"Living Brave," A Book We All Need

Living Brave

Life throws us many curve balls. Why some of us have to duck, dodge, and deal with far more than others is a mystery. How does one stay hopeful? Resilient? Happy, even?

Shannon Dingle, writer and disability advocate, helps us to understand in her new book, “Living Brave.”

She knows a thing or two about survival in times of trauma and upheaval, and has learned how to embrace the preciousness of life amid it all.

After surviving sexual abuse and trafficking as a child, Shannon was left with lasting disabilities. And yet she rose. She blossomed. She thrived. She married and became a mom - six times over. Life was good. And then it wasn’t. A rogue wave hit her husband while their family was on vacation tragically ending his life, leaving her a widowed mother of 6, deep in grief.

“The grief of the aftermath of losing her love and life partner sits at the heart of Living Brave, where Shannon’s searing, raw prose, illustrates what it looks like to take brave steps on the other side of unimaginable loss.

Through each challenge, she reveals the ways she learned to walk through them to the other side, and find courage even through the darkest moments. Living Brave gives women permission to wrestle with difficult topics, to use their voice, to take a stand for justice, to honor the wisdom of their bodies, and to enact change from a place of strong faith.”

This is a book anyone who has ever wondered “How do I get through this?” needs. Which means it’s a book we ALL need. To live, it is said, is to love. It is also to experience loss and pain. For some, like Shannon, there are other elements, abuse, trauma, and disability.

Image by Amy Paulson Photography

Let her invite you into her life and share her experiences with you, so that you might find some insight and inspiration on how to deal with whatever curve ball life has thrown at you and remain hopeful still.

Here’s where you can get your copy of LIVING BRAVE.

New Movies | '2 Hearts' & 'When Last We Spoke'

Two wonderful new family-friendly films will be released this month, 2 Hearts, and, When Last We Spoke.

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Fair warning, 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi, Adan Canto, Tiera Skovbye, and Radha Mitchell, which opens in theaters on October 16th, will require at least one full box of tissues!

Two separate love stories, in two separate decades, seem completely unrelated, until they aren't. When the connection is made, it us under unexpected, emotional, and powerful circumstances. 

Like all good stories, faith, hope, and charity are woven together in a tapestry of love that will leave you in that happy/sad reflective state, compelling  you to reach out to your loved ones, and remembering to treat each new day as a miraculous gift.

WATCH THE '2 Hearts' TRAILER 

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When We Last Spoke - Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Sisters, Juliet and Evangeline, are dropped off with their grandparents, Walt and Ruby Cranbourne (Corbin Bernsen and Melissa Gilbert) when single parenting gets to be too much for their mother. 

Life becomes something none of them were expecting nor prepared for, but they do their best using love and laughter to navigate the tricky circumstances they find themselves in.

Love, faith, and forgiveness are the supportive branches to this family tree loaded with lovable nuts. 

WATCH THE ‘When Last We Spoke’ TRAILER

Stream It!

Lionheart | February Book Club

by David Francisco Platillero

Get Lionheart

About a year ago, I ran across one of the most touching videos on Facebook… it was a wedding proposal in the sweetest of settings, a wooded area with sparkling twinkly lights, and two of the most beautifully earnest people who were obviously over-the-moon in love. The man walked with the aid of forearm crutches, before getting to his knees, and from the second she realized what was unfolding, the woman was crying…

Watch the proposal video

Fast forward to an email I received a few weeks back telling me that the man kneeling in that video had written a book and recorded a music CD chronicling his journey - their journey - of “love, forgiveness, and the power of music.”

David Francisco Platillero is his name, and the first 24 years of his life read a bit like an American fairy tale; a happy, smart, and capable kid growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee with a loving, supportive family.

Involved in church, school, and music, and very very active, David went on to college and got a degree in electrical engineering, but soon decided that music, and music production, was where his heart and his passion lie. So in April of 2016, he packed up a few belongings and headed to Nashville where he’d enrolled in The Blackbird Academy (Owned by John and Martina McBride) to become the best music producer he could be.

23 days later the world David knew stopped. He was hit while riding his bicycle by a distracted driver, gravely injured, and told he would never walk again.

