Authors: Rosemary Hines
Behind Her Smile (28 page)
“No, I’m just getting ready for bed,” Joan replied.
“Well, I wanted to call you because I’ve been praying for that granddaughter of yours,” she began, “and I suddenly got this feeling in my spirit that she’s going to be just fine.”
Dear Readers,
There are two important themes in
Behind Her Smile.
One is about the importance of every generation and the interactions and relationships between them. We live in a time and culture where family has become so fractured. Many young people are completely disconnected from their grandparents, not to mention their great grandparents, if they are still alive. Even within a nuclear family, siblings and parents rush off in separate directions much of the time, leaving a vacuum that can result in detriment to everyone.
While some cultures respect and even revere the elderly, western cultures tend to see them as necessary burdens to be managed rather than gifts to be treasured. Although productivity in a worldly sense usually declines after a certain age, godliness and wisdom often grow in place of it. With most families struggling to balance two-income households and keep up with a myriad of side activities for both the children and the adults, time with God is often compromised. Even among those who truly love Him and want to follow Him. Prayers are hurried and sometimes forgotten altogether.
Herein lies the hidden gift of age. For, although many elderly saints like Joan are limited in their physical abilities as their bodies break down, their spirits can shine even brighter as their access to the Throne Room becomes nearly unlimited by time demands. And so, a sense of purpose can actually grow in the spiritual realm for these who have persevered in their faith. Now they can intercede and move mountains on behalf of family and friends, increasing eternal rewards and productivity exponentially. For even a bedridden saint, this can become a season of great investment and reward.
I hope the Silver Sisters of the Sword have inspired you to see aging through a new light.
A second and profound theme pierces into the depths of hearts and minds. Regardless of surface appearances of confidence and self-assurance, secret doubts invade many of us on an occasional or even ongoing basis.
If you’ve ever heard these words of condemnation, —‘Not Good Enough’—playing in your mind, you are not alone. In the realm of good versus evil, the forces of darkness are masterful with lies. And because each lie is part truth with an added twist, we can easily be duped into believing this particular lie from the pit.
Madison wrestled it and desperately sought to find affirmation through a thinner body, a new style of clothing and makeup, and a wrong relationship with an attractive young man. In the end, it was emptiness, and she felt even more worthless than before.
At every age and every stage of life, a sensitive spirit is vulnerable to the label, “Not Good Enough.” Godly wives and mothers like Michelle still find themselves wrestling with how they measure up in their multi-faceted roles. When people age and become grandparents and even great grandparents, their worldly accomplishments begin to wane as the younger generations assume the productive years of work and parenting. And so, the aging population can also feel “Not Good Enough” to be of measureable value.
The staggering truth is that none of us are ‘good enough’ to stand before a Holy God without the miraculous cleansing and transformation provided through the cross of Christ.
But another most amazing truth is that God valued and loved us before our first breath, and He will continue to do so until our very last. Then, those of us in Christ will find ourselves standing in His very presence, clothed in majesty and welcomed into a mansion He prepared just for us.
I hope
Behind Her Smile
communicated how pervasive the feelings of “Not Good Enough” live in the hearts and minds of even those who love and follow hard after Jesus. As new challenges arise, we often question our own ability or worthiness to undertake them with success. As much as Steve loved Madison and tried to make her feel like his princess, he still felt inadequate to the task of rescuing his daughter from her own self-abasement. And Michelle blamed herself when she realized how far Madison’s journey to finding love had taken her down the enemy’s rabbit hole.
Meanwhile, Joan struggled to overcome her own feelings of declining value and purpose as her memory faltered and her body broke down. If it weren’t for the love of her family and the Silver Sisters of the Sword, she could have easily succumbed to the depression so common in elderly people in our culture, who no longer feel good enough.
It was clear from Rick’s thoughts and inner feelings that he, too, was grappling with his new role as a husband and grandfather. He’d waited a long time for this, and he didn’t want to blow it. When Madison showed up on their doorstep, both he and Sheila wondered how to handle the crisis in young Madison’s life.
Amidst all of these self-doubts and inner questions of whether or not they were or could ever be “good enough,” God was moving forward with His plan of redemption. Like a beautiful tapestry, He wove each person’s backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses, and their love for each other and Him into a masterful picture of His provision and grace that is available to us all.
Looking back on my own life, I recall a time when I was going through one of my many seasons of questioning whether or not I was “good enough.” I awoke in the middle of the night filled with thoughts of self-condemnation, replaying every mistake I’d made and all my failings as a wife, mother, daughter, and friend. As I sat praying and crying, God made His presence known. And the words He spoke to my spirit startled me. “When are you going to stop beating up My little girl?” He asked.
