A Day Late, or maybe two weeks

First, I need to apologize to my wonderful Girls, God, and the Good Life bloggers! I was supposed to blog two weeks ago and somehow time slipped past as I traveled and wrote.

And here I am, out of turn, but with a promise to get back on track.

Lately life has been a blur--but a good blur.

A new book is out. Making It Real: Whose Faith Is It Anyway? is a discipleship book for teens. I started this series when I started hearing the reports that many twentysomethings and college students were abandoning their faith when they go to college or leave home for the first time, even when they were totally connected to God all through their teen years.

There are a lot of reasons that people say this happens, but after getting to hang out with wonderful teens for a long, long time, I think that sometimes faith gets all mixed up with other good things--like church, or tradition, or family beliefs. That's good stuff, but not enough when you need to dig down deep and find out what you believe when you're on your own and life hits, or when others question why you believe.

So, Making It Real helps you discover your own beliefs, carving out all the voices so that you can hear God, and make your faith your own.

Besides this book, I'm in the editing process of my next book for twentysomethings called The Woman I Am Becoming: Embracing the Chase for Identity, Faith, and Destiny. Isn't the cover beautiful?

Last, I'm packing my bags tomorrow to go to a wonderful Christian writer's conference at Mount Hermon, and then I'm off to Europe to speak in Hungary, Austria, and Germany with a very cool organization called Hearts at Home.

So, busy, yes. But also grateful. Each of these adventures are a little scary, and a whole lot of wonderful, and I'd love to know that you are praying. I need those prayers.

Are you a communicator? Are you someone who feels that one day you'd like to write? Or perhaps share the gospel in creative ways--speaking, drama, comedy? I think there are many of you who do. In fact, one of my friends has started a conference for teens and twentysomethings called She Speaks! for those who feel that God has called them to communicate the message of hope!

This is the deal. If you have that dream, I pray that you'll begin to use those gifts and sharpen those skills. For me, speaking is just as powerful in my home city of Muskogee, OK as I speak in high schools each month as it is Budapest. Writing in this amazing blog and getting to connect with you is just as awesome to me as writing my next book.

Talk to us about it. I want to hear your dreams, and perhaps what you hope God will do in your life, as well as where you are going with that dream--right now, right where you are.

Suzie (T. Suzanne)

http://realteenfaith.com