Takeover Tuesday: Stacey Weeks

Happy Tuesday, Reader Friends!

Soulfully Romantic blog is being taken over by Stacey Weeks! Grab a cup of tea ( or coffee) and take a moment to chat with her!

Mistletoe Melody

Melody Staff, from Mistletoe Melody, is based on a real person. My niece, Larissa, inspired her character, but the internal struggles Melody faces are mine. I know my niece struggles like we all do, but I did not write her personal journey into Mistletoe Melody. In many ways, I wrote mine. I write about my struggle with difficult surrender and how hardship can lead us into praising God.

Can we offer God a sacrifice of a broken spirit? Can a fragmented and contrite heart, brought low before God be a sacrifice of praise?

When I don’t feel God’s goodness, when circumstances whisper He has betrayed me, my praise is a sacrifice. When I lay on the altar my unfulfilled desires and choose to trust the God I cannot understand – it is a sacrifice of praise.

This joy is not happiness. It is not a bubbling of thanks spilling out in gratitude. It is a settled belief that God is good. It is a belief that despite feelings, circumstances, uncertainties, and unanswered questions, He holds it all. When I worship here, in the difficulty of this moment, my praise becomes an offering of trust and adoration that does not hinge on getting my way. It is a beautiful, full-surrender, that might be scary, but is oh, so good.

It won’t be easy, we try to hold loosely, we tremble over what might lay on the road ahead, but I believe this is God’s calling for us to praise Him on the narrow road during the good and the bad, the hard and the easy, all for His glory.

It is a sacrifice of praise causing fractured bones to rejoice.

Melody’s response

I took all that I had been learning about trials and suffering and brought my character Melody to decision. She had to choose bitterness or joy.

“The longer Melody prayed, the more verses hidden in her heart rushed to the surface. Praising God for this hardship was a sacrifice. It was OK that it was difficult. It was her sacrifice of praise, and it was the best kind of worship a worship leader could guide the people of God into. To point the eyes of the church to a God who sees beauty in broken, who receives praise from fractured bones, who promises one day to press a nail-scarred hand to every cheek and wipe away every tear. This was her God.”

About the Author

Stacey Weeks is the multi-award-winning author of Glorious Surrender (2016), inspirational romances The Builder’s Reluctant Bride (2016), Mistletoe Melody (2018), and inspirational romantic suspense novels In Too Deep (2017), and Fatal Homecoming (2019). Stacey lives in Ontario where she speaks at women’s conferences, teaches writing and bible study workshops, and writes about the things of the Lord.

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About the Book

A former musician, Melody Staff, spends Christmas at a bed and breakfast in the village of Mistletoe Meadows. While everyone sings familiar carols of Christ drawing near, Melody stumbles over misplaced notes. Her recent diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis has scared off her fiancé and thrust her life into a grand pause. Will her heart ever sing again? Quentin Oxford has endured a devastating year. His preteen daughter suffered a stroke, and they’ve grieved his wife’s sudden death, but the Lord coaxes a surprising refrain from Quentin’s heart as God rewrites his and Melody’s score into a love song.