s a great place to start:

The Hot Buttons series offers parents a strategic approach to talking to their kids about these important issues. Packed with info and even scripting for those tough conversations, these books will walk you through the prep work you need to do before the pressure hits.

Hot Buttons Sexuality Edition and Drug Edition release today and, for only two days (10/1 and 10/2) Internet and Dating editions are FREE on Kindle! Grab your free copies and pass the word!

September 25, 2012 by Tricia Goyer 2 Comments

The Story behind the Story | Guest Post by Colleen Oakes

After I got married in 2003, my wonderful husband, Ryan, and I moved to St. Louis, where he was attended Concordia Seminary for the next four years. I had gone from living in Colorado, surrounded by family and friends, to living in a very bad neighborhood in St. Louis where I knew nobody aside from my husband. Ryan had to jump right into rigorous schooling, and I was often left alone, afraid to go outside and stuck inside, trying to find a job, spiraling into depression.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I had my degree in English, but I didn’t want to be a copy writer or a teacher. My true heart cried out to be a novelist—a writer—but I was insecure and unsure of how to move in that direction. I didn’t have a story to tell yet either, and where there is no story, there can be no inspiration. Having just gotten married and loved the planning, I started thinking about the wedding business and what I would like to do if I got into that sphere. One word came to me again and again: flowers.

I adored my weddings flowers. I couldn’t stop thinking about them—how they were put together, how there was such tiny piece of God’s perfect creation in each and every one. Lonely and desperate for a job, I began calling florists in the St. Louisarea. I got to the “S’s” before someone would even talk to me, a florist in a lovely suburb called Clayton.

After an awkward interview, I was amazed that I was offered a position at this chic, downtown florist. I had no experience, and at first I wasn’t even allowed to touch the flowers. All I did was place or take orders, clean vases, or sweep up stems. The grunt work, basically. My love of flowers grew from there, and in a year I was a designer. We moved to Connecticut for my husband’s one-year internship in the ministry. I got a job at a huge florist there, this time as a head designer. I flourished in the hard, sometimes back-breaking, work. I would fall into bed at night, numb and exhausted, my hands and arms smelling of earth and stamen. I loved it. I had found my creative outlet, and for a long time, designing satisfied me. I returned to St. Louis and got a coveted job at a very high-end wedding florist, the largest in St. Louis. From there, I was able to see even more of the inner workings of the wedding business and the work that went on behind the scenes: stressful, beautiful, driven work, not for the faint of heart. It was the pressure of the perfect day, every day.

One night, after working late, I was driving home and listening to Missy Higgins. An idea came to me as I drove and sang, the wind tossing my hair in the spring breeze. The idea was simple: What if someone was hired to design their lover’s wedding? How would they express that frustration in floral design? Would they do it? What if the wedding was extremely profitable? Would they turn it down? The idea was intriguing, and as soon as I got home, I sat down at my computer and wrote the opening scene to Elly in Bloom.

As much as I wish I could tell you I wrote the entire book in a sudden flurry of activity, I would be lying. I let the book sit then for about three years. I always knew it was there, waiting for me, but I just wasn’t ready. My husband graduated with his masters in theology, and we took a call to Colorado to his first church. I was thrilled to be home, amongst family and friends again, and quickly opened my own wedding florist. Within the first year, we had done ten weddings.

Business thrived. It grew exponentially, until we were one of the top-rated boutique wedding florists in Denver. At first, the work was satisfying and profitable, and I was flying high. But I always had this nagging doubt that was constantly poking inside of my chest, reminding me of those pages that I had written for Elly in Bloom. It seemed my true passion was calling, and though to many, my job working from home as a wedding florist appeared to be a dream job, I knew the truth—this was never my dream. Was it a wonderful job? Yes. But it wasn’t my dream. Writing a novel, now that was my dream.

