Thursday Thoughts: Guest post by Jayne E Self

Good Morning Friends!

Today I bring to you a special blog post by my friend and fellow author, Jayne Self....

Lines in the Sand

Lines are a fact of life. Some are absolute—the values and rules that stand true no matter what happens. Others are conditional. They change with the situation.

As a parent, it doesn’t take long to realize situations aren’t static. And it’s easy to get caught in an escalating battle of wills if you don’t recognize the difference between absolute lines and conditional ones.

Here’s a truth I’ve learned.

If you draw a line in the sand you have to enforce it

If you’re not willing to enforce it, don’t draw the line

Of course, if a child violates a line because they’re unaware it exists, that’s not their fault. Parents need to make expectations clear.

But, in our home, once the line was clearly designated, adherence was mandatory. Unless…

According to child behaviorist, Barbara Coloroso, “If it isn’t life threatening, and it isn’t morally threatening, it’s negotiable.”

Life threatening.

Morally threatening.

Those are the absolutes.

All other rules are conditional.

From an early age, I taught my children, if they were unhappy with a ruling I made, they could challenge it. If their arguments were reasonable, and expressed respectfully, I would rethink my initial decree.

Most lines in life are conditional.

We hurt ourselves and those around us every time we fail to recognize the difference between absolutes and conditionals. Sadly, we Christians seem especially susceptible to this error. We love God so much, we want to follow His rules. We love others and want them to follow His rules, too. To help them, we nit-pick, criticize, judge, and condemn. We focus on the conditionals, often completely missing the absolutes.

In New Testament times, the Jewish Pharisees made a lifestyle out of following rules. They loved the lines laid out in the scriptures because they believed knowing and following those lines made them special.

                                                                                    

People have the same attitude today. Follow God’s rules and you’ll be part of the in crowd.

But if our adherence to those lines violates God’s absolutes, we must re-examine your stand.

What are God’s absolutes?

…What does the LORD require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah: 6:8

Jesus said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22: 37-39 NIV

Love, justice, humility and mercy—absolutes so basic anyone can know and follow them.

Jayne E. Self lives in Ontario, Canada. Her mysteries, Murder in Hum Harbour (2011) and Death of a Highland Heavyweight (2012) have both won Word Awards—Canada’s largest Christian writing awards.

You can find more about Jayne, her writing, and her blog at jayneself.com

"where faith and mystery converge"

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this week's Thursday Thoughts! Stay tuned for Saturday Spotlight, Tuesday Treasures and of course more Thursday Thoughts!

PamT

Tuesday Treasures: Guest Post by Jayne E Self!

Good Morning Friends,

It is with great pleasure I  bring you this Tuesday Treasure from my friend and fellow author, Jayne E Self...

I loved Jacque Cousteau’s TV Specials. As a kid growing up in central Canada the seemingly infinite mysteries of the ocean mesmerized me. I dreamed of becoming an oceanographer. I read, studied, memorized. And then I got on a boat. 

I quickly discovered a degree of motion sickness that trains, planes or automobiles cannot begin to engender.  

In His graciousness, however God has satisfied my passion for the sea with the seashore. I have summered by the ocean, even lived by the ocean, and its ever-changing nature still beckons me.  

I think that’s because, for me, the ocean is a metaphor of God. It is infinite, boundless, gentle, and frighteningly powerful—all at the same time.  

With each wave it shifts sandbars, tumbles rocks, and reshapes the land. It washes away and deposits anew. Shells, driftwood, seaglass—treasures lost become treasures found. 

The rhythm of the waves echo the prayers of my heart. And as I walk along the shore, no matter the weather or the season, I can always hear His voice. 

Jayne E. Self lives in Ontario, Canada. Her mysteries, Murder in Hum Harbour (2011) and Death of a Highland Heavyweight (2012) have both won Word Awards—Canada’s largest Christian writing awards. 

 

 Available Now in Ebook & Print!

                                                        Available Now in Ebook & Print!

You can find more about Jayne, her writing, and her blog at jayneself.com "where faith and mystery converge." 

Well Friends, hope you enjoyed this special guest post. Stay tuned for more great Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlights!

Until next time...take care, God Bless and remember.....What you sow you reap, 30, 60 & 100-fold!

Something to Think About...

"Inspirational with an Edge!" ™

Saturday Spotlight - Pelican Book Group & Harbour Light Books

Hello Friends,
Well today is your lucky day because today I bring to you great news!

One year ago, Pelican Ventures acquired White Rose Publishing - yes the name remained the same but the great news is Pelican Ventures opened an imprint called Harbour Light Books and today is their Grand Debut!

