A Different Thanksgiving by Joy Avery Melville ~ Truth in Fiction Blog

This year our Thanksgiving ~ though different ~ Is STILL alive!

I write fiction, but never in my wildest story-building has God given me a story that would depict what 2020 has been to so very many individuals!

When God called me to write Contemporary Christian Women’s Fiction, I knew it meant I’d be writing stories of fictional journeys leading to joy… and my prayer is, that all that you’ve gone through, journeying through this maze of 2020, God has still given you the hope of joy.

November 14, 2019, my Christian Contemporary Women’s Fiction, Meant For Her released ~ The first chapter takes place on Thanksgiving Day and the heroine’s brother, Cam, expresses, in a prayer, all that he is thankful for after having been searching for his sister for weeks after her kidnapping. At the time, Candi wasn’t seeing all she had to be thankful for… in fact, she was contemplating all she’d gone through. Kidnapping, beatings, rapes… no, she saw the world as a trauma victim.

Candi realized she never would have survived had a man and his daughter not been out deer hunting, yet her PTSD kept her behind unyielding prison bars in her heart and mind. She didn’t have to keep her heart walled off… but it took the help of many to get her past it – GOD WAS HER ULTIMATE RESCUER!

How about you? When was the last time you sat and made a list of every single thing you have to be thankful for? What gives you a hope for the joy to come? (Share in the Comments below.)

Have you looked into a concordance of the Bible and looked at how many times the word THANKS is listed?

One of my all-time favorite challenges from Scripture is where Paul spoke to Thessalonians and told them, in spite of all they faced, he encouraged them to…

“Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:17 & 18 (NASB)

I realize this is the year of COVID 19 ~ it is stretching us with each shut-down, lock-in, and mask-wearing scenario… unlike one could have possibly imagined. I’m one of those ‘too-susceptible-to-be-around-people’ individuals. It’s been a trying year for me and for my husband, but God has sustained us… provided for us in ways we never thought possible, in spite of all the messiness.

Meant For Her is a fictional story of one woman’s journey to joy ~ like our own personal journeys, joy often comes after we’ve been through some form of sorrow, or hardship, or even a tragedy.

“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” ~ Psalm 30:5 (KJV)

Available in Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and Paperback formats

Joy Avery Melville’s heart’s desire is to be the author God has called her to be by sharing Him with readers in such a way they long to have a deeply committed personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord.
Fully intending to write Historical Romance–she didn’t want to deviate from that. God had different plans for that ‘call’ He’d made on her life back in 1967. A mere eighth grader at the time, she had no clue about the topics she’d be drawn to write about.
Surrendering to the genre God placed on her heart has given Joy new insight into the hearts and lives of those who too often hurt in silence.
The settings of Joy’s books are near where she lives in Schoolcraft, Michigan with her husband of 47 years and their 23 month-old Yorkie, Is-A-Bella Bindi, (Is-a-beautiful little girl) who thinks she’s a much larger breed with tomboy tendencies.

Joy loves to hear from readers.

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