Two years ago, I was talking about those pages with a new friend, who had her own idea for a book. We decided to write our books together, as writing buddies. It was glorious, and we worked so well together. Together, we wrote, edited, and critiqued, sometimes harshly. Working with a friend worked. A year later, Elly in Bloom was finished, a perfect melding of story, flowers, and humor. The book surprised me—she had a few tricks up her sleeve, after all this time! It was a love letter to St. Louis, the town I had grown to adore. It was an ode to flustered wedding vendors everywhere, and it was a reminder to women everywhere that they can overcome their past and return to their childhood faith. The book seemed to write itself at times, more proof that I was doing exactly what God has called me to do in my vocation, my passion. My book was released this September, and I recently just sold my florist business.

I still love my hands to smell like dirt and tulips, and a well-designed floral arrangement can still make me swoon, but they are nothing compared to holding my new book in my hands and signing it over to people that I love.

This is me, in bloom, in a way that only God could imagine.

Elly in Bloom by Colleen Oakes is now available on Amazon.com, in both the paperback and Kindle versions.

Summary: Surrounded by lush flowers and neurotic brides, chubby 32-year old Elly Jordan has carved out a sweet little life for herself as the owner of Posies, a boutique wedding florist in St. Louis. It’s not bad for a woman who drove away from her entire life just two years ago when she found her husband entwined with a red-headed artist.

Sure, Elly has an embarrassingly beautiful best friend, a terribly behaved sheepdog and a sarcastic assistant who she simply calls “Snarky Teenager”, but overall her days are pleasantly uneventful. As a bonus, her new next door neighbor just happens to be an unnervingly handsome musician who has an eye for curvy Elly.

Just when she feels that she is finally moving on from her past, she discovers that an extravagant wedding contract, one that could change her financial future, is more than she bargained for.

With the help of her friends, staff and the occasional well-made sandwich, Elly bravely agrees to take on the event that threatens to merge her painful history with her bright new life, and finds herself blooming in a direction she never imagined.

Elly’s voice, both charming and hilarious, will appeal to those readers who have been looking for a new voice in chick-lit, and will give women of all sizes the realistic heroine they’ve been waiting for.

September 20, 2012 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

Blog Photography 101

Hi, everyone! My name is Caitlin, and I’m Tricia’s assistant. Photography, especially blog photography, is much more than simply turning on your camera and pressing a button. It’s actually pretty complicated, and while I am by no means an expert, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks from taking the photos on my own blog that Tricia asked me to share with you today.

The key concept to blog photography is to keep it simple. A good blog photo will draw attention to one focal point. Keep the photo uncluttered, and make sure the background is solid or one texture.

Natural lighting is ideal for taking blog photos, whether you’re doing a product or food shoot or a portrait. Using window lighting is a great way to capture bright yet soft photos. For product shoots, I like to shoot in a place where there’s a sheer curtain over the window that disperses the light in a soft way (as opposed to the harsh light that direct sunlight can put on a product).

In full sunlight

My totally goofy dog posed for me outside. Outside lighting can be tricky. Often if you shoot in direct sunlight, the subject’s skin (or fur, in this case) ends up looking washed out, and the subject sometimes has shadows on his or her face. When you’re outside, look for shade to shoot in; it’s much softer, won’t make the subject look washed out, and won’t give the subject weird shadows. Cloudy days are ideal for outside shoots, as is taking photos during the golden hour (right after sunrise and right before sunset).

For the most part, you don’t want to use flash unless absolutely necessary. Flash has a bad habit of making even the tannest person look ghostly pale.

In the shade

I invested a little more into a camera that was slightly more advanced and allowed me to use different lenses. I use a Canon Rebel EOS T3, which I’ve found to be very beginner-friendly (I’ve never been formally trained in photography) and easy to use and understand. A D-SLR camera (like the ones made by Canon and Nikon) will upgrade the quality of your photos from a simple point-and-shoot digital camera.

