Amish Overload

2012-01-03T10:09:00.000-06:00

When my agent suggested I write an Amish story I wondered how I would do that without knowing much about them. Having a parent who grew up on a farm and the other on a ranch did help with knowing about country life. I have always admired their determination to live a life that is from the past, somewhere between the prairie days and a modern day farm, but there is nothing modern about them. And there are a lot of different groups with different names that mean different things. There’s the Old Order, the New Order, the Progressive Amish and the Beachy Amish, Beachy Amish Mennonite, and Amish Mennonite, Swartentruber Amish, and there’s even more. Whew! Are you confused yet? I was.

I like to give the reader a real account of the facts with whatever I’m writing but I had no idea how much research there would be about the Amish. That’s when I discovered how many other people were searching for information about them too. I don’t know when it happened or how, but people are crazy over Amish. The conversion rate is up and tourism is at an all time high. There are Amish documentaries, movies and even a reality show called Amish in the City. You can buy a Whoopie Pie at Starbucks and Shoofly Pie at your local Corner Bakery.

So great, there’s a ton of info out there to do research for my books, but once I got started there was so much I had to start piecing together what I needed for each story. There is always research when writing a fiction book, no matter what you’re writing about but I’d never had access like this. It’s turned out to be just as much work sorting through the information than trying to dig up info on a less demanding subject.

There’s another problem. The Amish don’t want to be the center of attention or have their picture taken, so there are not many ways to get a first account from the very people I’m writing about. Fortunately, I’ve found an Amish group close by so I have some Amish to observe first-hand in case there is something I’ve written that may be questionable or doesn’t depict them correctly. I recently attended an Amish wedding which was very different than any I’ve been to or read about, so the information was important to know before writing a similar scene in one of my stories.

My conclusion as to the fascination about the Amish is that people like to read about them because it takes them back to a different time, when things were simpler and people lived as a community that puts God first.

View the first two pages of the devotional

2010-02-21T18:16:00.000-06:00

Parents,

Peace for Parents of Teens is for parents who experience struggles as their teenagers try to mature and discover their own identity in this world.

When my daughter was going through hardships, I wanted desperately to find encouragement to give me peace of mind before I laid my head down each night; something to help me feel that I wasn’t a bad mother and that my daughter wasn’t a bad child; comfort that let me know God was there in our midst and that He was seeing us through this storm. These devotionals provided just that—unconditional peace of mind.

Each week of this devotional has a topic. Each day of the week there is a verse of encouragement, a question, and a prayer that you can pour over your child. That nugget of peace will help get you through the night knowing you’ve called on God and covered your teen with hope. A tie-in paragraph addresses some of the struggles teens are dealing with today.

Peace for Parents of Teens can also be used as a parent-teen meditation if and when the teen is willing. Parents can choose whether to answer the questions themselves or to think about how their teen might answer. The questions are designed to personalize the verse and prayer, so use these tools to best fit your approach.

Before you turn the page, I want to tell you that no matter how you feel, you are a good parent. Any other kind wouldn’t be reading this book.

In Him,

Beth

WEEK 1 – FITTING IN

Day 1

Love the LORD with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5

What do you love more than God? How do you feel about others when you love God more?

With divorce breaking apart half of the marriages today, teens need to understand what it means to show love to others. As much as parents want to be good examples, it doesn’t always happen. The more positive relationships our teens can experience, the more they will learn how to create their own.

"I looked to Him, He looked on me, and we were one forever." Charles H. Spurgeon, from The Search for God

Prayer: Lord, show ___ how to truly love, to put aside self-consciousness and display affection, to demonstrate care and value to the people in (his/her) life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Author Beth Shriver's Blog

Amish Overload

View the first two pages of the devotional