It was around 1942, and World War II raged on. Gasoline, sugar, meat, shoes, and other products were rationed. Few toys for children were being manufactured, and rubber products and nylon stockings were not available at all.

I dreamed about owning a rubber ball and a yellow, rubber balloon on a string.

We lived near the six points shopping area and attended Church of the Good Shepherd every Sunday morning, and since gasoline was rationed, we made Sunday a special day. We drove downtown to church in the family car or caught a bus at Six Points. After church, we had a fish dinner at a café on the bay, went to an afternoon movie downtown— either the Ritz or the Center Theater, and came home.

I remember how big and fancy-looking Good Shepherd was compared to my little wooden Church of the Epiphany. The altar and choir area was set apart from the rest of the church building by a filigreed partition made of black iron that you could see through. Half the choir sat on one side of the altar, and the other half sat facing them with an aisle down the center going up to the altar. The podium where the pastor stood when giving his weekly sermons was on the congregation side of that see-through partition.

I never understood a word the pastor said in those sermons. He used big words that I didn’t know the meaning of at that time.

During the sermon, I would start on the far left side of that black iron filigree, and slowly, I would allow my eyes to travel over every inch of it. When I finally got to the far right of the partition, the sermon would be over.

I knew the pastor was saying something important, but I had no idea what he was talking about. However, I prayed during or after my slow inspection of the black filigree. I remember telling God that though I didn’t understand what the pastor was saying, someday I would understand, and that prayer was answered because today I understand sermons given by pastors.

God is good.

When I was in the fourth grade we moved back to Kingsville and attended Church of the Epiphany again. One of the things I remember most about services in that little church was that the Hebrew blessing, found in the Book of Numbers chapter six and verses 23 to 27, was given often—perhaps every Sunday. At the time, I knew it was important. Now, I know just how important it is to hear that blessing, and I try to put my hands on the heads of my loved ones and friends often while saying that blessing aloud. I heard that the Rabbis say when you bless someone using the blessing in Numbers chapter six, God is blessing you, too.

Here it is:

May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

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You can learn more about me and my writing at my website: Molly Noble Bull and Lillie’s recent interview with me.

I have a new book out that I wrote with four other published novelists. The book is titled The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities by Ginny Aiken, Margaret Daley, Jane Myers Perrine, Ruth Scofield and me, Molly Noble Bull.

Yep, I’m dyslexic.

The book tells about growing up in Kingsville with a learning disability and overcoming, but only with God’s help.

If you might be interested in reading The Overcomers and/or telling others about it, click below. The Overcomers is the book with the yellow cover and available in paperback and as an e-book.

Thanks to Christopher at Technology Bloggers for nominating me to participate in the My 7 Links Challenge

Several years ago, challenges (or “memes”) were quite popular in the blogosphere. However, their popularity has declined, and this is the first one I’ve been invited to participate in for a long time. I like this one because it gave me a chance to look back through my archives and select a few posts from the past to bring to the attention of my newer readers. Selecting only seven posts out of 1132 posts over the past five and a half years proved to be a real challenge, and in some cases I couldn’t narrow it down to one. Here are my choices.

My Most Beautiful Post

Happy 44th Anniversary to Us is a loving tribute to a beautiful marriage and my special husband.

My Most Popular Post

Thanks to the power of StumbleUpon, Creating Fictional Characters—Part 4: Fleshing Out Characters with Tags, Traits, and Relationships has had more than 147,000 views, about ten times as many as any other post. Strangely, this is part of a series, and while some of the other posts in the series are among my top ten popular posts, none has anywhere near this many views.

My Most Controversial Post

I don’t generally write controversial posts, but one post generated such a lively discussion that I wrote a second post about it, which generated even more opinionated conversation. The first post, A Chuckle from Spam, generated 67 comments (including my responses), and the follow-on post, There’s Always a Choice, generated 70 comments.

My Most Helpful Post

I wrote Tips and Tricks: How to Write, Send, Reply, and Forward E-mail for two writing challenges: Tips and Tricks and How-To. When I wrote it, I considered the advice so basic that the post might not be appropriate for the challenges. However, as basic as the advice is, a lot of people apparently need it. The post has generated nearly 4500 views and 125 comments.

A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

There’s absolutely no explanation for the fact that the fifth most popular post on my blog is two sentences wishing my readers Happy Valentine’s Day. I’m not only surprised; I’m totally perplexed.

Until StumbleUpon moved another post into first place, How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates was  my popular post. It’s now #2 in my popular posts, and the post is #2 in Google for the search terms “freelance editing rates.” What is so surprising about this is that the post refers to a chart of average rates on the website of the Editorial Freelancers Association, but my posts ranks higher in Google and has generated a lot of traffic.

