When we pray God's Word

Well, I haven't been pregnant anytime recently or given birth to any new children, but I did give birth to a new book, and I've ridden quite a roller coaster ride of emotions over the last month because of it. I guess you could call it post-book-launch-depression.

Launching a book is a lot of work in and of itself. Launching a book with a spiritual message is at least ten (or a hundred) times harder because the enemy is fighting you every step of the way. Taking away my precious kitties in the same month the book came out is just one of the ways that Satan attacked my family. Snowflake has been gone for almost a month, and Snowball has been gone for two weeks, and I still find myself in tears often because I miss them so much.

By the time the book finally launched on the 14th and then I hosted a book signing at church on the 23-24th, all my energy, excitement, and enthusiasm completely drained out of me. Despite the suggestion to keep up with the self-marketing for at least another week, I decided to unplug for awhile. Not sure if it was the wisest thing to do for the book launch, but emotionally, physically, and spiritually, I just needed to.

I'm so thankful for the wisdom I've gained from the more experienced authors in my writer's group so I could somewhat prepare myself for these emotions. It's true that you need to settle your worth with God long before throwing yourself out there into the book world. It doesn't matter how many people share your book, you will still notice the ones that don't. It doesn't matter how many great reviews you read about your book (you can read them here: http://www.amazon.com/Painful-Waiting-Leaning-Adoption-Surviving/product-reviews/1943004072/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_btm?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=recent) because you will still wonder why there are not more. People can rave about how much they loved your book, but you will still feel the sting of people who won't even read it or acknowledge it.

Thankfully, God steered me away from that thinking and showed me this:

The night I found out Colombia denied our adoption petition, I spent the entire night pretty much on the floor in tears. I didn't know what to think, say, feel, or even pray. So I picked up my copy of Beth Moore's book, Praying God's Word, and I just prayed Scripture. I wrote this particular verse on a card and prayed it nearly every day for a year.

Now look at the mission behind Authenticity Book House (taken from their website), the company that God strategically and unexpectedly connected me with just as I finished writing the second book: 

• ABH selects authors with confirmed Christ-like character and ministry effectiveness.
• ABH publishes books based on validated kingdom contribution, not market potential.

Then I read this review, now almost seven years after that tearful night: 

When we pray God's Word, I think it's pretty evident that He answers in very specific ways.