To All Followers, Old & New…

I have noticed an influx to of new followers lately. I APPRECIATE THAT SO MUCH!

However, I’m not sure how this particular site is still seeing this much traffic, other than perhaps through my comments on others blogs. For some reasons, my profile sometimes points back to this blog, instead of my new blog, Scribbles and Sustenance.

So, I just wanted to point out, if you’re looking for my latest blog posts, please feel free to head over to staceylynnwells.com and follow me there! I no longer post here, and would love your interaction over there.

Have a blessed day!

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Psalm 91 **Just Because**

1* He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2* I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

3* Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

4*He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

5* Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

6* Not for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.

7* A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

8* Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

9* Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;

10* There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

11* For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

12* They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13* Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.

14* Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

15* He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.

16* With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

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I have often heard it said that your spiritual “9-1-1” is Psalms 91:1, and can’t you see why? “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”

That is so precious and so strong a promise! The rest of this chapter goes on into a little more detail about how our Father loves us and is there to protect us. Still, we have to KNOW who we are. We are joint-heirs with Christ, grafted into the vine, partakers of the same nature of Jesus and alive with the same Spirit that raised Him from the dead!

Oh that we would take the time to “taste and see” that He is good! You know how much you love your children (those of you that have them)? Well, he loves us like that TIMES INFINITY! I honestly can’t say that I would let my son die for anyone, let alone an entire world full of people – past, present and future – most of whom would never accept that gift, or would accept it only to eventually trample Him under foot again.

Father, forgive me for the many times I have let you down and for all the times when I take a step without first consulting You and Your Word. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, hands that reach, feet that go and mouth to declare Your wonders and endless mercy! Just as you said, if salt loses its savor, it’s good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under foot… please don’t let me lose my savor! 

I hope this post has blessed you! My prayer is that everyone reading this will get a sense of how much love God has for you. You are treasured and loved and important…never forget. He won’t… you’re carved into the palms of His Hands!

The Broken Lily: Prologue | Aslynn Writes

For my readers who might enjoy fiction…please feel free to comment your critiques and share if you like! Just click the link below to read the content.

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It is the most tender flower that is so easily broken.

Source: The Broken Lily: Prologue | Aslynn Writes

Links for my book release: Believe!

I am so excited to finally announce that my book, Believe! Our Role In Learning The Truth, has finally gone live on Amazon, almost globally! I really don’t think I ever expected it to happen, but here it is. There was such an urging in my spirit to get it done that I couldn’t put it off any longer.

The Kindle and e-Book version can be found here, while the paperback version can be found here. They are suppose to be linked, where both the e-version and the print version are on the same page, but I don’t know if that change has been made yet.

A couple of notes on the Kindle version:

• If you are a member of Amazon Prime, you can read it for free on Kindle Unlimited.
• The Kindle version will be free from June 11 until June 15.
• You should be able to loan the book if you download it.

I wanted to make the book free to start out with, because I want everyone to have a chance to read it. I will be making it free once every 90 days, at least for awhile, so keep an eye out for that if you miss it this time.

Also, if you happen to read or download the book, I would greatly appreciate it if you would give a review on Amazon. It really helps new writers like me to rank and show up in the search results better, at least as far as I understand it. It would mean the world to me 🙂

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me along the way. It means so very much!

 

I Finally Did It…

I don’t know how many years ago it was that God laid it on my heart to write the book “Believe!”. At least five. It’s always been in the back of my mind because, to be honest, I didn’t think I had it in me to do.

Still, ever so often, God would remind me that He wanted me to get it done. Of course, I had no idea about publishing or how to get it done, or who would want to do anything with the book. I began to look around at publishers and their rates, and it was absolutely out of my range! To self-publish a book in print costs a lot more than I thought it would. That’s not to mention marketing and all the rest that goes along with getting your book out there.

Then, after I don’t know how long, someone turned me on to Amazon’s self-publishing site. As it turns out, you can publish the e-Book, along with the print version as well, and pay no up front costs! I couldn’t believe it! Could it really be that simple?

Well, being the not-so-trusting person that I am, I spent months and months and then a few more months reading and studying up on the whole process. Sure enough, it’s pretty legit. Still, though, I had my doubts.

Then, not long ago, my best friend introduced me to a friend of hers who is already a published author through Amazon. You can find her stuff on her Amazon page here. She has been such a tremendous help in sorting out all the things I was worried about! I just can’t thank her enough.

I certainly don’t want to leave out another HUGE thank you to my awesome daughter, Abby, for taking the breathtaking picture for my cover. Her talent is amazing and she never ceases to amaze me! All the books in this series will feature her photography and I can’t wait.

