Atlas Girl Giveaway by Emily Wierenga
Today I’m excited to introduce my friend, Emily Wierenga. She is guest posting today about her just released personal memoir Atlas Girl.
It’s a beautiful and bold journey on finding home in the least expected place.
Be sure to leave a comment on today’s post for a chance to win one of 3 giveaway books.
Now meet my friend Emily.
Why We Never Have to Really Worry about Our Children
By Emily T. Wierenga
I pull out Mum’s recipe for chicken and rice, faded on a tattered piece of paper, and I don’t see the rips or the stains.
I see our wooden kitchen table, the oval one which fit six of us around, and Dad at the head with his leather Bible and the basket full of Christmas cards, praying over a different family every night.
Mum baked granola for breakfast each morning and bread for every lunch, and she dished up our plates every night—meatloaf and mashed potatoes, chili and rice, and always dessert—and at nine years old I stopped eating.
I stopped eating for four years and yet we never quit meeting around the table.
The Bible was read around that oval structure, even when I was thirteen and sixty pounds and dying.
And when I gave birth to my eldest son at 28, a miracle child the pastor had prayed over us to conceive; when I held him to me and fed him, his hand orchestrating the sky and his soft cheeks filling and emptying, I cried.
I held him and I cried for those years when I wouldn’t let Mum hug me. For all those meals, those plates filled with love, trying to save a child who kept getting skinnier.
But more than those meals, my Mum prayed.
[box] A mother’s prayers are like knitting needles; they knit God’s Spirit around her children, like the warmest of sweaters.[/box]My mum prayed deep into night, and it was her prayers that fed her four kids, that kept us alive, that kept us walking with Jesus, and we won’t always get it right.
Parenting is the most difficult and rewarding of journeys and maybe you have a son or daughter who is refusing to eat right now? Maybe you’re weeping into the night wondering what you did wrong, but friend? We serve a God whose Spirit wove your child into being. We serve a God whose Spirit is the placenta that cushions all of our children’s falls, no matter how old they get.
Our kids never outgrow the womb. Because the womb is simply this: God’s Holy Spirit wrapped tight around them, and even as they stretch and develop and move, the Spirit moves and expands with them. God’s voice nourishing and nurturing them.
There may be years when we cannot reach our kids. When they refuse to talk to us. When we feel helpless and scared, because even though we’re doing all of the right things—it feels like it’s not enough.
You don’t have to be enough. You don’t have to do enough. You just have to pray.
My memoir, ATLAS GIRL, is releasing this month, and I am excited to give away THREE copies today. Just leave a comment below to win!
From the back cover:
“Disillusioned and yearning for freedom, Emily Wierenga left home at age eighteen with no intention of ever returning. Broken down by organized religion, a childhood battle with anorexia, and her parents’ rigidity, she set out to find God somewhere else–anywhere else. Her travels took her across Canada, Central America, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. She had no idea that her faith was waiting for her the whole time–in the place she least expected it.
“Poignant and passionate, Atlas Girl is a very personal story of a universal yearning for home and the assurance that we are known, forgiven, and beloved. Readers will find in this memoir a true description of living faith as a two-way pursuit in a world fraught with distraction. Anyone who wrestles with the brokenness we find in the world will love this emotional journey into the arms of the God who heals all wounds.”
Click HERE for a free excerpt. I’m also giving away a FREE e-book to anyone who orders Atlas Girl. Just order HERE, and send a receipt to: [email protected], and you’ll receive A House That God Built: 7 Essentials to Writing Inspirational Memoir — an absolutely FREE e-book co-authored by myself and editor/memoir teacher Mick Silva.
ALL proceeds from Atlas Girl will go towards my non-profit, The Lulu Tree. The Lulu Tree is dedicated to preventing tomorrow’s orphans by equipping today’s mothers. It is a grassroots organization bringing healing and hope to women and children in the slums of Uganda through the arts, community, and the gospel.
Emily T. Wierenga is an award-winning journalist, blogger, commissioned artist and columnist, as well as the author of five books including the memoir, Atlas Girl: Finding Home in the Last Place I Thought to Look (Baker Books). She lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and two sons. For more info, please visit www.emilywierenga.com. Find her on Twitter or Facebook.
