Do you ever wonder how the storylines weaved into Christian fiction can alter the landscape of one's spiritual journey? Cheri and I take you through a vivid discussion on the potent impact of faith-based storytelling, spotlighting the Paper Dolls series and how characters like Lydia resonate with the real-world challenges believers face. We delve into the transformative power of such stories, their potential to guide readers to deeper reflection, and why they're more than mere entertainment – they're a beacon of hope and understanding.
Would you like to support the Cheer UP! Podcast? You can do so by clicking here
Kara's website - click here.
Cheri's website- here.
Email - cheeruppodcast@gmail.com
Instagram - @kararhunt
Leave reviews on - Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcasts,
Do you ever wonder how the storylines weaved into Christian fiction can alter the landscape of one's spiritual journey? Cheri and I take you through a vivid discussion on the potent impact of faith-based storytelling, spotlighting the Paper Dolls series and how characters like Lydia resonate with the real-world challenges believers face. We delve into the transformative power of such stories, their potential to guide readers to deeper reflection, and why they're more than mere entertainment – they're a beacon of hope and understanding.
Would you like to support the Cheer UP! Podcast? You can do so by clicking here
Kara's website - click here.
Cheri's website- here.
Email - cheeruppodcast@gmail.com
Instagram - @kararhunt
Leave reviews on - Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Google Podcasts,
Hi and welcome to the Cheer Up podcast. I am your host, carole R Hunt, and with me is the lovely, beautiful and talented Sherry Swalwell. How are you, sherry?
Speaker 2:I am doing great and happy 2024. Can you believe that we have started a new calendar year already and we're getting ready to celebrate our anniversary? Well, sorry, our podcast anniversary. I did that way back in October too, and November.
Speaker 1:Yes, so actually this will mark season four. I think we said season three in our podcast in the fall, but we are now embarking on season four, our third year, fourth season, if that makes sense, because it's all going so fast.
Speaker 2:So so so fast?
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, it is going really, really, really, really fast. Can you believe we've been doing this for so long, sherry?
Speaker 2:No, and in two weeks we're going to get to Walkdown Memory Lane and I have already started thinking about some of my favorite episodes, that we've done, some of my favorite topics, but that's not what we're talking about today. Today and the rest of the month when we're not celebrating our anniversary for the podcast, we get to talk books, and not just any books, but the books that God has put on our hearts, and I am so excited. I love talking fiction. I even love talking nonfiction. I write both, but fiction is really definitely my first love.
Speaker 2:It truly is Like I have thought of stories in my head from the time I was in grade school and they just become my friends. And I have to tell you everybody, kara's books are amazing. Her Habakkuk series that is actually how Kara and I met was through a writing group, and when I read her first, it was even just a chapter of a book that she was writing and I felt the Holy Spirit. I felt that it was so anointed and I was like Lord, I need to meet this person and that is how he led us together, helped us to become sisters and friends, and the rest is history. Like God is so good, and the podcast was created from our friendship and I still, to this day, pinch myself that you invited me to join this adventure with you, and so, yeah, this month is like a whole month of celebration. We get to celebrate our friendship, we get to celebrate being sisters in Christ. We get to celebrate the love of books. We get to celebrate what God has placed in your heart, what God has placed on my heart. They compliment each other and I just love it.
Speaker 2:I could not be happier Like I love January anyway, because it's like a fresh start in the new beginning, and I spend time fasting and I spend time dedicating our home and our family in the new year, and what a better way to start but then to just celebrate and thank God for the blessings in our lives, of the things that he has allowed us to do, to share with other people. And that is actually my word for the year too. God gave it to me back in August last year and my word is thankful and I am incredibly thankful and I think that all of January I am going to be incredibly thankful. So there we go. There's my little speech for the morning.
Speaker 1:And that was a really good speech. You know, and Sherry is right, it was over. Our love of books and our writing endeavors is how we connected all those many years ago and it is just definitely it was a God thing and it has just been blessed and blossomed, you know, ever since. And of course, the podcast is a product of what God has put on my heart and Sherry was just the perfect person to bring into it because of our shared interests and her heart for the Lord and just what we were thinking about putting forward. So it has been quite a journey and under our ministries under Sherry, swalwell Ministries and my ministries KRR Hunt Ministries are KRHM. Under KRHM is the. It's like the umbrella for the writing and the podcast, any other things that the Lord has led me to do, and the same with Sherry. So I'll let her explain a little bit about life and every day and her books and how they all fall under her ministry.
