#ThursdayThoughts Guest post from Tyndale Author, Carla Laureano

Good Morning Friends,

As you well know, I'm always excited when I introduce a brand new-to-me and my blog author and today's guest is no exception.

Tyndale Author, Carla Laureano, is the RITA® Award-winning author of contemporary inspirational romance and Celtic fantasy (as C.E. Laureano). A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked as a sales and marketing executive for nearly a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write fiction full-time. She currently lives in Denver with her husband and two sons, where she writes during the day and cooks things at night.

Find out more and connect with Carla on Social Media by visiting her website.

Now let's see what thoughts Carla has to share with us....

When Less of Less is More 

Like everyone else in the Western world, it seems, I was enchanted by the new wave of minimalism sweeping the blogosphere. I’m one of those people who juggles a dozen projects, both personal and professional, and I want to do them all well. So whether you call it “making space” or “finding joy” or “choosing less,” the idea of a simplified life massively appealed to me. I quickly jumped on the bandwagon. I pared down my clothing to a capsule wardrobe. I minimized the toiletries in the bathroom. I rehomed books I wasn’t going to read again, scanned and recycled paperwork, and gave away supplies for abandoned crafts.

Yet somehow my life didn’t feel simplified. Don’t get me wrong—it feels great to live in a less cluttered space. It’s wonderful to know that my unloved items will be appreciated by someone else. But that promise of more time, more mental space, more emotional freedom remained elusive.

And then I realized that downsizing and minimizing had just become another task that I wanted to excel at. I wanted to be the best minimalist, in whatever way I defined it at the moment; in doing that, I’d made the pursuit of less “more.” One more stressor, one more thing to achieve. Funny thing—turns out that it wasn’t my stuff that defined me as a maximalist; it was my mind set.


A year later, I’ve stuck with much of what my minimalist experiment taught me. It’s made me more mindful of what I buy. It’s made me appreciative of what I do have. It’s even had a positive effect on my sons’ attitudes toward their stuff. But I’ve stopped looking for it to make psychic or emotional space in my life. Turns out the best minimalist is Jesus, and the best solution to my overstressed life is contained within Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Oh wow, Carla definitely thoughts we should all consider! Thank you for sharing....

Carla's newest release, The Saturday Night Supper Club can be purchased at Amazon in all formats!

Hope you enjoyed meeting our guest today and the thoughts she shared and that you'll drop by each week for Tuesday Treasures, Thursday Thoughts and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time, take care and God bless.
PamT