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Sneak Peek: Author Interview with Nancy Guthrie

sneak peek

I always like to know a little something about an author before I sit down and open up his or her book. Today I get to share about not just one, but three(!!!) books coming out this fall from Nancy Guthrie. Nancy’s an encourager, mentor, and loving friend and I relish every opportunity I have to get one of her books in my hands. She offers wisdom, compassion, and a love for God and his Word in everything she writes. I can’t think of a better person to learn from.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I live in Nashville, Tennessee, with my husband, David. Our son, Matt just moved out of the house and commutes back to our house to work with my husband in his business, Little Big Stuff Music, which creates kids’ musicals for the church.Nancy Guthrie photo

I loved getting to teach through the Wisdom books at my church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, this summer. Today I’m working on preparations for a Respite Retreat David and I will host this weekend at which we’ll have 11 couples who have lost a child come to a 12-bedroom lodge outside of Nashville to spend the weekend working through that loss together. We host about four of these retreats a year. I’m also working on edits for the interviews I did on a trip last month to Australia for Help Me Teach the Bible, the podcast I host for The Gospel Coalition in which I interview excellent Bible teachers on how to teach particular books of the Bible. (But really it’s just my excuse to invite myself over to the homes or offices of theologians I really want to meet. Please don’t tell.)

When did you first start writing? What do you enjoy about it?

I started working at Word Publishing, the leading Christian publisher at the time, right out of college. So for years, because I worked in book publishing, people would ask me, “When are you going to write a book?” And I would say, “I will never know enough about one thing to write a whole book about it!” So I never had any dream of writing. But my many years working as a publicist in Christian publishing did prepare me for what I’m doing now in so many ways.

I wrote my first book, Holding on to Hopein 2001, which was my study through the book of Job during the lives and deaths of two of my children—Hope and Gabriel. I went to the book of Job trying to figure out how a godly person experiences great loss, questions God boldly in the midst of the loss, and emerges from loss in a way that his or her life could be described as good. At that point in my life, I thought it would never be good again. That little book has never been on a bestseller list, but Tyndale recently published a second edition, and it has been published in nine languages around the world. The sweet thing about this for me is though Hope and Gabe’s lives were so limited, there’s a sense in which they have had a voice all around the world.

Is writing ever difficult for you? How so?

People often ask me two questions that I find humorous. They ask if I go away to write. If I went away to write I would never live at home. Because I’m writing almost all the time. I need my books and the internet and the rhythm of daily life to write. They also ask if I have a particular time of day when I write. And my answer is that I pretty much get up in the morning and start writing with my toast and tea and keep writing until it is time to make dinner. There’s no waiting for inspiration. The writing process for me is more about study, research, and getting something down and then re-writing and re-writing.

What have you been writing recently?

I actually have two . . . okay three books coming out this fall.

What Grieving People Wish coverFor lots of years now there is one question I can always count on coming up in a Q&A session when I speak—“What should I say to someone who is grieving?” So I’ve talked about it a lot. A year or so ago a couple people also lifted up their hands to ask, “Is this in any of your books?” And my answer was, “no.” But now it is “yes.” It’s called What Grieving People Wish You Knew About What Really Helps and What Really Hurts. To write this book, I put up an online survey asking grieving people to tell me three things:

1. What is something someone said that was meaningful?

2. What is something someone did that was helpful?

3. What do you wish people understood about your grief?

And I got the most amazing responses, many of which are included in the book. I hope the book will serve to take away the intimidation factor that keeps so many of us from entering into the sorrow of someone else.

Praying Through the Bible for Your kids coverI have written several One Year® books for Tyndale. Every time I’ve finished one I’ve sworn I’ll never write another one. (Did you know there are actually 365 days in a year?!#) But over the past couple of years, I recognized that I really needed God’s Word to be shaping my dreams and desires as a parent instead of the culture around me, or the fears inside me. And I needed to pray more than worry or strategize or manipulate. So last summer I committed to write another one: The One Year Book of Praying Through the Bible For Your Kids. I told Tyndale that instead of pulling out verses about parenting (there are very few!), I wanted to work through a one-year Bible reading plan and find something to apply day by day for parents and create a prayer parents could pray for their child based on that day’s reading.

All is Bright coverAnd then, believe it or not, I—the most inartistic person you have ever known—have an adult coloring book coming out. Tyndale took my family advent devotional previously published under the title Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room, and turned it into an adult coloring book called All Is Bright. So get out your colored pencils and color your way to Christmas. (And by the way, I have an excuse for not being at all artistic. In the schools I grew up in you had to choose art or band, and I was always playing the flute in the band.)

Can you reveal of few of the things grieving people wish we knew?

what-grieving-people-wish-quote04There are really two key things: say something and show up. You see someone who has lost a loved one and you’re afraid to bring it up, but they really do want to talk about the person who died. They don’t necessarily want to give you a report on their grief, but they do want to hear the name of the person who died and be assured that they are not alone in their grief. And they want you to show up—at the visitation, at the funeral, at the graveside, and in the days and weeks and years that follow. Your presence matters.

Look for practical needs that can be met instead of saying, “Call me if you need anything.” They won’t call you if they need anything. I promise. No one wants to call someone up and ask, ”Will you come over and do my laundry? Or do my grocery shopping? Or mow my lawn? Or help me work through my finances?” But all of these normal things are hard in the midst of grief. You can be sure that whatever you do to serve someone in the simplest of ways when they are grieving will never be forgotten. They will remember you as someone who showed up.

How about your One Year Praying Through the Bible for Your KidsIs there an insight you could share from it?

In the introduction I explained my own need that prompted me to write the book in the way that I did:

I need much more than good advice. I need the commands and expectations of Scripture to keep me from complacency in parenting, and the grace and mercy presented in Scripture to save me from guilt in parenting. I need Scripture to puncture the pride that rises up in me when my child is doing well and I’m tempted to take the credit. And I need Scripture to save me from the despair that threatens to sink me when my child is floundering and I’m tempted to take all the blame.

I need the constant reminder that while I have influence and responsibility, I don’t have control over my child or everything about his or her world. While I can teach my child the Scriptures, I can’t be the Holy Spirit in my child’s life. While I can confront sinful patterns that need to change, I can’t generate spiritual life in my child that will lead to lasting change. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. What I can do is pray for my child and parent my child the best I know how, which will always be imperfectly. I can seek to trust God and keep trusting God to do what I cannot.

At this point in parenting I recognize that the things I want most for my child are things only God can do. And I want to be faithful and persistent in asking him to do them.

If you had an afternoon to do whatever you’d like, where would we find you?

We live adjacent to a fabulous park, and I try to get over there every day if I can to walk with one of my friends or listen to a podcast or sermon on my ipod. Recently David was transferring the contents of my computer to his hand-me-down computer I inherited, and he decided I have the world’s largest collection of audio sermons. I’m sure I don’t, but I’ve learned a lot from hearing how great communicators of God’s Word handle the Scriptures. I’m always trying to figure out how to get better at it.

For more of a sneak peek, here’s a video of Nancy sharing about her new book, What Grieving People Wish You Knew About What Really Helps and What Really Hurts.

 



Nancy Guthrie b&wNancy Guthrie teaches the Bible at her home church, Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee, as well as at conferences around the country and internationally, and through books and DVDs in the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament series. She offers companionship and biblical insight to the grieving through Respite Retreats that she and her husband, David, host for couples who have faced the death of child, through the GriefShare video series, and through books such as Holding on to Hope and Hearing Jesus Speak into Your Sorrow.

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