🇺🇸 July 4, 2026, Today's Prayer 🇺🇸 Scripture of the Day "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13 (NIV) Heavenly Father, Thank You for the freedom we enjoy and for the brave men and women who have sacrificed so much to protect it. Today, we remember with grateful hearts that freedom has never come without sacrifice. Lord, Your Word reminds us that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends. Help us never forget those who have served, sacrificed, suffered, and given their lives for others. Comfort the families who carry the weight of those sacrifices every day. Thank You for this nation, for its blessings, and for the opportunities You have given us. Help us never take our freedom for granted. May we honor You in all we do and stand for what is right with courage, faith, humility, and love. Bless our leaders with wisdom, our families with unity, our communities with kindness, and our land with peace. Heal our nation where there is division. Teach us to love one another, respect every life, show grace even when we disagree, and seek Your will above our own. Lord, protect those who serve our country today. Watch over our military members, veterans, first responders, and their families. Give strength to the weary, comfort to the grieving, hope to the discouraged, and peace to those carrying wounds that others cannot see. Above all, remind us that true freedom is found in Jesus Christ. Thank You for the greatest sacrifice of all, the sacrifice made on the cross for our sins, our salvation, and the promise of eternal life. May we celebrate today with gratitude, remember yesterday with honor, and walk into tomorrow with faith. In Jesus' precious name I pray, Amen. ✝️🇺🇸❤️🤍💙 Stacey

This is a chapter I wanted to share. It is posted on my Substack site, https://substack.com/home/post/p-200858625 If you would like me to provide a synopsis please let me know. Not only was the writing exciting but creating an Image of the characters in scene was incredible. Here is the picture and the chapter. Comments on writing style are appreciated. Please come by my Substack site for more of this story. https://substack.com/@crownandcandlestudio Chapter 4 Gaining comfort from her quilt, from the essence of Amma still folded into its familiar weight, Celine noticed another lump in the soft folds. Her hand closed around something small and solid she could not immediately name. She stilled, afraid to hope, and then drew it free. With disbelief, Celine gasped, knowing at last Amma truly had forgotten nothing. Caelys, Celine’s beloved doll and friend, lay nestled in the quilt's hollow, as though she had simply been waiting for Celine to find her. Her black button eyes caught the sunlight. Strands of Celine’s own hair, meticulously sewn in place, spilled loose and glossy over the limp shoulders. Caelys’ purple dress was magically wrinkle free with a white lace neckline. Celine’s gaze moved to the small feet covered by black shoes. Touching them, she remembered all the times she stood Caelys against a supporting wall or piece of furniture co Celine could read to her out loud. For only a moment the little girl smiled at the memory until she remembered. There was never going to be another such memory. Blinking away threatening tears, Celine lifted Caelys from the quilt with both hands and held her against her chest, pretending it was the doll’s breathing she heard instead of her own. Warmth spread over her. Amma had been right. She was not alone. So overcome was she that she barely felt her heart listening to the hum, suspecting nothing until the knock sounded on the wood door.

I asked you where your faith sits in your writing. The responses were extraordinary. So today I want to show you something: how the greatest writers in history answered that same question — through their work. Writers who believed... and let it show. J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Catholic. He didn't write a religious book, he wrote hobbits and wizards and dark lords. And yet his faith filled The Lord of the Rings with themes of sacrifice, redemption, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. Tolkien believed storytelling was a sacred act, a way humans participate in God's creation. He called it sub-creation. Every time you build a world on the page, you are, in his view, doing something divine. wow! Dostoevsky was Russian Orthodox, and he wrestled with God the way a boxer wrestles: hard, sweating, never sure who's winning. In The Brothers Karamazov, one brother's intellectual atheism is set against another's simple, devout faith. The famous "Grand Inquisitor" chapter challenges the reader with probing questions about free will and divine authority. Dostoevsky didn't write characters. He wrote confessions. Also worth mentioning: Flannery O'Connor, devoutly Catholic, who said "grace must wound before it heals", and meant it in every sentence she wrote. And C.S. Lewis, who wrote children's fantasy as a direct act of Christian faith. Now... Writers who didn't believe... and let that show too. Albert Camus was born Catholic and became an atheist. He became known as "the philosopher of the absurd", his philosophical essay The Myth of Sisyphus grappled with the question of why you should not give up on life, given that the universe has no inherent purpose. And yet Camus believed in decency, in human solidarity, in resistance. He found meaning without God, and that search became his greatest story. Ernest Hemingway was raised religious and walked away. He once wrote: "All thinking men are atheists." His prose reflects it, stripped of ornament, stripped of comfort, stripped of anything you can't see or touch. His characters don't pray. They drink, fish, fight, and try to hold themselves together in a world that offers no guarantees. There is a kind of brutal honesty in that which is its own form of spiritual courage.

I have reached the point where I feel like I have stared at my manuscript for so long that I can no longer objectively evaluate it and get it ready to upload. My book, When You Don't Know What to Say: How to Turn Overwhelming Situations Into Clear, Professional Documents That Get Results, is completed in draft form, but I need help getting it across the finish line. If you have experience with editing, proofreading, formatting, KDP publishing, or if you know someone who does, I would love to connect with you. To be completely honest, I've reached the point where I am feeling overwhelmed trying to do every part of the process by myself. Rather than putting the book on the back burner, I'm asking for help from people who may have strengths in areas where I am struggling. If you're willing to take a look or know someone who might be interested, please send me a message. Thank you all for reading. Stacey

Hi, Marcello. I loved this article. As I read I saw where I could improve my premises and immediately began thinking. Thank you so much. 👍❤️