Catching Up With Gayle Roper - WIN HER BOOK!

Ferree with Gayle Roper at Montrose

Christian Writers Conference

Finally! Yes, finally!
I met Gayle Roper at a writers conference in July and am  f - i - n - a - l - l - y  able to introduce her!

She's an award-winning author of some of THE BEST Christian fiction out there, a wonderful person, AND an amazing widow. Read her books and meet her in person at a widows retreat she puts on each March with Sandy Cove Ministries in Maryland. (click here for retreat info). (Click here for her website). If you want to attend the retreat please let me know and I'll consider going too.

You'll also love her book, "A Widow's Journey - Reflections On Walking Alone." I read it immediately after the writers conference and wrote about it in August. I was so impressed with Gayle and her writing I even compared the book to C.S. Lewis's "A Grief Observed." That's a huge compliment to a writer! (Click here for the blog post and see if you agree).

Her husband, Chuck, died July 2, 2010, ten days after their 47th wedding anniversary, and after 3.5 years when a rare cancer of the bile ducts in and around his liver was diagnosed. "God gets to make the choices," is what Gayle told me. She's chosen to be content, and to her that means "agreeing with God that He and what He's provided are sufficient for His purposes for me." Discontentment equals disagreeing and fighting with God.

When asked what she would pass along to new widows, she said,

"It does get better; it's a slow process. The intense sorrow eases; the overwhelming moments become further apart..."

Other tips from Gayle:

• Develop women's friendships...
• Enjoy your women friends...
• Don't rush remarriage...
• Learn to be single, and learn to live again.

And here are two tips for bookworms and widows from Gayle the bookworm and widow:

• I take a book along when I'm going out to eat by myself.
• Fall asleep at night reading lighter stories where things turn out well at the end. Escape with humorous, fun, light-hearted stories and mysteries.

I want to close with three things Gayle has concluded that widows need. She admits it's best if they're in place before widowhood, but if you still implement what you are able of these three things I believe you'll benefit. The following are from pages 70-71 of "A Widow's Journey."

• "First, we should have something that is ours, something we do that we don't do with our husbands, something that gives us satisfaction and pleasure when we do it..."
• "Second, we need family and friends to help us mourn..."
• "And last, we need a strong spiritual base to stand on... No one else is there in the dark of the night. No one else knows our deepest regrets and understands our loneliness. No one else loves us deeply enough to die for us."

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

"I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

I will build you up again

and you...will be rebuilt."

Jeremiah 31:3-4

Leave a comment here today (not on Facebook), and you will be entered into a drawing for Gayle's book, "A Widow's Journey." You'll love it, and I'm anxious to pass it along. Comment today! The drawing will be on Friday, November 18, 2016, and the winner announced immediately. It will be up to the winner to email me at WCplace@gmail.com with her mailing address. Once I get that address the book will be in her hands within a few days!
♥ ferree