Speaker 2:So yeah. So when I first started in 20s I mean no, 2011, I believe, because our youngest was two and my husband blessed me at Christmas time with a writer's conference through Dan Miller, he's really great. He's more of like a businessman than just like a soul writer. He has an umbrella, just like we, just like KRR was just talking about.
Speaker 2:And my husband knows me so well and he knew that I would resist and I would not want to go if I had to go by myself. So he presented me with Sherry. I have this conference, that I believe in you, I want to support you, we will go with you. We're not going to go to the actual conference, but we'll go down there. We will stay in a hotel. You won't be far away because I just and I was gripped in fear back then to the thought of going by myself was like a no go.
Speaker 2:And so he knew me. So he took all the obstacles away and he helped me get started. So I came back. I had assignments, I had to make a website, I had to start a social media presence, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:And so I had no idea what to call myself. I didn't even really know what it was. I just knew I loved hearts, I loved love, I loved marriage, family, parenting. I didn't know who my audience would be, I knew nothing, and so I came up with spoken from the heart. And so, god, I thought in my short-sighted wisdom and I know God was lasting at me now I said okay, in two years I will have a thriving career. I can quit all of my other jobs. I will write fiction full-time. I will be able to do it all. I will be able to volunteer at my kid's school. I will make chocolate chip cookies, homemade, every single day. I will be this wife who greets her family with this clean house and these books are just going to magically appear.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was nothing like that. God took it away. He said no, sherri, I don't want you writing fiction. And I'm like what? Wait, that's not what I signed up for. I have to write nonfiction. But God, why? Like, I have all these books in my head already of fiction. What is the deal? And so, anyway, lo and behold, I know now looking back, he had me write nonfiction first because I am able to incorporate, he integrates the nonfiction lessons flawlessly easily into my fiction writing, so that it's not a lecture, it's not a sermon, but it's just everyday life. It's how people live biblically, every day, and I'm so grateful that he did that to me or for me. I truly am. I never I still, at this point, don't have a traditional publishing contract, I self-publish. That was a huge learning curve, but, again, all part of the story that he created for me for my life.
Speaker 2:He did end up giving, actually in 2019, he took writing away from me forever, like well, not forever, but for a period of time, for that year, and I resisted it. He was trying to give me a sabbatical, he was trying to give me a break, and I thought that he was taking it away forever and I was so sad. I was like why did I disobey you, did I make you mad? Why am I not allowed to write anymore? He said I could still write my blog, but as far as books went, he didn't want me publishing anything. And then, sure enough, come 2020, he gave it back to me and I had all of. I think I published four books that year because I had all the material ready to go. He just wanted me to have a break. Like he loves this so much, I wish that I had trusted him more back then.
Speaker 2:So anyway, long story short, or long story long, sorry. I told him so excited about this month that I just can't stop talking. So I sent my message, my brand, from spoken from the heart to Jesus in the everyday, because when I would stand outside with my kids as we waited for the school bus, we would see sunbeams, and we always called them Jesus hugs, and I would always remind my kids I'm like these are hugs from Jesus. So we need to be watching and looking for Jesus hugs all day long. How, what is God doing? What blessings is he bringing into our life? That said Jesus hugs from him, and so that kind of started the whole Jesus in the everyday. It's watching and looking for Jesus and how he loves us and he's so personal and so individual that he just gives us these hugs, these blessings, every single day and they're normal, ordinary things that we would miss if we weren't paying attention. So that's how the membership came about. That's how I started the podcast with you in January of 2021.
Speaker 2:Then last year, in June of 2022, god told me to start a YouTube channel, so I did, and that is also called Jesus in the Everyday and that's just five to 10 minutes of encouragement, nothing big. It was really hard for me to step out into that platform because I don't know, I just I don't like putting myself out there on video and all of that good stuff. But I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoy taping those Like it is just so much fun. Not as much fun as bantering back and forth with you, but it's just fun sharing my heart and just little things that God shows me throughout the day and then yeah. So then I have some Bible studies that God has allowed me to write. There's another one that I can't wait to write. There's a collaboration that you and I are talking about that we can't tell anybody yet.
