Tag Archive | hero

Lessons Learned While Writing: Hero of My Story

May23

After years of verbal abuse, I finally realized I had lapsed into helplessness and hopelessness. A friend once said to me, “Susan, you need hope.” I loved and served and prayed to Jesus and believed He was fully capable of rescuing me from my prison of pain.

During this time, I lead our church’s women’s ministry, and spent time encouraging other women and teaching them.

But I was stuck. I began to realize I was thinking and acting like a victim. A powerless victim. The more I read and understood about verbal abuse (which includes financial abuse and neglect and more), the more I began to seek the help I needed to grow and thrive even in the midst of my difficulty. Oh, I still cried, but I grew in my confidence and my ability to find the good in the midst of the pain.

I still struggled for hope that I would ever one day be released. The wonderful news is by the time I was, I was ready for the new life God had in store for me. The fears from the past had melted away. The belief that I was inadequate and unable to stand on my own, was gone. When God opened that door, freeing me, I was ready to walk into my new life without fear. He provided for me every step along the way and looking back I can only say it was by His grace that I made it, because on paper, I should never have been able to.

By God’s grace, I became a hero, a protagonist in my own story, not a pathetic byline. Now ultimately Jesus is the real hero. It was He who saved me at 15 years of age and has walked me through all of this. What a wonder that He could give me hope – in HIM and blessings beyond what I could have ever wished for.

In what ways do you perhaps feel a victim in your life? Look to Jesus for your hope. Change doesn’t take place overnight but He can move you and use you for HIS glory in the midst of your pain and in the future use that experience to bless others. Hold on, dear friend.

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The Texan’s Promise (Book 1 in the Heart of a Hero series)

Mar3

Be still my beating heart. A noble cowboy who leads with integrity and loves with honor but still makes some pretty big mistakes ends up taking the guardianship of a young woman to a level he never felt worthy of or anticipated.

The Texan’s Promise is a sweet romance by Shelley Gray takes you on a journey from Texas to Colorado and a few places beyond a few years after the Civil War has passed. Clayton Proffitt rescues the daughter of his now deceased employer and pledges to himself to guard her with his life. The journey they take to freedom and love embroil them in danger and bind them even tighter.

This book looks at the darker side of life on the southern frontier of early America and the hardships that especially befell women of that time if they were unprotected. Shelley Gray takes that darkness and shines the light of Christ into the midst of the pain and suffering with a light and gifted hand. I fell in love with Clayton and Vanessa and while I was grateful that the story had a happy ending, I was sad to leave them behind because I had grown fond of them and their relationship.

If you want a journey into honor and valor and women who don’t remain victims, then this is a wonderful book. The growth all the characters take is beautiful. Thank you Shelley for sharing this story with the world.