grace

Walking Healed

/ Dora Hiers / 5 Comments

Dora here. I’m thrilled and honored to welcome my sweet friend, Shelley Wilburn, to Fiction Faith & Foodies today. She’s an encourager to the nth degree, always ready with a kind word and powerful message of hope. Which makes me even more excited to share that Shelley just released a companion workbook to her book, Walking Healed, A Journey of Forgiveness, Grace, and Hope. Who doesn’t yearn to unshackle the chains of anxiety and depression and walk in glorious freedom? Thought so. 🙂

Welcome, Shelley! Love that beautiful smile! ❤

shelley wilburn

Shelley Wilburn

Being an Indie Author has its ups and downs. One of the downs is impatiently waiting on a physical proof copy of your latest book. This is so you can actually see that it is going to look like you wanted it to, before you approve it for release to the general public. It’s this waiting game that I recently played. However, I’m also glad it’s over.

I recently released for publication the Walking Healed Companion Study; Finding Healing, Forgiveness, Grace, Hope, and Your Purpose. Wow, that’s a long title! But there’s so much inside this little workbook that a short title just wouldn’t suffice.

The Walking Healed Companion Study is written to be paired with my first book, Walking Healed, A Journey of Forgiveness, Grace, and Hope. It is a five-week Bible study that will help the reader dig deep into not only God’s Word, but within themselves to find and put into practice healing, forgiveness, grace, and hope. The final week of the study focuses on finding your purpose and utilizes the previous weeks’ lessons and how God works all of them together to show you the path to finding your purpose.

God has a great big plan for your life. In Walking Healed and the companion study, readers will discover bits and pieces of His wonderful plan. They will discover that no matter what you’ve been through or are going through, God loves you dearly and wants to heal you and walk you through your journey to finding all the above mentioned things.

In the first book, Walking Healed, I culminated several blog posts into my journey of healing. It’s a process. Although God healed me of over forty hears of depression, anxiety, intimidation and self-esteem issues, He walked with me every day to show me His plan and has allowed me to write in such a way as to help others who are going through the same issues. No matter if it’s depression, anxiety, addiction, abuse, or whatever the issue, I know I was commissioned by God to write these books. My story could very well be your story, or help you in discovering yours.

Readers will gain a new outlook and hopefully realize that this is a life journey. Being healed is one thing. Walking it out every day is recovery, just like an alcoholic or drug addict. We don’t get healed one day and never have another issue. We learn to walk every day choosing to stay healed. We choose to move forward and not backward. In the Walking Healed books, readers are  encouraged to do just that. It’s like an extended road map from someone who has walked that journey and left pebbles for others to follow.

My hope is that anyone who reads the Walking Healed books will finish strong and discover the Light to lead them on their journey because, life is a journey. It’s an adventure that we are meant to live victoriously. Walking Healed… one day at a time.

Walking Healed

Walking Healed Companion Study

Walking Healed is a journey. Life is a journey. None of us have done it before. We choose to walk in healing, forgiveness, grace, hope, and our purpose daily. Therefore, we’re all just muddling through life trying to figure out how to get through it with as few bumps and bruises as possible.

Nevertheless, everyone has an issue or several issues to deal with on a daily basis. Whether you struggle with depression, addiction, oppression, anxiety, illness or disease, or abuse, none is bigger or less important than another. What does matter is that you have a God who loves you dearly and never meant for you to carry this alone.

Shelley Wilburn knows and understands a life lived in the “black hole” of depression and intimidation.  She suffered it for over forty years.  She also knows what it’s like when God heals you from it all, taking you on a wonderful journey of walking healed.

In the Walking Healed companion study, Shelley uses God’s Word (the Bible) and her book Walking Healed and walks you through five weeks of healing, forgiveness, grace, hope, and finding your purpose.  Each section will bring you closer in your relationship with God while also utilizing healing, forgiveness, grace, hope, and purpose in your own walk.  Don’t bother to buckle up for this adventure.  You’ll want to be free to move around and find each of these five treasures for your personal walking healed journey.

Bring a friend.  The more the merrier.

What People Are Saying About Walking Healed

“Such a great read! I didn’t want it to be over. It was encouraging and heart felt. A guide to forgiveness and God’s unconditional love!” –Amazon Customer 

“This book is a “Must Read” for anyone who has been hurt by someone or who at some time has hurt another (which is all of us). The author takes you on a life altering journey of forgiveness and healing. Anyone who wants to grow closer to The Lord and the people they love should read this book. I promise you that you too will have your “Aha!” moment.” –Jeffrey S. 

