Amber Ravatsaas

Christian Fiction for Young Adults

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Issues of the Heart

Issues of the heart

What does the discipline of your children say about your life and priorities? Let’s say someone asked your child what would get them into more trouble: Breaking a favorite plate, or disobeying mom and dad? How would they respond? Disobedience is a heart matter whereas breaking a plate isn’t.

Are we more interested in things of this world than issues of the heart? Do we focus on the worldly matters more? Our life and our choices need to point our children to Christ. Of course, we will mess up and sin along the way, but use those opportunities to ask for forgiveness and share the Gospel with your children.

How do we respond to the failures of our children? When they fail do we scold them, or get angry at them? What would happen if we got down on their level and encouraged them or even just gave them a hug and said “I love you.” Then work together with them to get better at whatever it is they aren’t good at. Helping them improve! What would our response be if we didn’t get something we wanted?

Life will bring us all sorts of problems it’s how you handle them. Will you use them to point your children to Christ, or will you use them to show your kids the way that the World responds?

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120 One-Word Writing Prompts

120 One-Word Writing Prompts
Ever get stuck with what to write about? Me too! I love using one-word writing prompts to inspire and challenge me to write more. I made a list of 120 words that you can use to help you write more. The fun part with one-word writing prompts is that everyone has a different interpretation for each one. What will you write about next?
1. Sometimes
2. Believe
3. Gratitude
4. Love
5. Music
6. Trust
7. Tradition
8. Snow
9. Hope
10. White
11. Adorable
12. Pattern
13. Red
14. Dance
15. Captive
16. Watch
17. Flee
18. Alarm
19. Dying
20. Fan
21. Seek
22. Past
23. Short
24. Reflection
25. Coffee
26. Sun
27. Breathtaking
28. Movie
29. Hands
30. Laugh
31. Honesty
32. Home
33. Travel
34. Water
35. Two
36. Wonderful
37. Beauty
38. Blessing
39. Warm
40. Chocolate
41. Blanket
42. Stars
43. Darkness
44. Light
45. Simple
46. Past
47. Fall
48. Blue
49. Eyes
50. Sadness
51. Brick
52. Style
53. Fault
54. Forgiveness
55. Suitcase
56. Dreams
57. Ocean
58. Purple
59. Grace
60. Fire
61. Toys
62. Riddle
63. Open
64. World
65. Yearn
66. Year
67. New
68. Hunger
69. Formula
70. Willpower
71. Genetic
72. Mother
73. Father
74. Heartache
75. Thirsty
76. Milk
77. Smelly
78. Ice
79. Crying
80. Sleep
81. Friendship
82. Book
83. Dare
84. Fruit
85. Owl
86. Scream
87. Yellow
88. Disobedience
89. Path
90. River
91. Stand
92. Horizon
93. Energy
94. Hero
95. Vision
96. Collect
97. Story
98. Leaves
99. Target
100. Photograph
101. Write
102. Listen
103. Swim
104. Simple
105. Blue
106. Terminal
107. Fly
108. Wind
109. Bird
110. Nest
111. Eye
112. Eavesdrop
113. Flood
114. Growl
115. Rain
116. Sugar
117. Shadow
118. Monster
119. Angry
120. Number

**I would love for you to join my Facebook group called, Christian Writers Guild. It’s a place to receive encouragement, feedback on their writing, and help. Whether you’re a new writer or published author I hope that you will find this group to be helpful. Please be sure to answer the two questions after you request to join.**

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Theology and Anxiety

Theology & Anxiety

**These were my notes from Todd Friels DVD titled: Anxiety- The Biblical Cure**

What do the two of these have to do with each other? Actually, a lot! If you are not sound in your theology then you won’t have a correct view of God, which will lead you to be anxious. Theology is the study of God, and when we study God’s Word and really get to know Him and his love, goodness, and grace then we will understand and be able to trust more. How can we put our faith and trust in someone we don’t even know?

When we are engulfed in the things of this world then our mind will be overtaken by those things rather than the Word of God. Our thoughts drive our emotions, and when we think about worldly things then we have worldly emotions. But because I know the Truth of God’s Word it has changed my thinking and focus on Him instead of myself.

When we have a correct and sound understanding of the one true God our thoughts will not be on things of this world, but rather things above. Churches have traded in sound doctrine for entertainment and pleasure, instead of preaching God’s Word we decided that we would rather focus on pleasing each other. The Lord must be in FULL control of our lives He must be the engine that is running us, not the world.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

-Psalm 119:105

Which path are you on?

