Being Instead of Doing...

By Patricia Bradley

“But Martha was distracted…And Jesus answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part…” Luke 10:40—42

Most mornings I hit the floor running with a million things on my to-do list. I have a deadline, blogs to write, emails to check, messages to tweet, Facebook to check, appointments to keep, people to take care of and of course, I have to find time to get in the pottery studio…people who know me say I’m the busiest person they know.

Sometimes I remind myself of a juggler trying to keep all the balls in the air.

I’m not saying all the things I do aren’t worthy activities. They are, just as Martha’s activities were, but I’m convinced the greatest enemies of God’s best for my life are the good things I’m involved in.

Just like Martha, I get so busy I lose sight of what’s most important. I mean, with Martha, JESUS was in the house, and what is she doing? 

Cleaning, cooking, fretting. You say, well someone had to cook the meal. Really? You think Jesus couldn't take a couple of fish and pieces of bread and everyone have a wonderful meal.

I want to be like Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet. I want to camp out in His presence and feel His love, doing that best thing He has planned for me—writing the story He’s given me. I want to be into being instead of always doing. And the only way to do that is to STOP:

Sit quietly in His presence…
Take time to listen to Him…
Open my ears instead of my mouth…
Pray for His guidance and seek His best for my life…

…AGAIN.

You see, I’ve been here before. Burned out and frazzled because I took on one more thing…

“Can you…?”
“Sure, no problem.”

And each good thing I agreed to do chips away at my quiet time as well as my writing time. I need to take a deep breath and remind myself that He’s given me a task to complete, and I can’t finish it if I don’t choose that best part.

How about you? Have you been here? Leave me a comment and tell me about it.

One thing before I go... Harlequin is test marketing the line I write for--Heartwarming, and putting them in Walmart Stores. If readers buy them they will be available all the time. 

Heartwarming titles are clean, sweet romances, so pick up one of this month's offerings! And they are 35% off!

Day 1 The Christmas Campaign and More Release Party

by
Patricia Bradley

First I want to reveal the winners of our Rafflecopter from November 5 that just ended:

Dorothy Boucher 

Ruth Kyser 

Nancy Jones 

Brandi  Dagwan 

Congratulations, ladies! Now for today's blog!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I certainly did--when I got the opportunity to pop out of my writing cave! You see, I have a January 4th deadline and my characters won't talk to me! 

So, I popped over here to tell you about three books where the characters did talk to me. :-)

Today I'm talking about The Christmas Campaign.

In case you don't know, I write for Harlequin Heartwarming and also for Revell. Tomorrow I'll tell you about my latest book for them.

The Christmas Campaign was so much fun to write. Nicole Montgomery is an independent and sassy young woman, and she has not one, but two, men courting her. For a while, even I didn't know which one would get her...and you'll have to read the book to find out. :-)

Here's the letter I wrote to the readers of The Christmas Campaign:

We all want to win and we all want to be chosen. It’s starts in childhood when we want to be chosen first—not last—for a team and continues into our adult years when we want to be chosen by someone special.

And when it comes to winning, it’s a given that no one wants to lose. But what happens when winning becomes more important than anything else?

My characters in The Christmas Campaign struggle with these issues. Nicole never worried in high school about being chosen for a team—being a great athlete, she was always the team captain and the one doing the choosing, but when it came to dates, well…her brother took her to the senior prom. And then when someone finally does choose her, after four years he drops her for his younger and prettier secretary. So when cousins Peter Elliott and Jake O’Neil start paying attention to her, she is more than a little leery.

All their lives, Peter and Jake have competed against each other, and that doesn’t change when they get reacquainted with Nicole. Not only that, they are in a contest with a half-million dollars at stake.

I loved writing this story and hope you enjoy it as well.

To celebrate the release of The Christmas Campaign and Gone Without a Trace, I'm giving away a few things--your choice of a $20 gift card from a variety of places (like Amazon, Cracker Barrel, Logan's, TGIF--anything I can buy a card for in Corinth), a copy of...well, check out the Rafflecopter!

You can enter to win below...(print books will be awarded where for US addresses only. If the winner lives outside the US, a digital copy will be awarded). Winners will be announced December 17.

Come back tomorrow for a look at Gone Without a Trace! It's a romantic suspense and one of the questions posed on the Rafflecopter is whether an author can write in different genres. Be sure and check it out.

And on Friday, I'll be talking about another Christmas book-- an anthology with 12 stories in it, all of them set in Christmas Town, Maine.

a Rafflecopter giveaway