Moving Forward

29 Sep

Elaine Beachy Blog 0 0

My third book will soon be available for purchase!

The final steps in the publication of Biff and Becka’s Splendiferous Christmas have proven to be a source of consternation for me. So today, after more than a month of back and forth and trying to work with my publisher, I have decided to decline a costly re-submission of my book to have the design team use shades of gray for the illustration instead of darker charcoal tones. I don’t know why or how it happened they didn’t use the same gray shading on the illustrations for this book as they used on the first two I did with the same publisher. Especially since I had asked them to duplicate the font and overall book design they used on Biff and Becka’s Springtime Escapades, and Biff and Becka’s Stupendous Vacation, which turned out so great.

Disappointments happen. What to do about them? I could get angry and be in a bad mood toward those around me. I could let it diminish how I feel about myself as an author. I could write a scathing letter of complaint to the design team, print quality assessment, and customer service. It’s a matter of choice. How do I wish to respond when I feel helpless and frustrated?

I choose to think that: 1.) It’s not the end of the world; 2.) Books of all kinds contain mistakes; 3.) People (and printers) aren’t perfect; 4.) The message in my book is what’s the most important here. And that’s what I’m pleased with: my knowledge that I’ve honored the Lord Jesus in what I wrote, and that I believe it will bless children and parents. I believe in what I wrote; I believe in myself as an author with a gift and call of God on my life, and for that, I am honored and grateful. I have much for which to be thankful, and I choose to think on those things rather on things that irritate, irk, and annoy me.

When someone fails your expectations, isn’t it tempting to give them a piece of your mind? That’s when we need to choose the high ground and turn to the Word of God to find peace for the “pieces of our mind.” Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things.”

And then you need to forgive them. That’s the hardest part, because when you forgive someone, you release them from owing you anything anymore. Too-dark images in a book are much easier things to forgive than to forgive someone of killing your child, as the Amish did in the case of the Nickle Mines schoolhouse shooting, for example.

Forgetting what is behind, I press toward the goal of Christ-like character. And my new project: a cookbook!

Moving Forward

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