  1. Jesus, Bible, Truth —> Faith —> Thinking —> Emotions —> Actions —> Emotions
  2. World, Devil, Lies, Self —> Faith (self) —> Emotions —> Thinking —> Actions —> Emotions

Let me leave you with a final thought from Todd Friel:

Knowing that the Bible is the word of God and not man should give someone great confidence when they read about who God is and, in this particular context, what He says about anxiety and worry. These are not just helpful thoughts based upon man’s ideas but are God’s divine revelation to us. Because of that, everything God says is completely reliable. It is absolute truth. This should bring great encouragement to the anxious heart and peace to the worrier.

**I started a group for those of us that are dealing with or have dealt with this disorder. This is a safe place for women only to open up about their feelings, offer support, and pray for one another. If you are interested in joining us, we would love to have you! Click Here to request to join!**

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Dealing With Anxiety

Dealing With Anxiety

So my post the other day provoked a lot of passion. I received lots of stories and messages of comfort from individuals. But, I need to follow up with you and not just leave you all hanging; I want to give you some support and with the Lord’s guidance, help you. I don’t want you to commiserate with me and feel bad about yourself for having this disorder. I want you to do something and take charge of it! Anxiety is something that we need to fight continually day in and day out. But we need to fight it with words of truth, God’s Word not the wisdom of the “world”. When we let the things of this world overtake us and our thinking it’s easy for our minds and thoughts to wander.

I used to watch the news but had to stop because it was exceeding my thoughts and making me anxious about everything and everyone around me. Once I deleted those pages and apps from my life, I could focus better on the important matters at hand rather than the sit and worry all day. Garbage in garbage out!

I know how easy it is to use this disorder as a “crutch” of some sort. We like to blame our shortcomings on it and use it to get out of situations we know will not be easy for us. We need to face our fears and do things we don’t like to do! Once we put ourselves in situations that make us anxious, it will get easier.

Isaiah 41:10- “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Memorize God’s Word and His truth and repeat those to yourself daily, preach the Gospel to yourself, and have someone close to you to encourage you. It can be so debilitating when we are told that we don’t have enough faith, or we need to do XYZ then we will be “cured” of Anxiety. Anxiety is a battle that many people struggle with and telling them they need to have more faith is counterproductive.

If someone close to you struggles with Anxiety, please come beside them and give them the Truths from the Bible, tell them how much you love them, and tell them you will pray for them and then pray for them!

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Social Anxiety

Social Anxiety

Hi, my name is Amber, and I have Social Anxiety! I get nervous and worked up when I meet new people or even worse, have to talk to them. My heart starts pounding 120 BPM; palms start sweating, and I lose all vocabulary. The night before having to meet people that I am unfamiliar with I lay awake planning my words carefully, which is pointless because I forget what I planned out in my head as soon as my eyes close. I would much rather write than speak. I feel like I can explain myself better when I write and get all the words that are jumbled in my head out. Writing gives me that creative outlet that I need to express myself, and speaking I just feel like a mess.

[Read more…]

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The Perfect Child

The Perfect Child

When I was living over in Norway and going to language school, I rode the bus. Every morning we would pass this music store that had a picture of a little boy playing his guitar and singing his little heart out. I loved that picture so much and was convinced that that was going to be what my son would be like.

Little Boy With Guitar

Well, I came across it the other day while I was looking at an article. It was a subtle reminder to me of how the Lord has better plans for our lives than we do. Maybe one day my little Liam will be a guitar player and have an awesome voice, but what if he doesn’t? It wouldn’t matter to me. I love him just the way that he is and how God made him to be. Plus I think he is way cuter than the little boy in the picture 😉

It’s taught me not to have these expectations of my children that are not realistic. I don’t want them to grow up as little cookie cutter children I want them to be themselves and have their own personalities. Yes, train them up in the ways of the Lord, but at some point they are going to have thoughts and opinions of their own. I don’t know what we will face down the road with my three little blessings, but I pray that they will all come to know the Lord as their Savior and choose to follow Him.

That’s one of the hardest things for a parent to accept, I think. I wish that I could earn it for them or had some way to assure that they would come to the Lord. It’s an especially hard place for me to trust the Lord with. We pray every night for our children’s salvation and that the Lord would open their eyes to His saving grace, and we teach them about Him daily during devotions. I know that neither of these things will assure their salvation, but I am continuing to plant seeds of faith in their lives.