Speaker 2:And then and I have a book that's kind of about your identity in Christ and just living a biblical lifestyle every day. It's written on paper, like the outline is written on paper, and I just can't wait to find the time to actually write the book itself. This last summer I was able to. I now have Sister in Christ Daily Journal and a Brother in Christ Daily Journal, so that if you are a couple or if you're in a Bible study with men and women, just because the Bible study Sisters in Christ is titled Sisters in Christ, men can break off in the group and do it as Brothers in Christ.
Speaker 2:I want to encourage that because don't be discouraged or swayed away or deterred by the Sisters in Christ title, because the truths that God puts in there or put in there apply to men too. So, yeah, so Jesus in the Everyday is my ministry title now, and I still have a heart for parenting, marriage and family. It's just, it's the way God made me. He created me out of the womb with a baby on my hip, and I'm going to be walking around in heaven with a baby on my hip too. I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:Because your heart is truly with babies. You, for those of you who have listened to the podcast for a while now, you know that she just loves, loves, loves babies.
Speaker 2:So I can't believe you. Yeah, I guess Mom talking about my ministry today. Today we get to talk about Paper Dolls, lydia. So I want to just give a brief overview.
Speaker 2:Kara has the Habakkik series and the very first book in the Habakkik series is just called Paper Dolls and it introduces all of the different Paper Dolls and in three weeks we're going to be breaking all of that down and talking about the series in general. So I'm not going to go into big detail on that now. But so the first book was Paper Dolls and it introduces everybody which I I know I've said this before, kara, but I can never say it enough I love, love, love, love, love that you started your series that way. It got me so involved and so connected to all of them that it just made me hunger even more to want to read the individual stories about each of them. So book two is Paper Dolls Kite. We've talked about that one on the podcast before. So if you want to hear more just solely about Kite, I highly encourage you to go back and find that one in the backlog or whatever that's called. Then we also have talked about Paper Dolls Priscilla. Go back and look for that one and listen to that one if you haven't listened to it before.
Speaker 2:And then today we get to talk about Paper Dolls Lydia, and I am so excited because, like I said, I love your writing, I love how I just connect with your characters and I hate calling them characters because they feel more like friends. So I connect with my friends and I have to admit I was a little. I tend to stay away from books that deal with illness, especially cancer, anything that has to do with cancer. I'm a no thank you friend, I'll pass. And so I was a little hesitant to read Paper Dolls Lydia because I just don't like reading it, like that's the one my arch nemesis. I just don't like reading about that. And so I have to tell you first off, she's healed when we start this story, and I don't think that that's a spoiler, because I'm pretty sure that we found that out ahead of time, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Paper Dolls right, so it's a new book, an original book, yeah, so that helps, but I think the thing that I love the most about Lydia is how authentic you write her. Prayer warrior Nys authenticity I'm not exactly sure how you would describe it, but that is like the essence of Lydia and it is so genuine and so real the way that you write it. It is as though, literally, I feel like I'm just having a conversation with you because you are such a prayer warrior and you just let that flow through Lydia. It is so awesome. So what? My first question to you is what was your favorite part about writing Lydia and we're I'm doing general questions on purpose so that we don't have any spoilers but what was your favorite part or what surprised you the most about Lydia as you were writing her Like? What aspect of her personality surprised you the most?
Speaker 1:Well, first I want to preface my answer with something that happened maybe a decade or so ago. I was in a local Christian library and that part was in their name pretty much. I think it was something, something, something Christian library. I don't think they're around anymore or they may have relocated, but anyway. But I was so excited, right, because it was in a you know city near me. It was, you know, it wasn't that great big of one, but it was just, you know, had Christian content in it only.
Speaker 1:And, as a Christian novelist, that really interested me. And I remember going in and I was excited and I had my son with me at the time, who was much younger, maybe he was 12 or so and I remember going in there and I was like, hey, you know, hi, you know me and the the person there who happened to be one of the owners, I believe I think it was a husband and wife who owned it and we got into a nice little chat, you know, and everything else. And then there were some books there, like from Coryton Boom and you know and things like that non-fictional books and resources that had really caught my attention. And then I remember asking him I said, hey, so where's your Christian fiction section at? You know I like to read novels or whatnot. And I just kind of remember his demeanor changed, you know, almost as if he just kind of looked down. I mean he's like oh no, we don't share any, we don't have anything like that here, we don't believe in Christian fiction or something like that. And I just remember feeling so first I was kind of surprised because I'm like Are you serious? You're calling your, you know one, you're a Christian library, but you know it's part of the title, but you don't have like Christian fiction books that obviously you would think would be part of the library.
