I love writing, y’all. I am so excited to see the stories that God gives me to pour forth into the world. It is my hope that He will equip me to make them beautiful, theological, and accessible, that people may know Him better through the words they read.
A Time to Find
A few weeks ago, I decided it was high time that I clean out my wardrobe. It had been months since I did so, and it needed it badly, especially the top shelf. Everything in there was a jumbled up mess of medicines and instruction manuals, loose papers, clothing, and batteries. I pulled everything out and set (or tossed) it on the floor at my feet. As I flailed through the shelf’s contents…
Best 2023 Reads and 2024 Predictions!
I love books, and I love reading. Check out a list of my favorite books from 2023, the 2023 books I predicted I would most like in 2022, and books I’m looking forward to reading in 2024, here!
Beauty is a Process
Beauty is a process. And nothing is going to be fully and completely beautiful when it is unfinished. Even as its growing, even as its becoming more and more beautiful, it isn’t the finished product yet. Sometimes as something, whether its a story, a house, or me, is growing, it gets uglier before it gets better. But that’s okay, because the ugly isn’t the end product.
Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Hint of the Gospel
Something tells me that Lucy Maud Montgomery knew more about the Gospel than she realized she knew. Deep in her heart, she had some idea that God was not what the religion of the time said He was. You look at the themes of her books, and see that she had a yearning for something better. The actions of her characters speak louder than their words.
The Bookshop by the Beach
The bookstore was a vivid menagerie of color, each of the mismatched shelves brimming with books in every shade you could imagine. One main aisle stretched down the middle of the shop with little alcoves of books branching off from either side. As I headed toward the back…
Warriors of Another World
It’s so easy to have a passive attitude about the evil going on around us. Subconsciously, we dismiss the fight on this earth because this isn’t our home. This attitude could not be more wrong. We are called to be salt and light to the earth.
Resting
I do believe that rest comes in many forms. It looks different for many people. Ultimately, however, there is one denominator that we cannot forget: God is the only one who can give us rest…
Where Homes Converge: Brokenness, BUT GOD
Does it ever break your heart? Sin tints and distorts everything that once was whole. There are few things that it has not touched. But God does not let the story end there…
Where Homes Converge: Beauty
All beautiful things reflect the Beauty of God. All beautiful things should point us toward heaven. Toward the day when we will see perfect Beauty made manifest as we enter Zion.
Even the ugly and beautiful things mixed can remind us of our Creator’s beauty. An exquisite…
Where Homes Converge: Service
But Jesus had come to set straight the mindset of the world. Just like He showed the first to be last, He demonstrated how the greatest were to humble themselves in service. He was displaying to the world what had been intended for it when God first created it, a place where heartfelt love and genuine kindness triumph over sin and selfishness.
Where Homes Converge: Worship
This physical witness to the hope that is in us continues far, far outside the church building. Worship happens at home, within families. It also happens individually, even as we step out into the world and reflect our faith to the world around us by living it out. In every situation where this happens, it’s more than a person or a group of people coming to God and hearing from Him: it’s the Kingdom of God coming so close that the rest of the world can see, hear, and touch it.
Where Homes Converge: New Stories
Narnia was my first safe haven. I remember grabbing The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe off of our living room bookshelf and approaching my mom with the question, “Can I read this?” When she said yes, I snuggled up in my bed with my stuffed kitten in the middle of the day. As I opened the book, a feeling of excitement ran through me. By the time I reached the ending line…
Where Homes Converge: Tabernacle
As Andrew Lazo, a C.S. Lewis scholar who specializes in Till We Have Faces, notes, Joy is a signpost to Love. To use the many analogies often referenced in regard to sehnsucht: the longing leads to the Longed For, the blue flowers lead to the Gardener, the mountain leads to the God of the Mountain, the creation leads to the Creator. When you already have the One it all leads to, those signposts on the road to the Destination often just become signposts.
Where Homes Converge: Music
I love listening to music – I love sitting with my headphones on, eyes closed, just absorbing it. This is kind of a new thing for me. Six or seven years ago, I could have cared less. I mean, I didn’t dislike music at all, I just never really sat down with the sole purpose of listening to an album. Totally different story these days….
Where Homes Converge: Reunion
I don’t believe for a moment that it’s wrong to long to see everyone we love in heaven. It will be the one place where the people I wish could all be together finally will be. There will be a joy of reunion when I see my great-grandparents for the first time since I was little and when I finally meet my brother. But again, Lewis expresses it the best in The Last Battle. Along with the excitement of reunion will be the most overwhelming joy of all when I see Jesus for the first time.
Where Homes Converge: Grief
Grief comes when you lose something you loved. You can grieve over all manner of things: relationships, seasons of life, projects gone that you poured yourself into. You can grieve your childhood or your innocence or the conclusion of a beautiful story. But grief in a Christian context also has an element of yearning to it. One day, our grieving tears will be wiped away by the hand of Jesus.
Where Homes Converge: Pain
The world is broken by pain. On the days when we experience it first hand, we long for it to be over. In this life, in this moment. Gone. And we look forward to the next life, when pain will not exist…
Where Homes Converge: Light
Light promises us hope. Even when there is darkness all around us, light is somewhere. There is a lantern burning in the darkest of nights, stars shining against blackest skies. Just like there is always hope. And no matter how long the night may last, we’re always promised morning. Just like no matter how long the sin in this world persists, believers are promised perfection and healing in heaven.