Anyway, after talking with her and sending my manuscript out to a few “beta readers”, I have finally set the wheels in motion! My very first book, Believe! Our Role In Learning The Truth, will be available on Amazon in about three days! It’s the first in a series, that will probably, at some point, turn into one larger book, but I guess we’ll wait and see about that.

I’ll be sure to come back with a link for anyone who might be interested in reading it. Be sure to follow my page so you don’t miss it 🙂

I don’t know exactly where God is going to take this, but I couldn’t just not write it. Whatever happens from here on out, as it should be, is in His capable Hands.

Are You An Animal Lover? Check This Out… – Scribbles & Sustenance

The Hardin County Animal Shelter is a great place to visit to see some amazing cats and dogs that are available for adoption.

I wrote this post after taking a trip to our local animal shelter. I hope you’ll stop by and have a look at it, if you’re an animal lover 🙂

Drop me a line in the comments about local shelters in YOUR area!

Source: Are You An Animal Lover? Check This Out… – Scribbles & Sustenance

If There’s Water Under The Bridge, There’s More Behind The Dam…

So, today, the Lord put yet another person in my path and led me to believe there really is “something” to this whole idea of sharing past traumas in order to heal yourself.

I don’t know. That’s not like me, you know?

I don’t share.

I smile. I pray. I help people. I work my butt off. And I love with my whole heart.

But I don’t share.

Never have. It’s not that I’m trying to be a recluse or a hermit, though I’ll admit I do kinda fit the mold. It’s just something ingrained in my being, to the core. All the way.

I guess that started with training from my Daddy. (I was always a Daddy’s girl…) He taught me things like “Never trust ANYONE” and “Don’t stare anyone in the eyes unless they speak to you first” and “Never ever point when you’re in public, you never know that you might be pointing out a murderer and they’ll think you know what they did”.

He taught me to fix my own vehicle because he didn’t want me dependent on a “no account man” someday. So I was changing brakes and timing belts and water pumps at fourteen years old and still wound up in an abusive relationship for four years.

Not that that’s actually part of the trauma, even though it is, in a weird sort of way…

Why would I want to share it anyway? If I can just push it back and push it down and keep it all packaged up until I get far enough away from it, things should be good, right?

I mean, it’s all in the past, and there’s nothing back there that can help the here and now. Makes sense to me to just leave it stuffed down and buried. Like, you don’t bury a dead person and then dig ’em up and drag ’em around with you. That’s just stupid, right?

But these people that God has shown me, there’s really something to it for them.

So, I reason within myself, it’s for them and that’s between them and God. Not everyone wears the same size shoes, and not everyone gets release from the same measures.

Besides, there’s an awful lot of water under the bridge. But an even greater amount behind the dam.

That I built.

By myself.

For my protection.

See? That’s exactly what I mean? I sometimes feel like I’m a living adaptation of “The Wall” by Pink Floyd (for any of you who are old enough to remember it) only without a lot of the moral deviations. Well, maybe, maybe not, depending on how far back we’re willing to go…

I’ve been told that when I’m ready, God will use it to help someone else. And He did, at one point, I think.

When I met my best friend and we started an online group, way back in the “MSN Groups” days, for victims of domestic abuse. Both she and I had been in abusive relationships, but we had no idea where God would take it and what He would show us through it.

Thank God, we got to see many a deliverance and I’m lucky to still have some of those girls in my life, to see the glory God is allowing them to walk in.

But as for myself, I’ve been the never-ending circle of not getting far enough away to get out of satan’s grip. Or so I say.

I remember my Mom use to say that she’d surely go to Heaven someday, because her whole life had been nothing but hell on Earth.

Funny how things like that stick with you. Funny how those are the things you remember the most, and how even now, as a grownup, it still hurts the same as when she said it. Even though I didn’t realize what it meant then…

But, nevertheless, that was then, and this is now. If ever something were going to help someone, I sure wish it would get on with it and let me out of the cycle.

Or is it that I’m still in the cycle because I haven’t shared?

But wouldn’t it embarrass me and a lot of other people if I shared it? Wouldn’t it make life harder for some people? I could change names and places, but those who “know” would still “know”…

Does that make sense?

Kudos if it does, because it never does to me.

Just when I think I’m onto something, that I’m understanding where God is taking me this time, then something else gets slammed shut and I’m left with empty hands and a hurting heart.

Things I’m not a part of anymore, always slipping around the corner, threatening, even though I’m not doing anything wrong.

Old acquaintances that I’ve left in the past, always begging to get back in, only to do me in once again.

Situations that I have no power over, but people think I should stick my nose in it anyway.

Every time something else happens, and I find myself clawing to get out or away from it, I can’t help but to think that even Abraham had to leave everything he knew and was familiar with behind and trust God somewhere else.