Whoa. I never thought of it that way. But that was exactly what I was doing.
When we come to Him in all our brokenness, He welcomes us into His family, and we become His children—children He loved from the beginning of time, who have finally recognized our need for Him. From that moment forth, we are completely His. While we may still stumble and fall, His unconditional love never wavers, and He never calls us “Not Good Enough.” Never.
In His grace and mercy, He takes even our failings and shortcomings, and miraculously uses them for good. I’m sure you’ve witnessed that from time to time in your life. I know I have.
Although it breaks His heart when we sin, He is able and willing to cast away the darkness and heal and restore us, using those wrong choices to teach us important life lessons and to use them to someday minister to someone else in a similar struggle, just as Sheila was able to do with her granddaughter, and Madison will likely do herself someday down the road.
It always thrills me when I see how God is able to bring our background to bear on His messages of truth. For me, that involved my years of tampering with New Age beliefs and practices that became the first novel in this series,
Out of a Dream,
a book revealing the deception of that false religion. For Sheila’s husband, Rick, God took the years he’d spent as an anthropology teacher to prepare him for a very special divine appointment with Madison, at a time when she was questioning what she’d learned about God and marriage. Although that was a fictional scene, the reality is that God stages miraculous encounters like this every day. We just need to be open to His prompting and be willing to share honestly from our hearts when He calls us to do so.
If you have ever wrestled with the label “Not Good Enough,” know that I am right there with you. As a wife, mother, and grandmother, I get caught up in questioning myself and chastising myself on a regular basis. But God is teaching me some important lessons on this. And I believe He is preparing a Bible study for me to share with you—a study that helps us understand how
He
looks at us and why that is what really matters. Interested? Or know someone who might be? If yes, drop me an email, and I will be sure to add you to my notification list if/when that study is completed and ready to share.
If this is your first Sandy Cove book, and you enjoy traveling in time, you might want to go back to the beginning of the series and read the back-stories of these characters, who have become dear to so many. The stories flow seamlessly in chronological order from Book 1- Book 6. The first book,
Out of a Dream
is permanently free in eBook form and is also available as an audio book through Amazon or Audible.
For those of you who have journeyed through all the ups and downs of Michelle and her family, please join me in prayer about what God might have next for the series. Something is brewing in the back of my mind, but I’d love to get your input as well.
Thanks again for walking through these tough times with Madison. I hope her journey and the loved ones who traveled it with her have inspired you to see God’s love from a new perspective and to begin questioning the whispers of “Not Good Enough” when they seek to invade your heart and mind.
In Christ,
Rosemary Hines
https://www.facebook.com/RosemaryHinesAuthorPage
P.S. If you enjoyed this story, please take a moment to post a review. Here is the Amazon link for its page ~
http://amazon.com/dp/B014JOW1RM
Every time God enables me to complete the process of writing a book, I am reminded of the many people who have come alongside to help me. From the encouragement of readers and friends sharing the ways God has used the characters and themes of the novels in the Sandy Cove Series to guide, bless, or inspire them, to their pleas to keep writing, I have found the courage to tackle a brand new writing ministry here.
In addition, the Lord has blessed me with two wonderful, dedicated friends, who diligently and carefully read through each manuscript, giving me feedback on the stories themselves as well as the technical editing needed to purge the manuscripts of a multitude of typos and errors. These women, Nancy Tumbas (editor) and Bonnie Vander Plate (proofreader), bring needed refinement and polish to what ends up being a completed novel.
For doctrinal issues that arise in the story, I rely on the trusted counsel of our pastor and friend, Terry Walker. His biblical knowledge, love for people, and passion for God make him the perfect person to review and advise me on the spiritual content of the storylines.
A special part of the journey from manuscript to publication is the design and refinement of a cover. Benjamin Hines always comes through with just the right combination of setting and artistic layout to draw readers into the pages of the books. Once again, he created a beautiful, thought-provoking cover for this new installment in the series.
Finally, my expert formatter, Daniel Mawhinney at
40 Day Publishing
, takes over and transforms each document into an ebook and a paperback.
Big thanks go to all of these contributors. Without them, I would be floundering!
But most of all, my heart swells with gratitude and love for my God, who pulled me out of a miry pit thirty years ago and set my feet on the solid rock of Christ. He is my everything. He is my life and breath and the inspiration behind each tale I craft. To Him be the glory, forever and ever, amen.
