Christmas Special! No Postage! I'll Pay the Tax!

Dear friends,

The prayer of my heart this Christmas is that God will restore broken marriages and fractured families. We are in a fight against satan whose desire is to destroy us and those we love.

Thirty-seven years ago I was ready to give up and walk out. I shudder thinking what my life would have been like had I obeyed satan and left the husband I have loved for over 40 years.
My decision to turn to God and honor my wedding vows is written with three different perspectives in my three books.

My Merry Christmas gift to you is to offer each book for $12 total. I'll pay the tax and the postage. Please message me on facebook or email me at SplashesofSerenity@yahoo.com with your order.

With thanks to God for restoring my marriage and prayers that God will work in the hearts and families of all reading the books He gave me to write to you.

May your marriage and family have their best Christmas ever!

Buy Two of My Books and Get One Free

Merry Christmas from me to you! The best gift I can give my readers is a free book. So, for the month of December 2014, I am offering a free book for every two books you buy from me personally on my website. There will be no added postage for the third book. You pay for the two and I send the third.

Just order any two books from my website and message me which free book you would like. Any combination of books works. Three of a kind or two of one and one free. Whatever suits your gift-giving fancy.

If you haven't read all three of my books, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms and Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives  are beautiful hard cover gift books filled with precious thoughts from my heart to yours. Each page boasts lovely full color photographs that tell their own story.

We All Married Idiots : Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can is a marriage-changing book many couples are re-reading to keep their marriage fresh. I encourage you to bless your marriage or the marriage of a friend with this powerful God-inspired book on marriage.

To order please go to my Book Store on this website.

Merry Christmas, my friends. May all the seasons of your life be bright and filled with splashes of Serenity!

Romance Begins in the Kitchen

Me: I love my new farm sink.

Dan: Do you love your farmer?

Me: I don't have a farmer.

Dan: I'm going to get me a chicken!

How could I not love this guy? I always have my eyes open for a story. Dan always has his heart open for romance.

Husbands and wives, if your spouse seems preoccupied with things like farm sinks, think of creative ways to grab their hearts' attention toward you.

I guarantee my farmer got a big kiss!

Still romancing after 44 years.

My husband is a splash of serenity to me. Do you bring serenity to your spouse?

Esteeming Your Spouse as a Gift to Treasure, Not as an Idiot to Tolerate.

Did you know my first book on marriage Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives  contains a reflection titled "We All Married Idiots"?

At book signings, people were drawn to that "Idiots" title  in my Drained Wives book and proclaimed "I need this book!"

So many resonated with "Idiots" that I decided to write a book on the subject. Hence was born, We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can.

At least once in married life most will admit thinking they too married an idiot. I'm happy to show you that not only did you marry an idiot, you are one too! Don't we all make mistakes? Aren't we all human? Even perfectionists aren't perfect.

Yet God's plan for marriage is that you esteem your mate as a gift to treasure, not as an idiot to tolerate. My books teach you how.

You can read an excerpt from the reflection "We All Married Idiots" written in Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives on my guest post at

 http://thelegacyconference.com/?p=2911.

Enjoy a splash of serenity on your marriage today,

Our 43rd Anniversary and We're Separated

#WeAllMarriedIdiots #Marriage #Anniversarycelebrations #Treasureyourmarriage

 

Today is our 43rd Anniversary and Dan and I are not together. How did that happen? 

September 12, 1970, is the most important day of our lives! Our anniversary is so special that Dan takes the day off as a vacation day! Some years we extend the day to a week or a weekend. We love each other and we love celebrating our anniversary!

I remember one of our best celebrations in a year when money was tight. Hiking a mountain, our backpacks filled with candles, apples, cheese, wedding cake, fruit bubbly, and a blanket, we dined alone by candlight at the top of a mountain. The view was better than any seen from a sky high restaurant. We cuddled and kissed and sang love songs to each other. Have you heard my hubby sing? Yep, I swooned!

Funny, we've eaten fine food around the world, but it's the apples on a mountaintop that I remember best. Lovers in love don't need money to enjoy the moments of life.

We do celebrate our marriage, so why aren't we together?

Months ago I was asked to speak in California on September 13 - 15. Great!  We can celebrate on the 12th and I'll hop on an airplane to CA on the 13th. Airline schedules didn't cooperate, so we thought We'll both go to California. We'll leave a few days early and enjoy a 43rd anniversary in the California Redwoods. Woo Hoo! When Dan's work required him to be at a meeting near New York City on September 12, we realized spending our special day together was not to be.

