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Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing gardens—aka their books.

Today’s guest is Donna Schlachter with a garden devotional and some incredible flower pictures from Peru. Welcome, Donna!

 

A Writer’s Garden Designed by Another

By Donna Schlachter

I love gardens.

Or actually, I love flowers. And I could spend hours taking pictures of flowers. Everywhere I go, there are bound to be photos of plants and flowers and sometimes even insects and birds mixed in with my other landscape pictures that I take for setting inspiration, or jumbled in with the three museums I visited that day, or simply set off by themselves because that’s what I felt like doing.

Flowers make me happy. No matter if they are buds, or in full bloom, or torn by hail, or chewed by insects, or nibbled by deer, or droopy with heat, or ready to be dead-headed—I am fascinated by the broad spectrum of designs and colors evident in creation.

I figure only a truly creative God could have come up with all those kinds of flowers and plants.

Recently my husband and I joined nine others from our church on a missions trip to Peru.  While there, I took lots of pictures of flowers and other plants.

Some were breathtaking.

Some were extraordinary.

Some were weeds in the grass …

while others were trophy-winners.

All were created by the same God for a specific purpose. To feed a bird. To house a bug. To nourish the soil. To eat a pest.

Which reminds me of how creative and loving a God we serve. He designed all the beauty we see around us every day for a purpose. And He created you and me for a special purpose, too. He loved us and knew us before we were even conceived (Jeremiah 1:5). And not only did He know us, but He already had His plans for us, and He set us apart as special for His use.

Sometimes I have a difficult time imagining what God sees in me. I struggle with what His plans are for me. What His good plans for me might consist of.

But I trust His word. So I rest in His garden, enjoying His creativity, while I wait on Him.

 

About the Writer/Gardener

Donna lives in Denver with husband Patrick. She writes historical suspense under her own name, and contemporary suspense under her alter ego of Leeann Betts. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Sisters In Crime; facilitates a critique group, and teaches writing classes. Donna ghostwrites and edits, and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, and travels extensively for both. Donna is represented by Terrie Wolf of AKA Literary Management. Connect with Donna at http://www.historythrutheages.wordpress.com/

Bouquet of Brides Romance Collection

Meet seven American women who were named for various flowers but struggle to bloom where God planted them. Can love help them grow to their full potential?

A rough-and-tumble cowgirl, “Cactus” Lil Duncan longs for true love, but is afraid to let down her prickly exterior when a city slicker from New York City, with less-than-honorable intentions, tries to win her heart and her hand.

You can find Bouquet of Brides Romance Collection, containing Donna’s novella A Prickly Affair, at Amazon