“Great read. Dedicated to helping women break free and live the life God intended. Shelley is going to be the next Joyce Meyer.” –Beth F.

“This book was a Blessing! It was well written and I could tell it was God lead and straight from the heart! Loved It!!!” –Harper 

“Shelley Wilburn’s enthusiasm is contagious! An inspiring read I hope to read again and again. The encouragement in this book is priceless.” –Karla A.

About the Author

shelley wilburn

Shelley Wilburn

Shelley Wilburn was born and raised in West Frankfort, Illinois. She began writing when she was twelve years old. She has written several articles and devotions for various newspapers, women’s magazines, and newsletters. In addition to writing, Shelley is also an avid reader, book reviewer, blogger, and speaker. Using her love of writing, motorcycle riding, and wearing mismatched socks, Shelley has developed a unique ministry of encouraging others using biblical truths and stories from her own personal life. Shelley is married to her high school sweetheart D.A. and together they have celebrated over thirty years of marriage. They have three grown, married children and three grandsons.

Shelley loves to hear from her readers. You can find Shelley at

Her website:  www.shelleywilburn.org

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/authorshelleywilburn

Twitter:  @Shelley_Wilburn

Pinterest:  www.pinterest.com/shelleyawilburn

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/shelleywilburn

E-mail her at shelley@shelleywilburn.org

 

Excited about Reading: A Reluctant Melody by Sandra Ardoin

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments
Excited about Reading

Click Book Cover for Amazon Link

A Reluctant Melody has been on my TBR list since it released in January. But my reading has downshifted significantly lately, and I just found it on my kindle again. Yay! If you enjoy inspirational historical romances with a thread of intrigue, you’re in for a treat! But you might want to read The Yuletide Angel first. Not that it’s a requirement to enjoy A Reluctant Melody, but Angel gives you insight into Kit. And who doesn’t love a glimmer of Christmas in the middle of summer? Just sayin’. 🙂

Here’s a little about the book first.

The Cover Story~

Kit Barnes’ drinking ruined more lives than his own. Now sober, he wants to make amends by opening a mission for drunkards. The most suitable location belongs to Joanna Cranston Stewart, a love from his sordid past and the one person he hurt the most.

A pariah among her peers, Joanna is all too eager to sell her property and flee the rumors that she sent her late husband to an early grave. But she will let the gossips talk and the walls of her rundown property crumble around her before she’ll allow Kit back into her life.

When a blackmailer threatens to reveal her long-held secret, she must choose between trusting Kit or seeing her best friend trapped in an abusive marriage.

Will Joanna risk another betrayal? Or will she find a way through the pain of the past to love and trust again?

Let’s Chat~

Joanna Stewart finds solace playing the piano. Kit Barnes used to find comfort in a bottle, but now his faith guides his life and work. Along with a pastor partner, Kit plans to buy and renovate a house to accommodate other recovering alcoholics. Joanna’s house is perfect for their mission, and Kit might have convinced Joanna to sell her property, except for this…

She would pay into eternity for her lapse in judgment, for loving a man who used her and tossed her aside. Hadn’t her father said as much before he cast her out of his house? If Papa were her this minute, he would remind her again of the sin she’d committed, and the mercy she would never find from the almighty and judgment-prone Creator.

Whoa! You can imagine Joanna’s reaction upon seeing Kit again and the conflict that oozed from the pages! With a benefactor holding a ticking clock, though, Kit had no choice but to convince Joanna to sell. Her continued refusals made him wonder if he hadn’t ran ahead of the Lord’s will. Often, I worry the same thing in my own life.

Favorite quote: “God doesn’t demand perfection from us first, Jo. He perfects us through our faith in Christ.”

A sprinkling of historical tidbits, a trail of intrigue, and the abundance of spiritual nuggets pulled me in every chance I got to read. While I suspected some elements, a few twists surprised me. I appreciated the real battle Kit waged over his addiction, even after being saved, and how his struggle wasn’t easy or glossed over. I generally prefer more sizzle in my romance reads, but because of their disastrous past and the constraints of the time period, I understand the restraint. Overall, though, A Reluctant Melody is a book I will keep in my library, just  to reread and savor those spiritual goodies all over again.

TO PONDER: When someone I know struggles with consequences of poor choices, do I extend grace or judgment? Do I offer a listening ear or a cold heart? Am I a help or a hindrance? 

Disclaimer: I purchased my own copy of A Reluctant Melody. This review is my fair and unbiased opinion, and I was in no way compensated.