Have you got certain expectations for how your Christmas will look this year? How about plans for 2022? I think we’re all hoping that next year will see some of the challenges of the past couple of years fade as we grasp for a greater sense of normality. But what if—heaven forbid—that doesn’t happen?
Dealing with unmet expectations can be a hard, hard thing, with the potential to seep into our heart, soul, our identity. This year my family is holding Christmas loosely, as my sister is flying into Australia (where I live) on Christmas Eve, which means she (and my parents where she’s staying) will need to isolate over Christmas Day due to Covid travel restrictions. We’ll celebrate Christmas with my family a few days late which will be great, even if it’s not quite the same.
I enjoyed exploring something of expectations in my upcoming novel The Breakup Project, which sees Bree, the romance-loving twin sister of a famous athlete, struggle with other people’s expectations which leads her to making a new year’s resolution to not date any athlete in her attempt to be seen as herself. This leads to all sorts of fun and misunderstanding when she becomes aware (at Valentines’ Day, no less!) of the regard Mike, her brother’s best friend, has long had for her.
For Mike, losing his dream girl means tempering his expectations, and leaning on God as he gives Him his future plans. His focus on others, via a mission’s trip to the Philippines, sees him gain a bigger perspective while also working healing in his heart – and allowing Bree time to deal with her own expectations, as she stubbornly clings to her resolution, even as it becomes aware just who her Mr. Right might be.
Whatever this Christmas looks like for you, we can take great comfort in knowing our God is for us, not against us, and that He is working all things out for our good, just as it says in the Bible. I pray we will find hope and healing and joy in this season and can enter 2022 with the best resolution and expectation of all: trust God and expect to see Him work good in and through our lives.
Happy Christmas, from my part of the world to you!
Carolyn Miller
New Year. New Resolution. New Romance?
What happens when the best-laid plans break a friendship?
As the twin sister of hockey’s hottest forward, romance-loving Bree Karlsson is used to being ignored, leading to a New Year’s resolution to not date any athlete in her attempt to find Mr. Right. But what happens when the man who might prove to be her personal Mr. Darcy is her brother’s hockey-playing best friend?
Mike Vaughan might be happy playing in Boston, but he’d be even happier if Bree could one day see him as more than a good friend. He agrees to help Bree with a special project in the hope she’ll finally see him as something more. But when a misunderstanding ends in a Valentine’s Day disaster, Bree realizes that her breakup project may have broken her friendship with Mike in two. Can she ever redeem her mistake?
This friends-to-more romance has plenty of heart, humor, and swoon-worthy kisses in this first book of the Original Six, a sweet, slightly sporty Christian contemporary romance series.
Purchase here: Amazon
Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. Together with her husband she has pastored a church for ten years and worked as a public high school English and Learning and Support teacher.
A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and LM Montgomery, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her contemporary romance series includes the Original Six hockey romance series, and the Independence Islands series, and her historical series include the Regency Brides and Regency Wallflowers series.
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