Speaker 1:And then to it was his tone and the look that made me that. It almost made me feel like, oh, I should be ashamed, we've been asking about such a thing. And but I got to thinking like, oh, my dear man, you just don't know how wrong you are. There is a place for Christian fiction not only in this library but in the world, because everyone, every living human being, has a story to tell, and all Christian fiction is is just fictional characters telling those stories. That's all it is.
Speaker 1:And if those stories help bring people closer to God, then it's a win-win, you know, because they get to read, they get to be entertained and then they get to fall in love with the characters. And not only that, they're introduced to the Lord, you know, and prayerfully. If they didn't know him, they will by the end of the book. And that has always been a prayer, my prayer for all of, for, for all. Anything I write, I don't care if it's an email or text message, you know. But that you know, people will know, and I just remember, even after all these years later, you know that that just look of this day and you know, and everything that he said, you know he did that and I'm like I wonder how many people feel that way.
Speaker 1:And it was just such a shock to my system because that was my first time ever, you know, encountering someone who just had that, that worldview of Christian fiction, and I'm like, but that's what I was called to write and I am so glad that the Lord did not let me get sidelined or sidetracked by my conversation, you know, with him, because he has opened up a world to me that I never would have even known. And that is exactly what Lydia is. She is a fictional character with real life issues, real life stories, just like you, just like me, just like all of our listeners out there. Now, obviously, in a paper dowel series we're talking about women, you know. But as you read the book, you also see that me and play a very significant role in each and every last one of their lives. So, even though it's called paper dolls, you know the me and play a significant role in there. So I really believe me and will enjoy reading them too. Lydia is those. She was one of the five dolls in paper dolls book one. There's five dolls there's kite Tanner, there's Priscilla Martin, there's Lydia Dooley, there's Eve Stanton and Mary Rabin, and each one of them has their own story right, as told as in paper dolls. And Lydia's story, like Sherry mentioned before, was that she had been recently in book one, she had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor and she was because she had a strong relationship with the Lord and she was at peace, whether the Lord healed her or if she died. But the one thing she wanted to do before she whichever way the Lord saw fit was reunite with her daughter for so many years, after so many years, after they had not spoken, after 17 years. And so where her story ends in paper dolls none of them in paper dolls, for those of you guys who haven't read it none of those end with cliffhangers. Three dolls story in there kite, Lydia, priscilla, mary Eve they all end appropriately. There's no cliffhangers. You know, be like, oh, you know, now I got to pick up this book to read it. But for those who, after they read book one, they're like I really want to hear more of kite story. Then that is why book two, book three, book four and book five follows, because it picks up where their stories in paper dolls end. And that is what happens with Lydia.
Speaker 1:And she the heart of Lydia is a prayer warrior. She hasn't always been that way. She had a very difficult past, which is one of the reasons she had an issue with one of her youngest daughters of not speaking with her for so long and but she has the heart of a prayer warrior and she is one of those people who would get down her knees in a minute and she will pray, pray, pray, pray, pray through. Well, one of my favorite parts in writing Lydia to finally answer your question sharing is one of my favorite parts in writing Lydia was that, even though she's a strong prayer warrior, even though she has a really, really strong faith and for those of you who, as soon as you open up and you read chapter one, you see that faith displayed when she is in a very scary situation.
Speaker 1:So when you open up the book, you just automatically know where Lydia stands on certain things, even when it may cost her her life, and so you immediately see that in chapter one she is definitely a prayer warrior. But one of my favorite parts about writing her was that, even though she's very strong prayer warrior, even though she has very strong faith, she's still a paper doll in a way, where she's fragile. She still has things in her life that still upset her, that still gut her from the inside out, that she still struggled with, and so I wanted to make her very lifelike, like those who can storm the gates of heaven with their prayers but still be affected by things that happen on this earth. They're just not defeated by them because they go back to storming the gates of heaven right with their prayers. And I think that was the best part for me of writing her was making her very human and yet very close to the Lord and spiritual at the same time.
Speaker 2:You know, that kind of reminds me of Elijah in the Bible, and not just that.
