Rise and Shine: Encouragement to Start Your Day - Hardcover

Higgs, Liz Curtis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400070007 ISBN 13: 9781400070008

Publisher: WaterBrook, 2004

Synopsis

When you rise from your bed, how many minutes does it take before you truly shine?

Oh, dear. That long.

Might I have just two of those precious minutes each morning? Two minutes to whisper a gentle word of encouragement, to brush a feather across your funny bone, to prove how beautiful and valuable you are to God?

Two minutes. No calories, no squat thrusts, I promise.

Rise, sister mine. And shine.

About this title

About the Author:

Liz Curtis Higgs has been telling tales since she wrote her first “novel” at the tender age of ten. Careers in broadcasting, public speaking, nonfiction writing, and children’s books brought her back to her first love–fiction–at the turn of the 21st century.

Since 1986, Liz Curtis Higgs has presented more than 1,500 inspirational programs for audiences in all 50 states as well as Germany, England, Canada, Ecuador, France, and Scotland. In 1995, Liz received the highest award for speaking excellence, the “Council of Peers Award for Excellence,” becoming one of only forty women in the world named to the Speaker Hall of Fame by the National Speakers Association.

Feature articles about Liz have appeared in more than 250 major newspapers and magazines across the country, and she has been interviewed on more than 600 radio and television stations, including guest appearances on PBS/Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, A & E, MSNBC, NPR, CBC Canada, BBC Radio Scotland, Focus on the Family, and Janet Parshall’s America.

A member of Novelists, Inc., Liz now focuses her writing efforts on historical fiction, particularly novels set in eighteenth-century Scotland. To aid in her research, she has visited the U.K. on eight occasions, including her "Heart for Scotland" 12-city U.K. book tour in October 2003, and she has collected nearly 700 resource books on Scottish history and culture. A graduate of Bellarmine College with a B.A. in English, Liz is a member of the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society and the Dumfries & Galloway Family History Society, as well as supporting the National Museums of Scotland, Historic Scotland, and the National Trust for Scotland.

Liz is the author of twenty-one books, with more than 2 million in print. Her fiction to date includes two historical novels and two contemporary novels:
· Fair Is the Rose
· Thorn in My Heart
· Bookends
· Mixed Signals

The most recent of her 11 nonfiction, best-selling books include...
· Unveiling Mary Magdalene
· Really Bad Girls of the Bible
· Bad Girls of the Bible

The above titles also have corresponding VHS videos and companion workbooks.
And she has written five books for young children:
· Go Away, Dark Night
· The Parable of the Lily
· The Pine Tree Parable
· The Sunflower Parable
· The Pumpkin Patch Parable

Her children’s Parable Series was awarded the ECPA Gold Medallion for Excellence at the Christian Booksellers Association Convention in July 1998, and her book Bad Girls of the Bible was an ECPA Gold Medallion Finalist in 2000. Her first novel, Mixed Signals, was a RITA Finalist for both Best First Novel and Best Inspirational Novel. Her second novel, Bookends, was a Christy Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction. And her third novel, Thorn in My Heart, was a #1 historical fiction Christian bestseller, followed by a second historical bestseller, Fair Is the Rose. Whence Came a Prince, the latest novel in the series, publishes in March 2005. In addition, Liz is the editor of an annual newsletter, The Graceful Heart, with 25,000 readers, and is a columnist for Today’s Christian Woman magazine with her back page feature, "Life with Liz." Her first video Bible study series, Loved by God, was released in March 2004.

On the personal side, Liz is married to Bill Higgs, Ph.D., who serves as Director of Operations for her speaking and writing office. Liz and Bill share their 19th-century farmhouse in Louisville, KY, with their two teenagers, Matthew and Lillian, and too many cats. For more about Liz, visit her Web site: www.LizCurtisHiggs.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

RISE AND SHINE,
SISTER MINE

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.
—ISAIAH 60:1

When you rise from your bed, rubbing the sleep out of your eyes and the tangles out of your disheveled hair, how many minutes does it take before you can truly shine?

Oh, dear. That long.

Might I have just two of those precious minutes each morning?

Two minutes to whisper a gentle word of encouragement, to brush a feather across your funny bone, to prove how beautiful and valuable you are to God.

Say yes, sis.

The most important part will be our first few seconds together, as you drink in the living water of God’s Word. My own simple words will follow, closing with a prayer from my heart to yours. Only two or three pages, then you can put Rise and Shine aside and reach for your morning coffee.

Like the varied images that greet you in the morning, the tone and subject of each day’s message will be quite different—some are playful, some inspiring, others more serious. Promise me you’ll only read one chapter a day, or you might suffer from spiritual whiplash!

You’ll find occasional references to surveys or quotes from, say, “Nancy from New York.” For years I gathered information and stories from readers, and so they’re quoted here. Just think of them as friends you haven’t met yet.

If you’ve already read several of my early nonfiction titles, from Does Dinner in a Bucket Count? to “While Shepherds Washed Their Flocks” and Other Funny Things Kids Say and Do, or some of my articles in Today's Christian Woman, then—bless your generous, supportive heart!—this may not be all-new material for you. But if you and I have met only recently across the printed page, then Rise and Shine will be the perfect way for us to catch up with one another.

Perhaps you are doing more than rising from the comfort of your bed. You may be rising from the depths of a disastrous lifestyle or a painful relationship, determined to start fresh. Arise, beloved sister. Strong hands await to hold you steady.

Perhaps you fear you’ve lost your shine. The glow of good health, the sparkle of young love, the shimmer of a new mother’s tears—all have faded into a gray sort of daily grind. Fear not. Turn with me toward the radiant One and let his light be reflected in your countenance like the dawn of a summer day.

Two minutes. No calories, no squat thrusts, I promise.

Rise, sister mine. And shine.

Lord, what an honor it will be to start the day with you.
Give me the strength to lift my head,
the courage to lift my heart,
the joy to lift my spirits,
and the confidence to lift my eyes and see you
rising and shining in me.

About this edition

• Publisher: WaterBrook
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1400070007
• ISBN 13: 9781400070008
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272