Gabrielle – “..salvation is instantaneous, but refining is a life long process.” Well said!

Cathy – Thank you. And your suggestion makes sense for personal use as well. Often our strengths propel us into trouble. Something to consider.

In my WIP my heroine has experienced a tragic event in her childhood that has left her seeking forgiveness and peace. When I read her voice journal to my husband he asked me to stop because it was heartbreaking to hear. I automatically considered changing it, but then I thought more about it. Why are we afraid to deal with real life sin and pain? Why do we want to sugar coat everything? Our job as a Christian author is to show the lost that there is hope and redemption for everyone. Even the ugliest amongst us (often the person staring at us in the mirror) is just as precious and just as important as the next. The idea, in our lives and in the lives of our fictional characters, is to show that salvation is instantaneous, but refining is a life long process.

This is what I tried to do in To Win Her Heart. My heroine, Eden, had always been the good girl. She followed the rules, she always put on the right face around others. Yet when she finds herself in situations that make her choose between doing what is truly right instead of what society deems as right, she struggles. She makes mistakes and has to repent, and in the end she realizes that true faith requires sacrifice not just a shiny veneer.

In our writing, I think small flaws can have even bigger messages than the huge ones because they are more likely to reflect the things we ourselves struggle with. In the same story as I mentioned above, the hero had a dark prodigal past, yet it was the heroine who had biggest spiritual changes to make.