UPDATE: This contest is now over. Thank you to everyone who made it so much fun! I’m so excited that I had over 1,000 entries! The two winners of an autographed copy of A Season for Tending are Janet Herndon and Katie J. The grand prize winner of an autographed copy of A Season for Tending AND the Amish-made wall hanging is “hudnall1961.” If your name is listed above, please send your mailing address to cindy@cindywoodsmall.com to claim your goodies! To everyone whose name is not listed above, I hope you’ll stay tuned for more exciting giveaways! 🙂

When I crawl into bed at night, longing to shut out my reality for just a little while, foggy images of things no one else knows presses in.

I used to ask God: why me? But while growing up, I came to realize that no one gets to choose who they are. The best we can do is yield our weakest and strongest selves to the God who loves us at our worst and calls us to be our best.

Still, I struggle with who I am, as do those who love me.

I don’t remember my first forewarning. My Daed says it happened before I turned five. He said we were in a horse-drawn carriage, running an errand and enjoying the splendor of fall. As he drove past a row of unfamiliar homes, I remarked that I didn’t know there was such a thing as a bad mommy. And then I pointed to a specific house.

Daed hadn’t known who lived there, and he’d thought my remarks were simply the nonsensical prattling of a child—until he learned otherwise.

Since then, he’s faithfully admonished me, saying my intuition must be tempered and managed through obedience to God and prayer.

I’ve tried. I’d even kneel before God as my witness about that. And if I could give this gift to someone else, I would—to someone wiser. Someone with a better understanding of what God wants. I never seem to know what He expects from me. But whatever it is, I believe I get it wrong far more than I get it right.

And today…if it wasn’t for my fruit and herb garden, I might feel too lonely to take my next breath. I know I can always take refuge in their midst, despite what goes on around me. And that’s a comfort I’ll never take for granted.

Giveaway

We will have THREE winners of this very special contest celebrating the release of A Season for Tending! All three winners will receive an autographed copy of A Season for Tending and the grand prize winner will also receive the Amish-made wall hanging pictured below.

I will announce the three winners on the day my new book is released: September 18, 2012.

I’m incredibly excited to be giving away this wall hanging! I love it, and I’m sure you will too. I think it’s a perfect fit for the introduction of my new series because of the beautiful vines on it! It’s approximately 4 ft. wide and 4 ft. tall.

This series will take a journey into the isolation and difficulties some people face when their gift seems to run in opposition to what His Word says. If you’d like to help get the word of mouth in motion, I’d love it, and maybe you’d like to start by sharing about this contest! There are little icons at the bottom of this post to help make sharing on different social media sites really easy.

How to enter:

If you would like to enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment at the bottom of this post on my website: https://www.cindywoodsmall.com/2012/08/29/exciting-contest/.

If you are reading this anywhere other than my website, such as on Facebook, in an email, or on Goodreads, please hop on over to my website and leave a comment at the bottom of my post to enter the giveaway. Only comments left on my website will be entered into the giveaway. (It’s just too hard to track down all the comments left in various places, and that means it’s too easy to miss some of the comments.)

The deadline for this contest is Tuesday, September 18, 2012, at noon. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be contacted privately, as well as announced on a post a few hours after the deadline.