On February 14, 2020 his book, Lionheart, and the accompanying CD will be released. (I got an advanced copy!) Chapter by chapter, David recounts the days after the accident. Lionheart is an eloquent self-portrait of the talented musical artist that captures the pain, the progress the lessons, the love, and the miracles that define David’s new life.

By no coincidence, the chapters and song titles match, and David’s recommendation is that you read a chapter and then listen to the corresponding song for the story to be an experiential one for you, the reader, as well as for him, the writer. “Lionheart is a book. Lionheart is a CD. Lionheart is a movement that aims to empower people to find purpose.”

David and his bride, Kristi, joined me recently on LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah to record a podcast, which will drop a little later this month. Get the book and the music CD before that happens and then make sure to listen in! The story will amaze and inspire you and his music is so so good!!!!

Find it all at DavidFranciscoMusic.com!

Still in the Game | January Book Club

www.StillintheGameBook.com

I have more than a few football lovers in the family. In fact, my 10 year old grandson, Elijah, just returned from the Youth Football Championships in Canton, Ohio (Home of the Football Hall of Fame) where his team, The Raptors, were fortunate enough to play.

The game has so many fabulous metaphors for life that many of us use even if we’ve never donned a set of shoulder pads or smeared grease paint under our eyes. Such is NOT the case for the man, or his story I’m about to recommend.

For January, which happens to be the month of football playoffs, I’ve chosen an inspiring read, Still in the Game, by former NFL Defensive End, and now motivational speaker and author, Devon Still. It’s on bookshelves Tuesday, January 8th.

Still was brought to his knees by his daughter, Leah’s, cancer diagnosis, but that’s where he was used to finding God. 

His faith, and the lessons that life and the game of football had taught him prepared him to support her in “beating up cancer” and showing up for life!

He wants everyone to, “Be proud of your scars. They’re signs that you survived whatever tried to break you.”

Still has many such scars, the emotional ones that come from growing up in the inner city and being raised in a broken home, to the physical ones from the many sports injuries he’s had to overcome, and those to his career as a result.

He wants you to know that our challenges reveal our true purpose, and no set-back is too great to prevent not only a comeback, but it may be the thing that sets us on a path to a life better lived than ever before.

Millions of people around the world have been inspired by Devon’s tireless devotion to his daughter’s victory over cancer and his undaunted optimism. I’m inspired. I want you to be as well.

Learn more at StillintheGameBook.com

Pick up your copy HERE

Unshakable Hope | August Book Club

Last October, my world, my life, was shaken to the core.

My son, Zachariah, chose to leave this earth, and all who knew and loved him behind. I  still do not know why he took this drastic action; a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I'll spend the rest of my life asking why, and musing over thousands of 'what if' scenarios.

My faith was shaken too. But here I could not dwell because the only thing that kept a thread of my sanity intact was the knowlege that Zack was in the arms of Our Savior. Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado knows this is a fact and in his latest book, Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives on the Promises of God, he offers encouraging guidance for overcoming sadness and despair, renewing a sense of purpose, and triumphantly facing the fears of the future.

"We’ve never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope. School shootings are all too familiar. Depression is on the rise. And more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. In America alone, the suicide rate has increased 24 percent in fewer than twenty years. If a disease saw such a spike, it would be deemed an epidemic. 

People are dying from a lack of hope."

Have you had an experience or experiences that have left you shaken? Possibly your future, your faith, your family, or finances? After forty years of counseling and ministry, Max Lucado has learned that nothing lifts the desperate, weary heart like the promises of God. In a world full of despair, depression, anxiety, and instability, we do not need more opinions or hunches; we need the definitive declarations of our mighty and loving God. 

Unshakable Hope examines twelve of God’s promises that Max has turned to over the years to encourage himself and others. Each chapter explores one significant promise and reveals how it will equip you to:

o    Overcome challenging circumstances
o    Live through sadness and renew hope
o    Experience lasting security
o    Make wise decisions

Join Max as he takes a closer look at Scripture’s unbreakable promises and shows you how to build your life not on the circumstances you encounter, but on the promises of God, with an unshakable hope. For every problem in life, God has given you a promise.

Buy Unshakable Hope at:
Thomas Nelson Booksellers
Amazon

Follow Max Lucado at his website: MaxLucado.com and on,
Facebook.com, Instagram, & Twitter @MaxLucado