{"id":4542,"date":"2010-04-13T01:45:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-13T06:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=4542"},"modified":"2010-04-10T15:49:42","modified_gmt":"2010-04-10T20:49:42","slug":"her-mothers-hope-blog-tour-with-francine-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=4542","title":{"rendered":"Her Mother’s Hope Blog Tour with Francine Rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

INTERVIEW WITH FRANCINE RIVERS:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Can you tell us something about your Christian testimony?
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was reared in a Christian home.\u00a0 My parents were active in church, my father an elder, my mother a deaconess. I attended Christian summer camps, youth group and said grace at every meal.\u00a0 I thought being born into a Christian family and raised in the faith made me a Christian.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Each person makes their own choice, and it took me years to surrender to Jesus \u2013 not until after I\u2019d gone through college, married, had children and started a writing career. \u00a0\u00a0Rick and I went to church, but came away dissatisfied and knowing there must be something more. \u00a0\u00a0We both had personal issues that brought us close to divorce several times.\u00a0 We wanted our own way and to have control over our own lives.\u00a0\u00a0 Having control is an illusion.\u00a0 \u00a0As a child, I\u2019d asked Jesus to be my Savior.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t understand is I needed to surrender my life to Him and allow Him to be LORD of my life as well.<\/p>\n

Our marriage was on the verge of collapse when Rick started his own business. We moved to northern California to be closer to family.\u00a0 We made many outer changes, but no change of the heart.\u00a0 As we moved into our rental house, a little boy came over to help and said, \u201cHave I got a church for you!\u201d \u00a0We weren\u2019t ready to listen. The lady on the other side of our fence also invited us to the same church. \u00a0Out of desperation, I went a few weeks later. It was my first experience with \u201cexpository teaching.\u201d The pastor taught straight out of the Bible, explaining the historical context, what the scriptures were saying, and what they had to do with me in the present.\u00a0 I drank it in!\u00a0 I took my three children to church.\u00a0 They loved it.\u00a0 Rick resisted (after having a somewhat disheartening experience with a denominational church in Southern California).\u00a0 I asked the pastor if he would be willing to teach a home Bible study.\u00a0 He agreed — if Rick agreed, which he did.\u00a0 Studying the Bible changed our lives.\u00a0 Our hearts and minds opened to Christ.\u00a0 We both accepted Jesus as Savior and LORD and were baptized in May 1986.\u00a0 Since then, God has been changing our lives from the inside out.\u00a0 \u00a0The Lord also healed our marriage.\u00a0 We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary this year.<\/p>\n

How did you get started as a writer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

From the time I was a child, I knew I would be a writer.\u00a0 Because I didn\u2019t know what I would write, I majored in English (emphasis in literary writing) and minored in journalism (emphasis on who-what-when-where-why).\u00a0 My parents had always been non-fiction readers.\u00a0 Rick\u2019s family loved all kinds of books \u2013 and lots of fiction.\u00a0 Mom Edith loaned me novels and I loved them.\u00a0 On a dare (from Rick) I decided to write a combination of my favorite genres and wrote a \u201cwestern-gothic-romance\u201d.\u00a0 Romance novels were booming in the general market, publishers were on the look-out for new writers.\u00a0 My first manuscript sold and was published.\u00a0 I was hooked!\u00a0 I followed with eight or nine more (of what I call my B.C. (before Christ) books).\u00a0 They are all now out of print, are never to be reprinted, and are not recommended.<\/p>\n

When I turned my life over to Jesus, I couldn\u2019t write for three years.\u00a0 I tried, but nothing worked.\u00a0 I struggled against God over that because writing was my \u201cidentity.\u201d\u00a0 It took that period of suffering \u201cwriter\u2019s block\u201d to bring me to my senses.\u00a0 God was trying to open my eyes to how writing had become an idol in my life.\u00a0 It was the place I ran to escape, the one area of my life where I thought I was in complete control.\u00a0 (Hardly!)\u00a0 My priorities were all wrong and needed to be put right. \u00a0God first, husband and children second (we had three children by then) and third– work.\u00a0 I prayed God would change my heart.\u00a0 My love for writing and reading novels waned and my passion for reading and studying God\u2019s Word grew.<\/p>\n

Rick and I began hosting a home Bible study.\u00a0 I began working with Rick in his business.\u00a0 The children came along and played in the office, hiding in the shipping popcorn.\u00a0\u00a0 Writing ceased to matter.\u00a0 I was in love with Jesus and my husband and children.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God never stops with the transformation process.\u00a0 We began studying the book of Hosea, and I sensed God calling me to write again \u2013 this time a romance about Jesus\u2019 love for each of us.\u00a0 Redeeming Love<\/em> was the result. \u00a0It is the retelling of the Hosea story, set in Gold Rush-era California. After I turned it in, I wasn\u2019t sure whether I would write anything more.\u00a0 I had so many questions about what it means to be a Christian, how to live for God, different issues that still haunted me.\u00a0 I felt God nudging me toward using my writing as a tool to draw closer to Him.\u00a0 I would ask my question, create characters that would play out the different viewpoints and seek God\u2019s perspective.\u00a0\u00a0 I began work on A Voice in the Wind<\/em>.\u00a0 Writing has become a way to worship the Lord through story \u2013 to show how intimately He wants to be involved in our lives.<\/p>\n

Where do you get your ideas for your plots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almost every story I have written since becoming a Christian has come from a question that regards a struggle in my own faith walk.\u00a0\u00a0 The plot centers around the different ways that question can be answered by \u201cthe world\u201d \u2013 but the quest is to find God\u2019s answer.\u00a0\u00a0 Here is a list of my novels with the questions that started each story:<\/p>\n