Be joyful always (I Thess. 5:16)

…let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
(Heb. 10:25)

I’m wondering…

How many of you were born into quiet, somewhat nondescript families—kind of your average middle-of-America folk who keep to themselves and don’t blab their business to the world?

Or were you raised in a topsy-turvy, loud, and in-your-face family?

I ask, because I was born into that quiet, in-the-background kind of family, where no one raised their voice much and where if you wanted to talk with someone, you went into the room in the house where that person was and you talked with them—and your conversation never left the room.

But I married into a fine family who lived life at the TOP OF THEIR VOICES, had no qualms about who heard what, and if they wanted to talk with you, they hollered from wherever they were until you answered from wherever you were. Whole conversations might be carried on from as much as a block away and they never thought a thing about it.

The two lifestyles were as different as Leave It to Beaver and the Danny Thomas Show (for those of you who remember the old sitcoms).

At first I found it a bit unnerving. For months after Scott and I married, I sat wide-eyed in the corner at Johnston family gatherings while life was SHOUTED all around me.

AND I had to learn to play pinochle. At MY house, card games were dignified and often quiet, unless someone exclaimed upon playing a winning card. BUT I SOON LEARNED that Johnston-pinochle was ear-splitting, highly competitive, and sometimes nearly combative.

So you see that it was through marriage that I came to live life OUT LOUD, or at least crack open my little introverted shell a good bit. And how glad I am that God led me to a wonderful, outgoing Christian man!

After more than 40 years, I came to see a new value in LIVES LIVED OUT LOUD—they provide great material for writers! And I began to write. In many ways, Scott and I are Andy and Abbey from the Cherish novel series. But in other ways, Andy and Abbey diverge into everyman and everywoman in my fictional novels of God at work in hearts.

It is my sincerest hope that you relate to Andy and Abbey and all of the other colorful characters that inhabit the fictional town of Cherish: a good town with a good church and lots of good people who undergo transformation and redemption in Christ. I hope that as you read, you find yourself walking the friendly rural streets, eating at the Star Diner, and sitting in the First Baptist pews on Sunday mornings.

Tell me, again…do YOU come from a quiet family or an out-loud family? I’ve love to hear!

P.S. The photo is one of my favorites. My outgoing husband has always made life fun for everyone, especially me! We have had a joyful ministry together in the Lord.