A devotional by Susan Karsten

"You are a shield around me, O Lord, my Glorious One, who lifts up my head. To the Lord I cry aloud and He answers me from His holy hill." (an excerpt from Psalm 3, ESV)

Don’t be alarmed at me crying out…just in prayer! “Just” — that’s an understatement. As one of God’s children, I have access to my Heavenly Father at all times.

While jogging this morning, thoughts whirling, I started calling God’s name. My mind settled and little things started coming into notice. Little things – is not our God a God of the little and the big?

The inside of my right knee stopped twinging. My meager 1-2 mile run could continue apace.

I saw a charming sight. A small boy, in his shade-dappled yard, throwing a ball to himself, and whacking it. Practicing his hitting. He looked surprised when I gave him a little round of applause as I chugged past.

My bandanna, the one I had folded into a makeshift headband to keep my hair out of my face, slipped down over my left ear. Phffft! A large bug hit the bandanna, right over my ear. Just think of the horror if the bandanna hadn’t fallen over my ear. A large bug would have gone into my ear – a direct hit. Praise God for slipping bandannas. Is anything left to chance? I wonder at that.

I reached home looking forward to one of my favorite household tasks, hanging laundry on a line. Wow! I have a dryer and a clothesline – I am blessed.

Info on my new release: A Match for Melissa

Susan Karsten here, happy to announce that my first novel, “A Match for Melissa”, has been published by Pelican Book Group! It was released to the public on July 7, and is available on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble’s website.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent review:

“The author did her homework. “A Match for Melissa” is chock full of details on life in rural England and upper class London. The characters are delightful. Unless they are bad. (The bad ones are really wonderfully bad.) Melissa is an intelligent woman with an independent bent to her nature who still functions inside the strict rules of protocol for her class. Her father, also independent, but with greater latitude and freedom than a woman, is in charge not only of the family fortune but also the choice of Melissa’s future husband. Much of the tension comes from wondering when Melissa will be able to be matched with the man she really loves."