A Post That Didn’t Get the Attention I Feel It Deserved

One time when I was feeling discouraged that I wasn’t doing great things, I had an epiphany and wrote Catalyst: God’s Tool. I suspect many other people can benefit from my epiphany because most of us often fail to recognize what we are accomplishing.

A related post, You May Never Know the Impact You Have, also didn’t get much attention.  Both of these posts were written in my first year of blogging, when I had very few readers.

The Post I’m Most Proud Of

Choosing one post I’m most proud of is impossible, so I’ll select one that is close to my heart. A Different … and Special … Family Vacation won the Family Vacation Writing Project at Babylune, but the reason it means so much to me is that it describes a favorite family vacation—the last with my father before Alzheimer’s disease stole his ability to enjoy vacations and remember the people he loved. 

The second part of the challenge is to nominate up to five other bloggers to share their 7 links.

• David Bowles, Westward Sagas, a client, friend, historical author, and blogger who knows all kinds of Americana trivia
• Dominique, 4Walls and a View, inspiring blogger who writes about the challenges of living with chronic disease
• Dawn, Dawn Colclasure’s Blog, prolific author of adult nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature
• Laura Spencer, Writing Thoughts, a freelance writer and blogger who has some great posts in her archives

I’m going to stop at four nominations, so if you would like a nomination, leave a comment.

I know the people I nominated, if they choose to participate, will provide links to some outstanding posts in their archives.

• Books, periodicals, DVD’s, and other materials used for research
• Any type of entertainment directly related to your research or writing (golfing for a golf piece, seeing a movie to review it, etc.)
• Magazine subscriptions
• Blog expenses
• Memberships to clubs and affiliations related to your business
• Internet access fees
• Equipment (digital camera, web camera, computer, flash drives, printer and ink, other computer equipment, etc.)
• Office supplies (paper, pens, paperclips, etc.)
• Office furniture (To be used only for business)
• Business phone line used just for business (Always remember to keep your business and personal expenses separate.)
• Computer software (for your business and for your taxes/accounting)
• Business cards and other stationery
• Home office expenses (Deduct a part of your rent or home payment for your home office. Also, include water, insurance, heating bills, etc. in the deduction.)
• Advertising costs
• Travel and hotel expenses on business trips
• Health insurance if you are self-employed
• PayPal fees
• Annual fees on a business credit card (Yet another way to keep your business and personal expenses separate. Just make sure you are using this card only for business expenses.)
• Business mentor (Some of these services are paid and some are not. If they do require a fee, you can deduct it.)
• Clothing (You can’t deduct everything, but if you need to make sure you look nice for a client, you can deduct the cost of a nice suit or dress. Just don’t try to buy something really expensive and unnecessary expecting to deduct the cost later.)
• Donations to a charity or other charity work (This one can be tricky, so make sure you check out the rules before you deduct.)

While all of these deductions may seem great, it is very important that you don’t try to abuse the system. You should always assume that the IRS already knows everything about you, so you should never report something that shouldn’t be reported. For example, you should not try to report a Rolex watch because you want to impress your clients. This is not necessary and could cause suspicion with the IRS. You should also make sure to disclose all of the information that you are supposed to disclose. In order to do this, you will need to keep all of your receipts handy and organized to prove the necessity of these deductions.

About the Author

Vanessa Lang is an author who writes guest posts on the topics of business, marketing, credit cards, and personal finance. Additionally, she works for a website that focuses on educating readers about factors to consider before getting a payday loan.

A Tale of Two Missions with Juan Williams dramatically demonstrates that when it comes to education, freedom always works.

This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. ~ Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (NIV)

On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court chose death and made abortion legal in the United States.

Since that day, nearly 55 million children created by God in His image have been murdered before ever being given a chance at life.

This joyous story of a reunion of a birth mother with her daughter conceived in rape and given up for adoption is unlikely to happen today. Children conceived in rape are routinely aborted, as if the children should be punished for the crimes of their fathers.

Added 1/23/12: I learned about a pro-life advocate who herself was conceived in rape. Rebecca Kiessling has a dramatic story to tell that changes hearts and minds about exceptions to abortion.

Through the years, I have written a number of posts about abortion and the sanctity of life, especially on the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that made the lives of unborn children less valuable under the law than the convenience of their mothers. Here are links to some of them:

• Absolute Truth vs Personal Opinion
• Abortion: Legalized Murder
• A Thirty-Six Year Tragedy
• The Most Basic Human Right: Life
• Slavery and Abortion – Moral Relatives
• The Case Against Abortion

O Lord Jesus Christ, who dost embrace children with the arms of thy mercy, and dost make them living members of thy Church; protect unborn children from being murdered in the womb; turn the hearts of lawmakers and people to end the evil abomination of abortion; and allow every child created by thee to fulfill thy plan for their life; through thy merits, O merciful Saviour, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest one God, world without end. Amen. (adapted from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer

photo credit: Caitlinator