Hello, my friend!
I hope you’re having a great week thus far! I feel like all my intros have been the same lately: lots of swimming and splashing and fun in the sun. Over the weekend, however, we changed things up with a trip to the beach (still swimming, splashing, and sun fun, but at the beach, so…), which we try to do at least twice a month. I never thought I’d live by the ocean and have such a blast learning about the sea and all the marine life we have here at the Gulf. My five-year-old is becoming quite a seashell collector/aficionado, and my 18-month-old is, well, embracing her inner mermaid with endless rolls and deliberate falls into the waves. Ah, the good life…
I hope you enjoy this week’s Top 4! Please feel free to reach out to me anytime with questions, prayer requests, or a friendly greeting by emailing me at diana.tyler86@gmail.com!
EMBRACE YOUR INCOMPETENCE
“It is God who enables. He fits us for the tasks as we yield ourselves to Him. Often God plants us in places where we never trained to be. God is going to get the glory for His work. When we are placed in situations where we feel completely incapable or incompetent, it is there that God is most glorified, because we were forced to cling to Him in total dependency. My ministry or abilities or giftings are not the things which glorify God the most. I can be living like the devil and exercise all of these. But when I am asked to do something I’ve never done before, for which I have no human ability, I can make excuses or fall into the able hands of my savior.”
– Nathan Graves, The Mystery of Catastrophe
RECENT READS
So far this summer, I’ve read two excellent novels that I highly recommend for anyone who enjoys historical fiction: Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
I’m currently in the opening chapters of The Nightingale and have already fallen in love with it! I can tell its author, Kristin Hannah, and I are going to be kindred spirits. Of course she’ll never know that because we will likely never meet, but, well, if you’re a bibliophile like me, you know what I’m trying to say! We find writers we “vibe with” and envision them as besties – at least I do!
THE SOURCE OF IMPROVEMENT
“You have to finish things – that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things.”
– Neil Gaiman
LITERARY QUOTE I LOVE
The following is from another excellent book by Edith Hamilton called The Greek Way:
“Life was an adventure, perilous indeed, but men are not made for safe havens. The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory.”
How are you turning “defeats” into victories in your life?
This one’s for the moms! In my latest podcast, titled “How Everyday Moms Can Live Like Hollywood Heroes,” I share a thought-provoking concept based on a piece of advice I shared recently in this here email: live cinematically. Hope you enjoy the audio version 
.
Thank you as always for your support of my writing!
Fiction:
NEW: Where I Go Night-Night (children’s picture book)
NEW!: The God Next Door (comedic fantasy)
Medusa’s Wish (fantasy)
Moonbow: Prequel to The Petros Chronicles (fantasy)
Age of the Ashers (fantasy)
War of the Ashers (fantasy)
Fate of the Ashers (fantasy)
The Petros Chronicles Boxset
Armor for Orchids (Christian Women’s Contemporary)
Orchid Unshaken (Christian Women’s Contemporary)
Orchid Unbound (Christian Women’s Contemporary)
Orchid Unfading (Christian Women’s Contemporary)
Non-Fiction:
Fit for Faith: A Christian Woman’s Guide to Total Fitness
Perfect Fit Couples Edition: Workouts and Reflections for a Rock-Solid Relationship
Perfect Fit: Weekly Wisdom and Workouts for Women of Faith and Fitness
Perfect Fit No Excuses: 15-Minute Workouts for Life’s Busiest Days
Immeasurable Fitness Challenge: 18 Days of Total Health for Spirit, Soul, and Body
Immeasurable: Diving in the Depths of God’s Love (a memoir)
Pour Me Out: 30 Days to a More Selfless Life