The Lord hears my cries and knows my thoughts, desires, and plans for my kids, but regardless of my plans His plans are always better, and I need to learn to trust in the Lord.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

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Fixing Grammar with Grammarly

Fixing Grammar With Grammarly

I struggled in English class back in High School, and I struggle with it still today. Grammar has always been hard for me to understand. But if you are going to be a writer it’s something that you need to know and know well. I am so thankful that I stumbled across this neat program called Grammarly it has helped me immensely with my writing. It lets me know what I did wrong and how to fix it with examples and explanations.

I did end up signing up for a premium account because it checks over 250 grammatical errors, provides vocabulary enhancement suggestions, detects plagiarism, and provides citation suggestions. If you sign up for a free account, you will be able to download a free browser extension (for Chrome and Safari) that will correct over 150 types of grammatical errors wherever you are writing online. So, you will have a grammar checker when you’re on Facebook, WordPress, or writing emails!

They also send you a weekly writing update with how you are doing, and sometimes it will include what areas need work. So, for the week of October 12-18th I wrote 10,297 words, I made 1,415 mistakes and used 651 unique words. Now I know that I need to expand my vocabulary a bit and work on my mistakes. I have used Grammarly every day now for the past month, and it has made me more conscious of my mistakes and areas that need improvements.

Try it for free and see what you think 🙂
The #1 Writing Tool

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The Blessing of a Sensitive Child

The Blessing Of A Sensitive Child

The other day my daughter, Anya, was eating breakfast when all of a sudden she stopped and big tears rolled down her cheeks. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that she wants to stay little for forever and never grow up. She hates the thought of leaving her mom and dad one day and getting married it always seems to make her cry.

We tell her that it’s inevitable that she’s going to grow up, but she doesn’t have to leave us for many years. I am sure that she will eventually change her mind about moving out and getting married, but I love how much she loves being with her family. Anya has matured so much in the last few months, and I have enjoyed getting a front row seat to watch her grow and develop.

Anya is my sensitive child her feelings get hurt easily, and we have to watch our words around her. Being her mom has taught me lots about how to react to her in a calm collective manner because that’s what she responds best to. Raising my voice doesn’t help the situation at all and only makes matters worse for the both of us. She enjoys when we calmly talk things over with her and explain them in a way that makes sense to her.

It’s a blessing to have such a sensitive child in my family. She makes me think about things and look at them differently than I normally would. I learned more about empathy and being able to sympathize with those around me. Things that seem mundane to me aren’t to her! I love her heart and her deep concern for other people’s feelings. She is an amazing little girl, and I am so blessed to be called Mama by her.

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Vacation

One-Word Writing Prompt: Vacation

When the kids get a little older and can understand and appreciate vacations more, I would love to travel with them. Growing up my parents always took us on these fabulous vacations to different parts of the US and even Europe one summer. I loved the time together as a family, and I want to be able to give my children those same experiences.

One of my favorite vacation spots is Canon Beach, Oregon. I always enjoyed staying right by the Ocean in a beautiful hotel. It was so cool to wake up to the sound of the Ocean every morning and smell the salty water. We had a view of Haystack Rock (goonies anyone?) from our deck and during low tide you could walk right out to it! Walking on the beach is so peaceful and calming. There is something about a sunset beach walk…

My second favorite vacation spot is Colorado. We spent a lot of time as a family hiking together in the Colorado mountains. I loved the silly songs that we made up as we hiked, the conversations we had, and all the laughter. It was time spent together without the distraction of electronics. Those moments I will treasure forever.

So, one day my dream would be to rent an RV and travel with my family across the country visiting all the major landmarks and showing my children some of my favorite places, and maybe even some new ones. Making our new memories along the way 🙂

What are some of your favorite vacation spots?

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Dance

Writing Prompt: Dance

We take lots of dance breaks around here just to lighten up the mood or take a small break from what we were up to. It helps to cut tension I mean you can’t be mad when you’re in the middle of dancing, right? When I was a little girl, I took dance lessons. I loved to spend time with my friends and dance together. I think my favorite part was the dance recitals and the cute costumes that we got to wear!

Now, if you were to watch any of my dance videos, you would quickly realize that I should never become a dancer, ever. I spent most of my time dancing in front of the huge mirror in the front of the class instead of following what my teacher wanted me to do. In most of the videos the class would be on the opposite side of the room from me.

Honestly, I am glad that my dancing “career” never went further than it did, and that I get to embarrass my children now with my unique dancing skills… poor kids.