Writers Wednesday with Lori Roeleveld

Today on Writer Wednesday we welcome Lori Roeleveld, author of The Art of Hard Conversations.

Enter below for a chance to win a copy of The Art of Hard Conversations! Winner announced right here next week. Congratulations to, Melissa Alexander,  the winner of Travis Thrasher’s American Omens! Please e-mail my assistant Christen with your mailing address! Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Where Writers Write

There are three pivotal snapshots of information you might appreciate knowing about my workspace.

First, since 2011, my husband Rob and I have lived inside his 110-year-old renovation project directly across the street from my parent’s home in the town where I grew up. Most of the rooms are “in process” and lack ceilings, floors, walls, fixtures, and anything most women want in a home. (In 2015, 1000 pounds of drywall fell, trapping me in our hallway and breaking my foot, requiring my rescue. We don’t talk about that.)

For my last birthday, Rob finished this space so I would have one completed, functioning room. The tree is a decal that didn’t appear from the advertisement as if it required the extensive hours it actually took Rob to apply it so that it looks this amazing. (I think it was worth it, but he has veto power over any future wall decorating ideas.)

Second, most of the writing for my newest book, The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks that Matter, didn’t happen here. Instead, I wrote in emergency rooms, hospitals, rehab centers, or on my parent’s sofa while they both endured multiple health crises.

Third, yes, for all of you Star Trek fans, that is a Klingon bat’leth hanging on my wall and it is real. Easily one of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received. My daughter was mighty proud of herself for finding it for me. No, I’ve done no damage to anyone with it (although I have found bat’leth kata to be relaxing.)

When I’m asked how I became skilled at hard conversations, I point to my life. With a husband who takes on life-long construction projects, complicated, close-up family situations, and an odd personality that loves Jesus and Klingons, opportunities for hard conversations abound. Combine that with years of working with families in crisis either through my day job or ministry, and I’ve had a lot of practice.

We all face daily opportunities for conversations that could have eternal impact. In divided times, it’s not hard to understand why most of us run for cover rather than open our mouths. I’d prefer to stay quiet, but God’s Word is persistently insistent that Jesus-followers speak truth and we don’t hide.

Most of what I write begins with my own personal struggle to apply the truth of Scripture in the real world. We live in a fallen world. We interact with broken, messy, sinful people. Even when we follow Jesus, we remain imperfect, capable of sin.

Hard conversations are the bare pavement of life, the place where soft souls skid across hard truth and walk away with skinned knees and road rash. I designed this book to help cushion the blows and increase readers’ ability to engage in tough talks effectively.

Your next conversation could impact someone’s life forever. It’s worth taking the time to do it Jesus-style.

Oh, and yes, that’s an Incredibles tissue box on the desk to amuse my grandsons.

Lori Stanley Roeleveld is an author, speaker, and disturber of hobbits who enjoys making comfortable Christians late for dinner. She’s authored four encouraging, unsettling books. Her latest is The Art of Hard Conversations: Biblical Tools for the Tough Talks that Matter. She speaks her mind at www.loriroeleveld.com.

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More about The Art of Hard Conversations

Your next conversation could impact someone’s life forever

Hard conversations challenge everyone. Some people make every effort to avoid them altogether; others dive in enthusiastically, damaging relationships in the process. A solid middle ground is difficult to find–especially for those who want to make sure they’re following a biblical model for these tough encounters.

Lori Roeleveld firmly believes that the dialogues everyday Christians delay are often the very channels God wants to use to deepen relationships and transform lives. And she is eager to address the challenges they pose and to guide readers to meaningful conversations that rely on the wisdom of the Bible rather than the world.

In The Art of Hard Conversations, Roeleveld provides motivation, inspiration, and practical, readily applied skills to make those tricky talks more effective. Through funny, vulnerable personal stories, sound biblical teaching, and sections of tips and assignments to practice, the principles here are guaranteed to increase the confidence and competence of Christians in discussing sensitive topics of every kind.

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