Where Homes Converge: Stories
Stories are the stuff that reality is made of. They show us truth and point us toward the greatest Story ever told…
Where Homes Converge: Summer Series!
Has it ever occurred to you that it is possible to have two earthly homes? One is the house where you live. Where your nuclear family lives. And the second is the one that forms when you are surrounded by your people. Your friends that make up a second family, tied not with blood but with connection at the heart level. A family that can be just as strongly bonded together as your family. So that when you’re with these people, no matter where, you are home?
Pouring Yourself Into Your Writing
Pouring yourself into your writing is something every writer aspires to do. To be true and real and vulnerable. But how to do it? Where does that desire translate from the heart, to the page?
How to Write a Bad Book
You pick up a book, expecting to enjoy the afternoon immersed in a good story. You are excited by the blurb, eager to learn more about the plot for yourself. You begin to read, and something is wrong. The book is horrible. But why?
Historical Fiction vs Fantasy
Historical fiction and fantasy are known for being two very different genres. But besides the obvious content variations, why aren’t the genres more similar? While historical fiction requires…
Power of the Ocean
Unparalleled by any other part of creation, the ocean is the most powerful and all-consuming thing on earth. But who created the ocean? Who controls it?
Book Review! Willa and the Whale
Ok. You know those new books? Those books where the characters actually have smartphones and are worried about things like boys and stepsiblings and wearing more makeup than the cosmetologists at Belk? The books that as a rule, I don’t read or like?
I broke my rule!
Top Fantasy Books
I recently received a request for fantasy book recommendations. As a writer whose prefered genre is fantasy, why shouldn’t I have some amazing fantasy books up my sleeve? As I scrolled through my 2022 book list, however, I was surprised. There were a few good fantasy books in there, but not many. The real gems…
The Best Storyteller and the Best Story Idea
Who’s writing your story? Not your WIP, but your life story? And how many ideas are you contributing to the greatest Storyteller?
Peace With Skye Peterson
Ever been to a Skye Peterson concert, or listened to her music? I’m telling you, she’s amazing!
The Best Kind of Education
What is true education? Many would say the memorization of fact or the acquirement of knowledge constitutes a good education. While this is true, I would argue that the pursuit of Truth stands above all of these goals.
In Defense of Princess Buttercup (Passivity or Patience?)
Last summer I got together several times with a few of my closest friends. We talked about life, work, and driving, ate my friend’s mom’s incredible chocolate chip cookies, and watched The Princess Bride. It was only my second time watching it, and as usual my brain began analyzing as the end credits rolled across…
Book Review! The Doctor’s Sweetheart
I recently finished The Doctor’s Sweetheart, an anthology of short stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery. In this post, I share my thoughts and revelations from the book.
Best 2022 Reads and 2023 Predictions!
I am most definitely a book nerd. Read a list of my favorite books from 2022 and books I’m looking forward to in 2023 here!
Christmas Hope
I haven’t posted in a while. And there’s a reason, actually. Someone very close to me is in the hospital and things don’t look too hopeful. It affected our Christmas, so only my immediate family was able to celebrate together. Very different from the kind of holiday I’ve known my whole life. So I decided…
I’ve Been Interviewed!
Yes, you read the title correctly! I recently experienced my first interview! Abby, a blogging and writing friend of mine, invited me to come do an interview on the Young Writers series she’s featuring on her blog, Lady Bluebird. I was ecstatic to do so and very grateful to have the opportunity. I had so…
Book Review! Angel on the Square
Angel on the Square by Gloria Whelan isn’t just your normal historical fiction info dump. Read more of my amazing experience with this fabulous book!
My Experience with NaNoWriMo 2022
For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s a time when writers and authors all over the world spend time writing as much as they can. Typically, people participating in NaNoWriMo (or Nano for short) finish the first rough draft of a novel during the month of November….
Bo the Hamster and Thankfulness
My sister got a hamster for her birthday. I know. Help. From the beginning, I was opposed to it. A hamster? Like the kind that runs on a wheel all night long and keeps everyone in the house awake? The kind that STINKS? The kind that can supposedly flatten its body, escape through the slats…
Feathered Fancies
Have you ever heard the poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” by Emily Dickinson? The first stanza is very popular, but the other two are not so widely known. Hope is the thing with feathers –That perches in the soul –And sings the tune without the words –And never stops – at all –…
Spicy Pumpkin Cookies
I just want to say that when I post recipes on this blog, I will not write a short novel prior to presenting the recipe. 😂 Suffice to say that these cookies are probably the best pumpkin flavored thing I have ever made. (And I have an excellent pumpkin muffin recipe.) They’re easy and so…
Clouds Are Like Change
I love watching clouds. Seeing the giant, puffy masses of cottony water vapor sprawl across the sky makes me feel happy. I have been known to spend entire trips to the pool floating on my back staring at the sky. (And yes, I took the picture above.) If I’m having a rough day, simply seeing those…
My Writing Journey (Among Other Things)
Greetings, friends, and welcome to Ella’s Tea Table. I am so very excited to finally start this blog after nearly a year of planning, writing, and dreaming. I am extremely thankful to all the friends who advised me about software, helped me brainstorm ideas, or just encouraged me like crazy. Y’all are amazing! So that…