But, at the same time, I feel trapped. When you have a family, and furthermore, when you’re not the head of the household, there just isn’t much you can do. Throw in a teenage daughter who doesn’t want to leave the love of her life and you got a family that’s not going anywhere.

<sigh>

I shouldn’t complain, I don’t suppose. It is so much worse for so many people that I don’t even feel like I have a right to complain. Wasn’t it Paul himself, who prayed three times for the thorn in his side to be removed, but it wasn’t. It was a messenger of satan, yes, but God left it in place so that Paul wouldn’t think more of himself than he ought to.

Is that me?

Is this life I live the thorn in my side that I’ll never get away from?

Maybe Mom was right? Maybe sometimes life is just a hell on Earth until we get to our final destination.

I don’t know. I’m never really quite sure of anything. I try to live today for today, forgetting what is past and pressing on to the mark of the high calling, where ever that is.

I know God won’t leave, nor forsake me.

 

HOOKED Chat Stories – Horrifying Texts

There is a new app I recently found out about called Hooked. I write a lot about new and emerging apps as a Freelance Writer, for various clients, and this one fell in my lap somehow.

I’m actually kind of glad it did. Let’s me know that there are more and more things trying to tempt young people to things they shouldn’t even be a part of.

The people who created this app say that they put it out there in an attempt to save fiction for this new world of mellinials. They thought that, since young people spend so much time on social media already, that perhaps they could rekindle a spark for literature amongst them with this app.

I’d say that’s a great idea, if it were a different genre and if it weren’t so easy for young children to get their hands on. I will say though, the creators did mention that they’d tried several genres and they all flopped, until they decided to give horror a go.

My fear is that with all the “real-life” horror we already see on social media today, is this just another attempt to push past the wow-factor into something worse? It’s hard to tell, as new as it is. I worry that perhaps this will be the next “trigger” for someone who’s considering actually doing something…let’s just say, untoward.

It’s scary! Maybe it was meant to be, actually I’m sure it was, but I don’t think I’m going to be giving it the time of day, myself.

Have any of you had any experience with this app? If so, please do stop by in the comments and let me know. I’ve yet to actually hear from very many people what the actual day-to-day turns out to be.

You can find out more about the app here. It’s suppose to be for those in their late teens and early twenties, as they are quick to point out in their analytics, but it’s marketed for those aged 9 and up.

Trust me when I say, you don’t want your nine year old getting their hands on this. I mean, I know I wouldn’t.

There are enough things out there to scare and mislead our children. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think we should spend more time building our children up! They are our future!

So, anyway, I just wanted to share. It’s very new and I don’t know how much of a hold it will have.

Be blessed! And thanks for stopping by!

Source: HOOKED Chat Stories – App Info. for Parents from Protect Young Eyes

Trying To Find Myself

Well, as some of you know, I started my self hosted website/blog back in March. Scribbles & Sustenance is pretty much just sitting there at this point. I mean, granted, I don’t really have a “niche”, for the thing. And I’m certainly not as open and personal as I have been here, and although I have a different category for each day of the week, there’s nothing that I’m really focused on.

Ok, we’ll call that mistake number one. (Not sure if that should be a statement or a question!)

Another thing I keep hearing about is going with affiliates. Maybe I’m missing something, but so far, the only affiliates I’ve checked on say you have to have a crazy amount of “per day” visits.

And I don’t.

Not yet, anyways.

I’m still working on it. Maybe I’ll never get it down for sure, but at least I won’t be accused of not trying. I’ve linked to social media, I tweet, I pin and I have a Facebook page. I try to get my titles and headlines right. I don’t know, maybe I’m trying to hard?

Maybe I should just go back to the way I was blogging here…still not great, and I feel like there’s no niche there either.

So, for now, I’ve just been using the website as my Freelance Writing website. That’s what I do professionally, plus it gives me somewhere to store my portfolio without having to pay extra, but even the freelance jobs are becoming scarce. I blame that on people who agree to write for ridiculously low rates. BUT, as they say, you get what you pay for. I’ll bide my time, thank you very much. Didn’t want to work for those kinds of people anyway.

I guess I’ll still be around 🙂 Even though I’m paying for Scribbles, this place just feels more like home…

How To Parent Two Children On Different Levels of the Spectrum | Ambitious about Autism

I was recently published on Ambitious About Autism, a wonderful site for families dealing with autism. I am honored to join the ranks with the other writers there and look forward to writing for them again in the future!

If you’d like to read the article in its entirety, please click the link below. While you’re there, have a look around at all the other wonderful articles and information they have.

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Having more than one child with an autism diagnosis can be a struggle. The number of children you have that are on the spectrum multiplies everything you normally have to research, study about, become familiar with and help them to get through. But then again, the rewards and successes are also equally multiplied!

Source: How To Parent Two Children On Different Levels of the Spectrum | Ambitious about Autism