I would look ‘ve for my daughter to read this. She is struggling emotionally, and I know she is rebelling against the faith lifestyle we’ve tried to raise her in. She has been “cutting”, and struggles with depression. Reading this story could inspire her to see past her own misery, and know that it will get better. I pray all the time that God saves her.
Oh how my heart aches for your daughter… Yes, I pray she’ll be able to read Atlas Girl… may God reach her and tell her how much he loves her. May he overwhelm her with his goodness. Bless you! e.
There’s no place like home. Thank God for praying moms.
WOW! Karen, thanks for introducing us to this wonderful lady and her writing! This book will be added to my book list for sure. I have a daughter that I loved through the process of leaving and returning and I had to learn to love her where she was and not where I wanted her to be. She is still not where I want her to be, but it doesn’t matter because I love her where she is and God is at work in her life and I see the fruit of that work. Such a blessing! Thanks for sharing!
Connie, as a daughter who ran away from home and came back a decade later, I resonate with your story. May our heavenly father give you hope and faith as you continue to love on your girl in the midst of it all. You’re doing the right thing sweet mama-friend. Bless you, e.
Another great book I would love to read!
Powerful Story! Just what I needed to read; been praying for years for my daughter.
This was beautiful – can’t wait to read the book!
This is a balm for my heart. Thank you so much.
My eldest of 9 is 18 & moving from PA to CA . bittersweet!
This sound like exactly what I need to read! Thanks for being so transparent to help others with your story.
Bless you dear Kathleen! Thank you for reading… e.
That brought tears to my eyes. To be reminded that even when we can’t reach our kids, they are being card for. It makes me think of all my students that are hurting or come to mind only to find out that they are struggling.even the prayers of a teacher matter.
Yes, friend–my husband is a teacher… it’s so hard not seeing the effects of the seeds being planted, but one day, they WILL grow and bloom and be harvested … keep planting those seeds :)
Putting this book on my “must read list”!
Another book to add to my reading list!
This is added to my must read list! As a parent this book will give us the strength to help me guide my daughter with those daily battles she will have in her life. I have a daughter knocking on the teenage years door and this is exactly what I needed to be placed into my life at this time.
I was thinking the same thing! We’ve already had some of the quiet battles… and she just turned 13!
Those teen years can be very challenging, and yet, so rewarding too… as a daughter who put her parents through a hard time, my heart goes out to you–and yet I know too the redemptive power of a loving God! Bless you! e.
Such freedom in this message!
I have to read. Can’t wait <3
Thank you for sharing words of healing & hope.
Bless you sister! e.
This will be a great book to read. Can’t wait!
Wow! I can’t wait to read this book!
Emily, your story is so powerful!
Thank you so much for sharing – my TEN year old grand daughter has started making comments about her size – to young to be concerned about these things!!!
oh Jan, yes–as someone who started struggling at nine with her size, I understand … a hard journey and yet, a hopeful one. May God give you wisdom as you speak and love into your precious daughter’s life.
I pray the Lord will use this book in big ways!
Wow, thank you so much Jessica! All for HIS glory! XO
I have struggled this year with my soon to be eighteen year old son not talking with me. Thank you for this post today. It was something I needed to hear.
oh Staci. I have two little boys … I will pray for him to open up to you, and for patience for you dear mama-friend. So hard. But you are not alone, and the Holy Spirit is speaking even now to your son… Bless you.
A great hope for parents.
I would love to read this book!
This post is exactly what I need to hear. As a mom with a daughter killing herself with heroin, I’m trying to pray, it never seems enough.
Oh Sam! That is such a burden to carry. Lord, hear this mother’s cry! Give her the peace she so desperately seeks. Let the good memories of her daughter be the firsts she remembers and wrap her aching heart in your embrace! Amen.
Dear God, please help Sam. Help Sam’s daughter. Help them both, Lord, to know your unconditional love and the peace that comes from you with unsurpassing understanding. Help us all to remember that even though its difficult to understand, you love our children more than we do or are able. Please bring Sam’s daughter out of this bondage in a miraculous way!
oh Heavenly Father… coming to you know, broken, with Sam–for her daughter, for her precious girl. Oh Abba, would you reach into this family and bring hope, and joy, and healing? Would you please, mend all wounds? Oh God, we beseech you now on behalf of this dear, dear girl… I can feel your heart for her God. We beg you to intervene. In Jesus’ holy name, Amen. (I will keep praying Sam. I’m crying for you and her… believing….)