Lenses are also key. In fact, the lens can be more expensive and more important than the camera body itself. My 50mm lens (the left lens in the picture) takes great portrait, products, and food shots. To put it in non-technical terms, it’s easy to get that blurry background effect with this lens, which helps to draw in the viewer’s eye toward the focal point. My 18-55mm lens (the right lens in the picture) is what I use for landscape shots and for everyday use.

Finally, editing photos is an art in itself. You can go the Photoshop route, which is more expensive and more complicated. Or you can go the Picasa route, which is free and easy to use. Picasa is Google’s photo editing software and has awesome filters you can apply to photos very easily.

So those are the basics of good blog photography. Like I said, I’m by no means an expert and am still learning and experimenting every day. But I hope this helps you if you’re considering investing in a camera or interested in taking and editing your own photos. I’d love to hear your tips if you have any, and feel free to visit me at my blog.

September 18, 2012 by Tricia Goyer 3 Comments

The One Thing Your Child Needs Each Day | Guest Post by Lynn Cowell

All summer she was so free; so confident. Days of pony tails and swimsuits, my daughter woke up each day to her carefree world. No worries about her make-up; she didn’t wear any! No concerns about her wardrobe; gym shorts fit most every occasion.

As the first day of school approached, I watch her fight to hang on to her summer confident self. Not wanting to go backward, she struggles to stand in God’s love and embrace who He has created her to be.

Confidence is a major factor in the Cowell house; I’m guessing your’s is no different. When it comes to how they feel about themselves, most young people struggle with their self-worth and it profoundly affects the decisions they make. Craving acceptance, approval, and affirmation, they’re tempted to make choices that will move them forward on the popularity scale or at least not cause them to stand out.

I have found a major key in building confidence in my daughters: teaching them that Jesus is wild about them. Understanding Jesus is the one who fills the love gap in their hearts, empowers them to not grasp at love from guys and girls alike. The truth that Jesus is wild for them (Psalm 45:11), He sees no flaw in them (Song of Songs 4:7) and He actually enjoys them (Zephaniah 3:17) transforms the way they see themselves. But before that transformation can start, they have to know this truth and that begins with hearing it every day.

Compelled to pour God’s truth in each day, I struggled with, “When? Life is so busy already!” It was the motivation I needed to write “Devotions for a Revolutionary Year; 365 Days of Jesus’ Radical Love for You!” Each devotion is short; just 2 – 3 minutes long. They are so short, I read one to my girls each day while they eat their breakfast!

You can help pour truth into the young women in your life too! On my website I’m offering a free “7 Day Faith Builder” ; seven devotions taken straight from my new book, “Devotions for a Revolutionary Year; 365 Days of Jesus’ Radical Love for You”. These devotions will build faith in a girl in your life, be it your daughter, niece and/or granddaughter so she can be filled with a confidence that is true and can stand the pressure of this world. If you enjoy them, you might want to get 365 days worth!

***

To celebrate the release of Devotions for a Revolutionary Year, we are giving away over $75 in free content with each purchase! Simply purchase Devotions for a Revolutionary Year and email your receipt to freebies@lynncowell.com. You will receive in an email with a link to this free content on Lynn’s website at www.LynnCowell.com.

We’re also giving away a copy of Devotions for a Revolutionary Year! To enter, just answer the question below in the comments:

What is one thing you would tell your 14-year old self or a teenage girl growing up today about God’s Love?

Lynn and I would love to know. And she’s going to give one of you a signed copy of Devotions for a Revolutionary Year.

Don’t miss Lynn on this week’s Living Inspired!

August 10, 2012 by Tricia Goyer 3 Comments

Threats at Sword-Point: A Romance

My friend Anne Elisabeth Stengl has graciously agreed to guest post for me while I’m on my missions trip! Here’s her post:

It made perfect sense to me.

When he came striding into the fencing gym, his long winter coat flapping to his ankles, looking like someone stepped out of a gas-lights-and-hansom-cabs novel, my first thought was, “He must be married with five children. Because no one that attractive could not be.”

Best to ignore him.