Speaker 2:But I don't know how many people I have heard tell me that you know, after, like sharing their testimony in church or after preaching or after doing some type of a ministry that the next day, not only are they worn out, but they are hit on all sides with spiritual warfare.
Speaker 2:And I remember a boss of mine, actually, and a good friend, told me because I had done the same thing last fall, or maybe it was no last spring 2022 spring I had been invited to do a teaching and the weekend after so that was a Thursday night, the weekend after I ended up in the emergency room and when I told him about it, he goes share that retaliation and backlash, so you need to pray against that. And he taught me spiritual warfare techniques. And so listening to you describe Lydia reminds me of that. And then, as I'm reminded of Elijah and the story in the Bible where he needed to be ministered to and taken care of by the angels because he was ready to kill himself after he had that whole big was it Mount Carmel, or am I getting two names mixed up?
Speaker 2:I'm trying to say yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, anyway, right, and I think I think it was Mount Carmel. Don't quote me on that, but I think it was. But go ahead.
Speaker 2:So it's for people who don't know Elijah's story. He was a prophet and was he was Elijah the one before him. I always get them mixed up, so did he have double the annoying team? I think he did so. Elijah was his mentor and he was also a prophet and Elijah. I know why God allowed them to have names so close together.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I think people close to the Bible story. Um cause, I'm always getting them mixed up. But anyway, elijah went to heaven and Elijah asked for a double anointing of what Elijah had. Well then, his big well he had. There were many miracles that he was a part of in the Bible, but the biggest miracle was with uh, what was her name? Was it Jezebel?
Speaker 1:or was it?
Speaker 2:different. So, queen Jezebel, um, so it hadn't rained for like three years. And he, no, I say, am I getting two stories mixed? Anyway, okay, forget about the rain.
Speaker 2:You have to have to read the story because I don't want to mess anything up or say it wrong, but the part that I remember that's so significant is that he was on standoff, or having to stand off with these prophets of veil. There was a hundred of them, and he was so confident in the Lord performing a miracle and showing up that day that he, they had these two alters, and he kept taunting the hundred prophets of veil. They always a false God. Um, so they were. They were false God worshipers. And he's like you need to call on your God. I don't think he hears you. Is he asleep? Has he taken a nap? What's going on? He's not listening to you, is he? Well, there were these two alters that they had put um wood and so on and so forth on, and they were calling out to their false God to start this fire, um, in this altar or on this altar. Well, obviously nothing happened, because um false.
Speaker 2:gods are not alive, they can't do anything for us.
Speaker 2:And um. So he was taunting them and making fun of them and mocking them. And he, even then, before he, called on and prayed to the real God and said hey, would you, you know, show these people what you're made of? Basically, um, he poured water, not just over top the wood to make it damp, but he had so much water poured over the altar and in the gully around the altar that it was like a lake. And then he calls on God and he says Lord, please show your majesty, show your power, show your glory. And God not only started a fire, but he swallowed up all of that water and engulfed the whole thing. And it's a fascinating story and it's a true story.
Speaker 2:Well, when it was all over with um, the uh bailed, prophets all got put to death and um. Then Jezebel decided she was going to um uh, threaten his life, threaten Elijah's life and kill him. Well, even though he had just seen God perform such an amazing miracle in front of everybody, he got scared, he ran away, he said that he might as well kill himself. He turned suicidal and um, the angel came and they ministered to him and they said I'm honey. And they let him rest. And then God said all right, you've had your moment of rest, get up, let's go, you've got work to do.
Speaker 2:So I say all that to say that there are so many people that tell me when they get done doing works of the Lord that they get attacked by Satan. And Lydia is a prime example of what you just said. You made her realistic. You made her that she storms the gates of heaven, she um fights the gates of hell, pushes back the gates of hell, but yet she's human and she still gets attacked and she still gets tired and she still has those weaknesses. So, basically, I guess my really long response to you is what a great way of making her so realistic, like the people that I know and realize. So it's just amazing.
