{"id":1678,"date":"2011-07-07T01:01:28","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T01:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2011-07-07T14:51:09","modified_gmt":"2011-07-07T14:51:09","slug":"author-ann-gabhart-blessed-is-lacey-giveaway-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksbylyncote.com\/SWBS\/uncategorized\/author-ann-gabhart-blessed-is-lacey-giveaway-today","title":{"rendered":"Author Ann Gabhart & Blessed is Lacey (+Giveaway Today!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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My guest today is author<\/span> Ann H. Gabhart. I’m delighted to have Ann visit us again at Strong Women, Brave Stories.\u00a0 If you missed her last visit, click here.<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

Today Ann is going to share about her latest heroine Lacey. ALSO Ann is graciously offering to giveaway a copy of her book to a reader who leaves a comment. So be sure to remember that! Here’s Ann:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Sometimes a character comes along who demands to have her story told. That was Lacey Bishop in my new book, The Blessed<\/em>. I originally thought up Lacey and planned for her to be a minor character in my third Shaker book, The Seeker<\/em>. But while I was thinking about Lacey\u2019s background before she came to live with the Shakers, she sprang to life in my imagination and let me know she had a story of her own to tell.<\/p>\n

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You\u2019ve probably known dozens of Laceys in your life. Those are the women who go about their lives, doing what has to be done to take care of the people they love.\u00a0 You may even be a Lacey \u2013 someone who has had a few bumps in your road but you kept going. We\u2019re not promised an easy road, but we are promised company on that road. Jesus said, \u201cLo, I will never forsake you.\u201d \u00a0Matthew 28:20 (KJV)<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t model Lacey after any particular woman in the Bible, but the Scripture gives us plenty of examples of women who did keep putting one foot in front of the other and rose to the challenges of their time. Think of Queen Esther. When Mordecai asks her to seek the king\u2019s ear to save her people, she says, \u201cBut if I go to him without being summoned, he can order me killed.\u201d And yet, after prayers and fasting, she goes. \u201cIf I perish, I perish,\u201d she says. Her courage to do what had to be done saved her people. Then think on Mary, the mother of Jesus. She knew what could happen to her if she showed up in the family way before she married. Joseph could have had her stoned. Yet she trusted the Lord and said, \u201cBehold the handmaiden of the Lord.\u201d Simple faith. Tremendous, earth-shaking faith. Faith to believe the Lord would take care of her and open a way.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of faith Lacey wants. That\u2019s the kind of faith Lacey needs in order to face the challenges in her life. She wants to feel\u00a0 blessed. She wants to be loved. But circumstances trap her in a loveless marriage of convenience and her life becomes a tangled mess. You can see she\u2019s feeling that from her thoughts while she\u2019s marrying Preacher Palmer.\u00a0 She felt the wrongness of it down through the core of her being, all the way out to her toes. But nobody with the first lick of sense expected everything to go right all the time. At least nobody who had piled up a few years of living. Sometimes a body had to do what had to be done, right or wrong, to make something more important right.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lacey often thinks on the Beatitudes in her quest for a faithful walk in life. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the pure in heart. <\/em>Blessed is Lacey. That\u2019s what she finds out in the story.”–Ann<\/p>\n

What an intriguing character, Ann. I’m hooked. Remember to leave a comment! The last time she visited we had over 40 comments. Can we top that?–Lyn<\/span><\/p>\n

For more about Ann, drop by <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/www.annhgabhart.com<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com<\/a>
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