Happy St. Paddy's Day:)

I'm wearing my green; are you?

Bronwyn Green blogged about misconceptions of romance authors the other day; I'd like to add the one that really makes me roll my eyes.

It's the one where I show someone what I'm working on or writing, and they immediately assume I'm either an atheist or my soul is in dire need of salvation.

I've been a Christian my entire life, and made my statement of faith before the Elders of our Presbyterian church when I was 13. I spend at least 5-10 minutes every morning doing a Daily Devotion aka Quiet Time aka Q.T. I married a non-practicing Catholic, but when our children started asking questions, we made the decision to commit to Sunday morning church services. And since my husband would only consider the Catholic Church, off we went. He confessed and is now able to partake in the Eucharist; our oldest, who was baptized in my home church, converted to Catholisism so he could partake of the Sacraments. I decided to take the Catholic classes, in order to understand more fully what my kids were about to learn, and discovered I have a better knowledge of the Holy Bible than most Catholics!

No, my Protestant upbringing held true and I did not convert. I attend church; I pray constantly (and not just what is being recited...sometimes I silently will pray my own prayers!), I half-kneel on the kneelers; in short, I do almost everything except take Communion. And I often tick off my hubby by sometimes changing the words to the Lord's Prayer!

In fact, the two of us are conflicted our needs in the church. Hubby feels more at home in our home parish up in Martinsville, rather than the church we attend, which happens to be the one in which he grew up. I love our priest down here, because he is a wonderful speaker, and often 'zings' me, or challenges me on certain topics.

Like the question he posed yesterday:

When you look back on your spiritual journey, what do you see? Are you devout? A Peter, who runs away when confronted, and then turns his life around? A hypocrite, who is pius on Sunday but not the rest of the week? Or are you a doubter, waiting to see some proof?

I guess in the eyes of some, the fact that I choose to write erotica labels me a hypocrite. But you know what? God gave me this talent for putting words together. He also gave me a conscience, so if I'm not comfortable with what I'm writing, then I can re-evaluate the reasons behind it. I don't try to 'shock' anyone. If a person doesn't like what I've written, I will gladly point them to some other author who writes more conservatively.

But don't throw stones at me until you examine your own heart and actions. I know where I'm headed when Jesus calls me home. Do you?