So that’s what I did. After exchanging names and shaking hands, we took place on opposite ends of the Mid-South Fencers’ Adult Saber class, assumed position, and advanced up the strip, weapons at ready, with no intention of speaking to each other ever again.

Two months of this went by . . .

Let me backtrack a little by letting you know what I—an art-teacher, Barnes and Noble bookseller, former English major—was doing at a fencing club. Having recently signed a contract for my first novel, Heartless, an adventure fantasy complete with swashbuckling sequences, I felt I needed a bit of experience “wielding a blade,” as it were. I mean, how else could I hope to write a convincing sword-fighting scene?

So with research in mind, I signed myself up for a beginners fencing class, liked it, and decided to progress to the adult class. The same class a certain Mr. Rohan de Silva had joined three years before.

I was so out of my depth! Not the most athletic cookie, with long skinny arms and no muscle, I stumbled my way through those two months, learning to advance and retreat, to parry and riposte, struggling to keep pace with the far superior fencers in the class . . . especially handsome Rohan, who maintained an intimidating reserve throughout.

And at the end of term . . . tournament!

I suffered illusions neither for my skill nor for my chances. And when I saw who was listed as my first opponent for the evening, my stomach dropped in dread: None other than the taciturn Rohan. I might not be the greatest fencer, but I recognize talent when I see it . . . and this man had talent! Quick and athletic with an assured technique, he constantly surprised opponents with his ability to score hits.

I was, in a word, toast.

So I decided to even the odds . . . .

Sidling up to Rohan, I looked at him slyly and said, “I want your blood.”

Rohan blinked. “Pardon?”

“You need to be afraid,” I said, straight-faced. “We’re listed to fight first, and I think it fair to warn you that I intend to eat you for lunch. Metaphorically speaking. You should be afraid.”

And Rohan laughed. After all, what had he to fear from the skinny little book-seller chick with two months (and a beginners’ class) worth of experience under her belt? Chuckling, he replied, “I’ll be trembling so hard, they’ll have to duct-tape the saber to my hand!”

And that was that. We were called to the strip. We faced each other. We assumed position. We dueled.

And I won.

Yes, you read that right. Beyond all possibility, I walked off the strip victorious! Against the brilliant Rohan! This was such a surprise, I even dared ask him if he’d let me win! But he insisted, “I never let people win.”

I’ll have you know he won every other match and went home the champion of the evening, while yours truly was thoroughly creamed by every other member of the club. But this did not matter. I was the real winner . . . .

Because, you see, between every match for the rest of the evening Rohan sat and chatted with me. As it turns out, despite frumpy fencing clothes, helmet-crushed hair, and sweaty-no-makeup, a girl with a sense of humor caught his eye!

The next week, he asked me out. He tells me now it was during that first date, as we chatted over coffee, that he fell in love with me. I learned he had avoided conversation those two months for basically the same reason I had: “She’s attractive, so I’ll ignore her.” Made perfect sense at the time!

But the ignoring was over. Rohan says it was “love at first conversation,” and he went home from our first date convinced I was the girl God had for him to marry.

Sure enough, we were married just six months later!

Who would have thought God’s plan for us would involve fencing sabers and a duel? Who would have thought I would meet a kind and godly young man while researching for my novel with no thought of romance in my head?

Who would have thought what wonders threats at sword-point might work?

~~~

Anne Elisabeth Stengl is the author of the Tales of Goldstone Wood, a series of fantasy adventure novels told in the classic Fairy Tale style. Her titles include Heartless, Veiled Rose, Moonblood, and soon-to-release Starflower. Her debut novel, Heartless, won a 2011 Christy Award. Her second novel, Veiled Rose, was a finalist for the RT Inspirational Novel of the Year and is a finalist for a 2012 Christy Award.

She is married to the handsome man she met at fencing class and lives with him, a gaggle of cats, and one long-suffering dog in NC. Do visit her blog at anneelisabethstengl.blogspot.com, and follow her on Facebook!