Speaker 1:And that's what I was striving for with the book of Lydia and she's book four in a series, like Sherry mentioned before, and was just released this past fall of 2023. So she should be, if she's available, in bookstores and on Amazoncom and probably like Walmart and Target and all those placescom as well, if not your local Walmart and Target. So she is the book, she is already out and so I know preferably a lot of listeners have already, you know, had a chance to read her and everything else. But to get back to the scripture that Sherry was just talking about, you can find that whole story about Elijah and Ahab and Jezebel. They kind of start and first Kings, first Kings, chapter 18. And if you start there, you could just kind of read the story through the reference that Sherry was just talking about. So again, that's first Kings, chapter 18 in the Old Testament. So for those of you who may not be familiar with it, you can go there and you can read that. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that, sherry, because it's so true.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people think that just because you're a preacher, pastor, minister, evangelist or things like that, that you know you have no sadness in life. You have no disappointments in life, that things people say and do you know, don't hurt you. The thing is, is that you cut every last one of them or we all bleed red. We're all human at the end of the day, and God has blessed us all with emotions, and so it's kind of like not what happens to you but how you respond to it. And for those of you you'll discover in Lydia's story, she's hit really, really hard with an accusation that will bring most people to their not to their knees in prayer, but to their knees in faint, literally, because it's such an assault, a devastating assault on her character and a person who she is, and it can. It takes wings and rumor story line you know going around and you know being spread, and and it's definitely one of those things that will make you, just you know, either so angry or so sad or make you not want to get up out of bed, and that is something that she had to deal with. You know, on her knees she's like, and she's very hurt by it. She's, you know, she's devastated by it, especially since this was a person she was trying to help, right, who spread these lies and rumors about her, and it's just it. She's heart, you know, her heart is wrenched for it and only that, the backlash from it and how it can go far and wide and how she deals with it. So it is definitely a.
Speaker 1:Her story is definitely about spiritual warfare and definitely how to tackle those fiery darts from the enemy when they're shot at you when you're trying to do just great things for the Lord and then all of a sudden it's like boom, the bottom is dropped out and you're like how am I going to deal with this? And it is definitely a story of spiritual warfare from that aspect. That's not only all about spiritual, uh, lydia's story. There is spiritual warfare there, but also it's a love story because if, uh, for those who have read um original paper dolls, lydia was the only one that did not have a love interest in her life.
Speaker 1:So it's like that definitely had to be addressed, as I, you know, continued the series. So I missed all this chaos and I missed all the turmoil. Um, and the, the the fiery doors is coming from the enemy. She meets someone, um, and it ends up being a very I I I don't know how to say this, sherry, without giving spoilers but so it's not just all spiritual warfare and everything like that is also a romantic story. But you know, love, newfound love, when you haven't had love in a very, very long time. I think I'm safe saying that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's one of the things that I absolutely love about your book is that you bring in all the different elements. You've got humor to break up the um, deep topics. You've got a suspense element where, um, I think men especially, but women too, will absolutely are, will be drawn to that part and keep the pages turning. And then you've got the romance, You've got the love you've got, you've got it all. And that, like I said, is one of the things, one of the many things that I absolutely love about your books, because isn't that what life is really all about? Well, we hope that life is about love. It isn't always, but but hey, we're writing fiction, so we're allowed to make it that way.
Speaker 2:But your books are they just really capture and um integrate all of those elements so flawlessly that it's they're page turners, like I absolutely love how God just helps you write in such a way that you're writing for everybody. You're writing for the people who love romance novels. You're writing for the people who love um suspense. You're writing for the people who love humor. You're writing for all of it, the people who, like me, that love women's fiction to where, like, I want to go deep. I want to go deep in my relationships in real life. I want to go deep in my relationships with my friends in books. So, um, yeah, you, just you nail it every single time and I absolutely love that about um, about your books. So, as we wrap up today about Lydia, what is, what is one thing about her as you were writing her that surprised you?
Speaker 1:What is the one thing that? Um, how starved she was for love, romantic love, I should say. How starved she was for love. Uh, for those of you who read uh book one, you understand um why she's been intentionally without, without being in a relationship for so long, and by far so long we're talking 20 plus years, um, but she was fine with that. She, you know, had been um, there was a renewed relationship with her daughters, her adult daughters, um, and just being about their near life and you know, and everything else, and so, and that brought her so much joy and fulfillment that she hadn't had before.