I'm missing him, but I'm all right. We're at opposite ends of the country, but our hearts beat as one.

Last weekend we escaped alone. When we reunite next week, we're going away again. Who knows, we may end up on the top of another mountain!

Every day of marriage is a gift from God to be treasured. Every moment an opportunity to make a memory.

I'd love to hear your favorite anniversary story? Please share and give us ideas for future celebrations! We're praying for 43 more!

"Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

Mark 10:9 (NIV)



Splashes of serenity prayed for my marriage and yours,

Reading Books in the Bathtub can be Good for your Marriage

Cracked me up! 

 This morning a young mom thanked me publicly for the impact of  my book Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives in her parent's marriage. She gave the book to her mom who loves baths. Her dad found her mom in the bathtub reading Drained Wives.  Observing that the first reflection was titled "My Wedding Began in a Church —  My Marriage Began in a Bathtub" he hopped into the tub with his wife!

Oh my!

The daughter reports that was the beginning of their reading Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives every night together in the bathtub.

Well, I never intended that scenario when I wrote "My Marriage Began in a Bathtub." But, as my lawyer son would say, "It's legal!" And as my Pastor husband would say, "It's commanded!"

"The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time. . ." 1 Corinthians 7:4-5

 

 

A writer never knows how or WHERE her words will work in a life. This I do know: A good number of wives bought Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives this morning.  I'm making no assumptions. I'm just sayin' there are some hubbies who might want to grab a towel! Wink!

 

You can order autographed copies of Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives at the bookstore on this website.

 

 

 

I'm not sure this was a splash of serenity, but it sure was a splash that made me laugh!

 

 

My Heart is Broken for Marriages

I'm passionate about marriage. Why else would I spend years writing two books on marriage? Especially since publishers are hesitant to print books on marriage because they say those books don't sell. How sad is that. Readers spend millions on books about wizards and vampires. With the divorce rate approximately 50 percent, it's tragic that people don't face the reality that marriages are in crisis.

I care about marriage and children and lives cut apart by the tragedy of divorce. Do you care? I think you do. No one wants to realize the pain of a broken home.

I wrote Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives because I wanted to gently tell my marriage story and give hope to drained marriages. With my eyes shut tight and tears streaming I typed away (fearing in my heart that people would actually read my marriage confessions). When a book contract arrived I wailed! Oh no! What will people think of me? Turns out they didn't think less of me. They thanked me.

E-mails arrived telling  how Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives had saved their marriages and encouraging me to write more on marriage and to go deeper.

We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can began to come together in my heart and brain and a manuscript was born.

What is the purpose of We All Married Idiots?

My heart is broken for marriages. If one family stays together because I dared to say we all married idiots, then my mission is accomplished. A family did stay together. In fact a couple of marriages took a new look at their attitudes towards their spouses after reading We All Married Idiots. Mission accomplished? Not quite.

With the staggering divorce rate of Christians and non-Christians it is easy to reason that too many give up too soon for too little reason. Unsatisfied with their first spouse, they enter a second marriage only to realize, Ugh, this person is an idiot too!

We All Married Idiots encourages couples to enjoy marriage as God intended. One where they esteem their beloved as a gift to treasure not as an idiot to tolerate.

My purpose for writing? Change that divorce statistic and help couples realize marriage as a sweet splash of serenity in their lives. My heart aches for all in pain-filled marriages. I hope you'll consider reading my books and giving them as gifts. Half your friends (and perhaps you) are considering divorce. The price of a book is not too much to pay to save a family.



Autographed copies of all of my books are available by contacting me. We All Married Idiots: Three Things You Will Never Change About Your Marriage and Ten Things You Can sells as a print or e-book at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/We-All-Married-Idiots-Marriage/dp/0984765522/ , Barnes & Noble, or your local bookstore. 

My Wedding Began in a Church—My Marriage Began in the Bathtub

I love my bath, which is why I wrote bath books.

My first book Splashes of Serenity (S.O.S.): Bathtime Reflections for Drained Moms was fun and impacting lives. My fingers soon began hitting the keyboard with words for a second book.

Why not write a book about marriage? Afterall, I did have a tale to tell and it even involved a bathtub. Splashes of Serenity (S.O.S.): Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives was published a year later.