And, what a debut it is - with 4 (yeah 4!) brand new releases!

Eddie Jones brings us BAHAMA BREEZE, a humourous tale of espionage, corrupt politicians, and a toilet tissue salesman who lands right in the middle of a hurricane--and not just the watery kind! For some light-hearted action-adventure with a love story, to boot.

ANNA FORTUNE is a government intelligence analyst who longs for tropical sunsets, early morning beach walks, and a man bold enough to steal her heart. SONNY CAY is a large, lumbering toilet paper salesman with a terminal disease, unpaid medical bills and the haunting memory of a girl he lost years ago. She knows the location of terrorist cells, corrupt politicians and that no man can be trusted to keep his word, wedding date or promise to love forever. He knows life is for the taking, love for the making and both end all too soon. So when Anna is ordered to protect a presidential candidate polling in the single digits on a fund-raising junket in the Bahamas, both get a second chance at true love. He came because he loved her, because all those years ago, she’d stirred him the way no woman ever had. She was his Mt. Everest, the pinnacle of his small world. His head told him to run; his heart made him stay. Now only the gale force winds of a “Bahama Breeze” can cool the white-hot embers of old flames erupting.  BAHAMA BREEZE is available in Ebook & Print!

Want more adventure? Check out Lilly Maytree's GOLD TRAP. This fun adventure will whisk you to Africa where nothing is as it seems, but all is a riot!

I simply wanted to step out of my ordinary life and find the Divine Appointment God had planned for me. I’d read about Mary Kinglsey, and it occurred to me that if I truly wanted to share an historical biography with my students, hers was it. So (with much trepidation) I booked the cheapest tour I could find to visit the Dark Continent of Africa. Who knew I’d meet a psychic named Vidalia (after the onion?) — not that I should have been surprised (after all, Bremen Tours specialized in “Voodoo relics of the Dark Continent,” or so it was emblazoned on their carry-alls, one of which I owned). But life got really strange when I met a mad (or was he drunk?) professor, a dashing prince (or possibly, the villain), a village headman (the warrior king? Or the prince of thieves?) and a witchdoctor who was neither witch nor doctor, but rather the sinister embodiment of a charlatan who preyed on tourists...and let’s not forget the man who started the whole mess—an embezzler-turned-kidnapper…of me! And that’s not to mention floating down a river full of crocodiles, two boys who wanted to hold me for ransom, an earthquake, a cave-in, the leopard in my bed, and a pink hippopotamus. In the end, my Divine Appointment from God held mystery, excitement and a whole lot more. Enjoy my adventure, Dear Reader, because I did! 
                 GOLD TRAP is also available in Ebook & Print!

Michael Duncan takes allegorical fantasy to a whole new level...and another world in SHADOWS: BOOK OF ALETH, PART ONE. "If history is written by the victorious, what if the victors lied?" Pick up a copy for the answer to that question.

A stolen text...When the Book of Aleth is stolen, Aaron, captain of the Royal Guard, is ordered by Emperor Therion to reclaim the ancient tome. The mission thrusts Aaron into a world he's never known--a world of elves and dwarves, races long thought extinct; a world where everything he has known and believed is a lie. A secret past... Forced to challenge his long-held beliefs, Aaron and his companions, two soldiers of the Royal Guard and two men of the Dwarvish kingdom of Brekken-Dahl, set out on a quest to recover the Book. Aaron resolves to discover the truth, and rescue the empire he is sworn to protect.   Available in Ebook & Print. 


Jayne E. Self brings us a cozy mystery in MURDER IN HUM HARBOUR. You won't know who did it 'til the very end...not even Gailynn, our quirky sleuth could figure it out straight away.

There's a Sleuth on the loose... Part-time medical receptionist, part-time jewelry crafter, Gailynn MacDonald thinks she knows everything about everyone in Hum Harbour, Nova Scotia. That's the way she likes it. But when her former employer Doc Campbell turns up dead aboard his beached yacht, and her sister-in-law becomes the prime suspect, quirky, over-excitable Gailynn vows to unmask the killer. With Geoff Grant, Doc's handsome replacement, by her side Gailynn uncovers secrets and confronts childhood fears. And in the process she discovers that catching a killer is a lot like crafting her seaglass jewelry... it's all in the details.
 Available in Ebook & Print.

Well friends, there you have it 4 brand new titles for Pelican Book Group imprint Harbour Light Books!

Don't forget, PBG is giving away a Kindle! Details HERE.

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight - stay tuned for more to come next week!

PamT