Let Your Voice be Heard

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Greetings to all my friends. I want to thank you for so faithfully reading my blog posts. Words cannot express how deeply I appreciate each one of you.

I didn’t enter this writing world lightly. I began writing when I was a child. I poured over Childcraft books and tried my hand at poetry from the time I could write. When I was in the seventh grade, I wrote my first novel. But then, life took over. I went away to college, got married, had kids and didn’t really write during those later years until those kids went to school.

A Mountaintop Experience

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Before you read my post, let me apologize for the tardiness in getting this out to you. The internet at Ridgecrest simply wouldn't let me get this done. Believe me, if you read my post about being technology challenged, you will undertand, it is likely the poster and not the entity with which she tried to post. Thank you for your understanding and your grace.

This is the week many of my writer friends and I eagerly await. The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference is being held this week at Ridgecrest in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I’ve been coming to this for six years, ever since my first one in 2014.

I wish you could experience this with me. Imagine five-hundred writers, all feeling called to write for the Kingdom of God. Add to that, a fabulous faculty, a staff dedicated to making our experience one we will want to repeat, and two brilliant, creative, lovely, godly women who give of themselves all year to make this the best it can possibly be, and you have the makings of one spectacular conference.

Peace in the Storms of Life

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

I hope you will be blessed by these words and the accompanying photograph. With the hurricane hitting my state and those around us this week, I thought we could all use the reminder that Christ is the Peace within the storm. Even when the flood waters rise around us, He is still there, holding us in the palm of His hand. May we find His deep peace in the coming days as we work to get our lives back to normal.

TWEETABLE

Peace in the Storms of Life @DDuPreeWilliams (Click to Tweet)

At the End of Your Rope?

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Have you ever felt that you were at the end of your rope? I think most of us have. Sometimes life just throws so much at us that it’s hard to cope. We don’t know if the decisions we’ve made are the right ones, friends betray us, people say hurtful, cruel things to us or about us. The ones we thought would always be there either leave this world or they simply abandon us for one reason or another.

When I saw the man up in the tree in our back yard, I had to walk away. See, I’m deathly afraid of heights—Acrophobia. I have a case of that big time. I don’t do well on even a short step ladder. Forget the eight-foot one out in our garage. Nope. That little beauty is my husband’s domain.

We recently moved into our condo here in North Carolina. The actual move-in was at the end of January, but we weren’t really living here until the beginning of May. In January, there were no leaves on the trees outside our rear windows. We had a fairly unobstructed view of the golf course that lies beyond our boundary.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree

by Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Y’all already know that I am an amateur genealogist. I’ve been doing family searches for quite a few years and I’ve learned a great many things in that time, but I am, by no means, an expert. I still have to call on my sister Bobbie, or a cousin or two for help from time to time.

Genealogy is a lot of fun. I enjoy learning about my ancestors, where they came from and how they lived their lives. But the research can be grueling when you can’t find that one piece of the puzzle that will open a door. We call these situations, brick walls. I’ve run into more than one in my research. It’s disheartening when you know you know and yet you cannot find the piece of paper to prove what you know to be true. No lineage society will allow you to enter on your word alone. You must have that paper trail.

I Have All I Need

by Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

Papa, Bob DuPree, Surrounded by His Family On his 90th Birthday

This past week was my Papa’s birthday. He would have been ninety-seven years old. It’s hard to believe that the man I loved so much is no longer on this earth. I know, without a doubt, he is in Heaven with his Lord and Savior and I am sure he is walking around telling everyone, “God loves you, and so do I.”

That was one of Papa’s favorite sayings. It didn’t matter who you were or where you may have run into him. He didn’t care if he knew you or not. To him, everyone he met was his brother or sister in Christ. When he left, the last words he would say to you would be, “God loves you, and so do I”.

Mothers of Boys - You've Got This

by Debra DuPree Williams  @DDuPreeWilliams

December 2012, Indian Rocks Beach, FL

If you’ve read my bio, you know that I am the mother of four boys. Well, they’re all grown men now, thanks be to God. And I don’t say that lightly.

My nephew and his wife have five sons and two daughters. I have a lot of friends who are the mothers of boys. It seems as if we gravitate to one another like one of those earth magnets that has super-strong pull. Maybe there’s something within us that silently calls to one another, “You can do this!”  Or maybe just a simple, “Help!” seems to be written across our foreheads. I’m here to tell you, you will survive and, God willing, so will they.

It's Never Too Late For Your Dreams

by Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

It’s been a few weeks since I returned home from the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. The conference gets better with each passing year. This was my fourth one.

The fact that I even went to that first conference back in 2014 was a miracle. At that time, I didn’t even know there were such things. And why on earth would I think I should attend one? Me, a writer? No way. I was a singer. That’s what I had done all my life. God was supposed to use me and my voice to reach people. Period. And then I got older and my hearing began to fail me. But God was already working in the shadows to give me a second voice.

My Second Mother: I Call Her Sissy

My Sister and Me, Easter about 1952

By Debra DuPree Williams

@DDuPreeWilliams

Mother’s Day has just passed. I wish that I had thought to write this prior to that Sunday. I can only trust that God’s timing is always right, even when it comes to what and when we write our blog posts.

You’ve read a couple of blogs about my mother lately. She was an amazing woman with so many talents and gifts. She left us far too soon. She was only seventy-three. But I have another woman in my life, a second mother, if you will. I call her Sissy.

My big sister Bobbie has been like a second mother to me all of my life. Our mother worked outside of our home, but Sissy was always there with me. She kept me out of trouble and made sure that I knew I was loved.