Speaker 1:But it wasn't until she um had the promise of meeting someone and it perhaps I'm not going to tell you guys that it turns out, you know, has a way of um um ending well, how she just didn't realize how much she missed that Um, it's like you know, like you don't know how much you miss it until it's there and you're like, wow, you know I, I did, okay, I was doing good, but this, this just reminds me of you know, um, how good it is to have. You know, possibly you know someone in your life, someone to share life with is the best way to put it, um. And so I think it kind of surprised me a little bit of how much she had missed that, how much she didn't know that she needed that Um, and how much she craved it, um, and until you receive it, you just don't know how much you like it, you know, want it, and you know, uh, or, or longing for it, um. So I guess that would be one of the things I think that surprised me most about her. And um, I love how you say that there is like a little bit of humor and suspense and romance and spiritual warfare all mixed in together and um, and I think it goes back to what you say it's life, right, it's life. You know.
Speaker 1:I think in one day, right, we could be crying over the grief of something or someone who we may have lost in life or who may be ill, and then someone later that day before noon, someone can make us laugh to our sides, hurt, um, and then later on we may have something that we're sitting on the edge of our seat about, you know, and then at the end of the day, you know, you may have someone to come and just put their arm around you and say it's okay, it's all going to be okay, and you just have that love, that quiet, tender, uh romantic love. So it's life, it's everyday life and that is what uh paper dolls and all of their individual stories is about is just life dealing with life and along the Christian journey. Yeah right, sure, yeah, the faith that helps you along that Christian journey, along with the help of a tight knit community and good friends.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think, as we're wrapping up, the thing that I want to highlight about Lydia, too, is I belong to quite a few reading groups.
Speaker 2:Christian reading groups on Facebook and they are always wanting older love stories, like stories of older carers who are falling in love, and this is a perfect book to fill that need, because it's so sweet and it's so tender and it's so natural that it fits all of the. It hits all the feels, as people say. And so if you are someone who is looking for a story about an older person not old but just older who still has a chance for love, still has a second chance for having a deep relationship with somebody, then Lydia's for you, then I highly highly recommend from that element of picking it up and reading.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're kind of written in an age of Sherry and I, so I'm not going to tell you guys our ages, but if you that's the age of Lydia, she's around our age. So whatever you guys may guess our ages to be, then that's when the time she's finding love. So sorry, I just wanted to just throw that out there, Sherry.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you did so I this isn't the last we're going to hear of Lydia. In two weeks, three, four weeks, the fourth week of January, we're going to talk about all of Kara's paper doll series. So we're going to talk about Lydia again then too. So never fear she'll come back. But until then, if you are interested in reading any or all of Kara's book, head over to her website, karrarhuntcom, K-A-R-A-R-H-U-N-Tcom, and not only will you find the links of how to buy her books, but you also will find resources on there, videos on there and just a chance to get to know Kara even better. So I highly, highly encourage you to head on over there. You can go to my website too, Sherry klawelcom, and you can find out the different things about my books and the YouTube video or channel and the Jesus and the Everyday Membership. We talked about those things. And then next week we're going to talk about book five in my series, the Redemption of Green Pine, Path to Grace, and yeah, we're going to hear just a little bit more about that and get to know that series. So we are so glad that you are here.
Speaker 2:If you need prayer or encouragement, head over and drop us an email at cheerapodcastcom. If you want to come to our celebration on Twitter live, Yay, yeah, also drop us an email and RSVP. Let us know that you're going to be there. I am so excited about that, Kara, I cannot believe that it's only like two weeks away now. That is so exciting. If you want to join the community our Facebook community it's cheer up podcast on Facebook Come join us over there, and I think that is pretty much all of it, except that I want to remind you to cheer up podcast centers around the verse John 1633. These things I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace In the world. You will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Speaker 2:Even our Christian fiction series, Kara, revolve around that verse that there is tribulation and trial that the characters go through, but they can have peace because Jesus is in the world.
Speaker 2:And I know that our characters and our friends are fiction, but, like you said, it's just real life situations, real life things through a fictional setting. Absolutely Sometimes that's the only Bible people will read, and by Bible I just mean it's the only way that they're going to be introduced to God's truth, to then wake up. Not wake them up, but then get them excited about reading the Bible and God's word for themselves. So, like you said, if that's what it takes, then I am all there, ready to do the inviting and bring the snacks. So we just have a heart for loving people and bringing people to Jesus and if God's going to use us as the vessel, and this is one of the ways that he wants to do it, I say bring it on because it is fun. So, on that note, have a great rest of your week and come back next week so we can continue in our celebration. Have a great week, everyone.