Another beautiful hard cover gift book, with the first reflection titled, "My Wedding Began in a Church—My Marriage Began in a Bathtub."

Honestly, my purpose for the Drained Wives book which I titled Bedtime Meditations for Husbands and Wives was a book for couples to read together at bedtime. Each of the 30 reflections can be read in five minutes. A husband and wife will laugh and cry and pray together before laying their heads for sweet sleep or whatever else the reflection prompts them to do. 

Again, the publisher changed my title and Splashes of Serenity (S.O.S.): Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives was born. This book has changed marriages. I'm tickled each time I hear from a husband who laughs and says, "I'm really enjoying your book for drained wives."

Thanking God for my writing journey, and for the splashes of serenity He gives to my marriage which happened to begin in a bathtub.

Where did your marriage begin? Want to share?

Hold On To Your Marriage! Don't Let Go!

Elizabeth Taylor was a woman of passion. She married eight times--twice to Richard Burton. She claims Michael Todd and Richard Burton were the loves of her life. Sad that Michael Todd died. Unfortunate that she and Richard just couldn't get along. It's tragic that this great woman of passion searched over and over again for happiness in marriage and she never found it. Asked, if she would marry again, she proclaimed, "Oh no!..."

I'm a little like Elizabeth Taylor. I don't have her talent or her beauty, but I do have her passion for love and for marriage. Today, I thank God that the first and the tenth year of my marriage when I wanted to run, I stayed. I shudder to think what my life would have been had I successfully thrown away this dear man I adore.

Thank you God, for my one husband who I love with all my heart. He still sends tingles down my spine, butterflies in my tummy, and tears of gratitude in my eyes at just the thought of him.

It isn't always so. But we hold on during the difficult times, we grow closer as we work out our differences. Our love blossoms as we dig in and commit to make our marriage grow stronger and longer.

This I know: Many say if they had worked as hard at their first marriage as they worked at their second, there would not have been a second marriage. Too many give up too soon for too little reason.

How about you? Are you at the end of your rope? Hold on. Don't let go. I thank God He held Dan and I together when I wanted us apart. We needed a miracle and we trusted in a miracle-working God. What He did for us, He can do for you. Cling to Him when your marriage seems hopeless. Remember that nothing is impossible for God.

To me, Elizabeth Taylor was a delicate child desperate to love and to be loved. I wonder if she ever knew how deeply Jesus loved her and how desperately He wanted her to love Him. In Jesus, she would have found what she was searching for in husbands. For He alone can satisfy the needs a man can never fulfill.

Praying your marriage is a splash of serenity that keeps on splashing!

Elaine

Celebrating 40 Valentine's Days

We've got something to celebrate! Forty years of Valentine's Days and we're more in love than ever. Why did our love grow? How did we last 40 years? What lessons have we learned that we can pass on to others?

Marriage takes commitment. For us it began in the bathtub. I write about it in "My Wedding Began in a Church--My Marriage Began in the Bathtub." (See the first reflection in Splashes of Serenity: Bathtime Reflections for Drained Wives). Forty years ago I packed Dan's bags with every intention of throwing in the towel. He was in the bathtub (we had no shower) with his feet dangling out the bathroom window (you need to read my book to find out why). Looking up at me he said simple words, "Elaine, I'm committed to you for a lifetime." That statement changed our marriage.

Dan meant it. I'm not easy to live with. Fellow writers understand why. But Dan committed to me for a lifetime. He proved it 20 years ago when I faced surgery that could altar our lives and disfigure my body. Dan's reaction, "Well, I'll just have to love you even more." What a gem of a guy. And to think, I almost threw him away with the bath water.

Committing to lasting love changes things. In the early days, we fought fiercely and had trouble making up. Now, we rarely argue and love making up. Why? Because after 40years we know each other so well. Now we understand what upsets the other and we don't do it. We've learned what to say and when and how to say it.

As time passes and love grows, we realize we can't even remember why we fought the battles that nearly knocked us out of the marriage ring. Of course, there are issues that need to be discussed and behaviors that need changed. But the majority of our marital disagreements are silly and not worth the energy.

Too many marriages give up too soon for too little reason and the consequences are felt for generations. Hold on young lovers. Sometimes you just have to stick your feet out the bathroom window and commit!

What about your marriage? Are you committed to last 40 years and more? I hope so. It is worth it.

Make a Splash on Valentine's Day! It might just bring you some serenity!

Elaine