Imagine waking up one day different. You can’t explain it, but something just isn’t right. One minute you’re happy and the next sad. One moment you’re loving and the next angry. The voices you hear, the different moods you experience and the sad looks in people’s eyes makes you wonder if you’re losing your mind.
For Savannah Graft, she’s been dealt some heavy blows in her lifetime, but has managed to overcome them. Now, happily married to her husband, Pastor Shane Graft, mother to Kennedi and Baby Shane, First Lady of Victory Temple and the owner of SG Graphics; life is good.
Until one morning, she woke up different. She isn’t herself, yet she can’t see it. She recognizes something is wrong, but she can’t explain it. All she knows and continually says, I’m not crazy. Truthfully, she isn’t she’s depressed.
In this book, we begin a conversation to peel back the layers of postpartum depression, in the home and in the church. Although this is a work of fiction, every day somebody is dealing with the effects of mental illness and depression. In the church they tell you to pray and fast more. In the world, people say you’ll be okay, but how do they know.
Read Savannah’s story to see if she finally admits to needing help or will she continually hide from fear of herself, judgment or ridicule.
What we ain’t about to do is continue pouring the gifts, God has given us, into fruitless relationships. We are not about to continually spread the untrue news that all men are bad. Hold on, some of the men may have been raggedy, but not all. Here’s the truth, and this may sting a little but I need you to get this … IT MAY BE YOU!
See, God has created you with strength that can stretch you pass your limits, favor that can withstand fights that should have defeated you and glory that shifts you from ordinary to extraordinary. You just have to know this about yourself. You are the bomb, damnit, yet you don’t trust your opinion of you.
Want to know why? I’ll tell you, even if you don’t. You haven’t taken the time to get to know you. You jump from relationship to relationship without grieving and healing from the one that ended. You lay in beds, creating soul ties with folk and you don’t break them. You continually diminish the power you possess in your head, heart and between your thighs.
Here’s what you do, HEAL YOU!
Have a funeral for everything you’ve lost, grieve it and heal. And while you’re on your healing journey:
• embrace YOU • spend time with YOU • love YOU • get to know YOU • believe in YOU
If not, you run the risk of raising little examples of broken you and that’s not fair to them.
My sister, it’s time you healed. You’re too old to be in the shape you’re in. You have children that shouldn’t have to keep watching momma arguing, fighting and crying over somebody God didnt create for you. You’re too beautiful to keep lowering your standards. And you’re too gifted to be treated like trash.
What we will do, from this point on, learn our worth and demand it!
Signed, A sister who wants to see who whole! 💚
PS — The #SurvivingMe journal is available for you.
What do you do when you’ve lost your baby and your faith at 2:32 AM?
The bible tells you how to fight the enemy but what do you do when it feels like it is God you’re up against?
Charlotte’s nightmare began at 2:32AM, the morning she experienced the most unimaginable pain ever, the loss of a child.
Now, she finds herself angry at God. She trusted Him and He took her only child. She prayed to Him and it seems as if He has turned His back on her. And if things could not get worse, hell keeps showing up at her door.
What can she do, when she continually cries in the darkness but gets no answer? Where can she turn when it feels like her back is against the wall and there is no way out? Who can she depend on if God let her down?
Questions Charlotte ponder when the memories snatch her from her sleep at 2:32AM. Questions that make her angry because to her, God has forsaken them.
Click HERE to download it, then tell a friend or three.
The Family that Lies was written by me and my twin sister, Laquisha. This book, released November 1, 2016 was my first time writing Christian Fiction.
What’s it about?
Born 18 months apart, Merci and Grayce Alexander were as close as sisters could get. With a father who thought the world of them, life was good. Until one day everything changed.
While Grayce got love and attention, Merci got all the hell, forcing her to leave home. She never looks back, putting the past behind her until … her sister shows up over a decade later begging for help, bringing all of the forgotten past with her. Merci wasn’t the least bit prepared for what was about to happen next.
Merci realizes, she’s been a part of something much bigger than she’d ever imagined. Yea, every family has their secrets, hidden truths and ties but Merci had no idea she’d been born into the family that lies.
Now, before y’all comment about it having sex and cussing, it does and it’s still Christian Fiction. See, truth is, even as Christians, we still cuss and have sex. Am I condoning this type of behavior, NO. Do I glory in this type of living, NO, but I’d be lying to me and you, if I write every book like the characters are perfect. They aren’t perfect because we aren’t. We live in flesh, which means sometimes we’re going to mess up. I write, realistically and I pray you’ll receive the message.
Here’s an excerpt from Merci who’s having a conversation with her sister Grayce:
“So, what you’re saying is I need to be more like you and hide it better? Oh okay, I’m catching on. What I should do is walk around with dresses down to my ankles because then people will think I’m saving myself for marriage. I should go to church every time the doors open because then people would believe me when I say I’m a saint of God. I should carry myself just like you. Is that about right?”
She doesn’t say anything, so I continue. “No answer? That’s okay, I’ll continue. See, baby sister, I will not walk around being a fake because it appeases everyone else. Yes, I have tattoos, but they don’t make me ghetto because I can go from the street to the boardroom the same way you can go from saint to sinner. I can carry a conversation with anybody from the dope dealer on the corner to the president of the company. I got it like that. However, don’t think for one second that I am fooled by you because while you’re trying to act all saved and sanctified, I know the real you.”
“What does that mean? This is the real me and I’m not hiding anything,” Grayce counters.
“Girl bye! You want to be real then let’s be real, shall we? You may carry a bible under your arm, but you have a freak card in your wallet. You may not dress like a hoe, but you have thot like tendencies. While you may have the skirt down to the floor, I can bet you don’t have underwear on underneath. In addition, this little sham of a relationship of yours, I know it’s for show because Shaun is as gay as they come. So, while you’re being real with me you may want to be real with your damn self.”
Enjoyed this excerpt? Get the book for $2 or with Kindle Unlimited, by clicking HERE! It’s also available in paperback. When you’re done with it, you can get caught up with the Alexander’s with the special edition, The Family that Lies: Merci Restored
Karis (pronounced Car-ris) and Darius Toney have been married for seven years. Their marriage isn’t perfect but they’ve made it work. They’re active members of True Vine MB Church, she’s a photographer and he owns a tire shop. Things are, well, they are good.
Until the day, their life becomes the object of somebody’s obsession. The only downside, they don’t know who it is. This person, in the darkness has a yearning, a desire to possess something Karis and Darius has … they just didn’t know it.
Pray and fast, that’ll help, right? Well, they’re doing that and it feels like things are getting worst. Fire, turmoil, secrets and a kidnapping of a spouse. It’s clear, the person responsible hasn’t read Romans 13:9, “For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.”
You can get your copy HERE on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited or paperback
I must say, Covet had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t put it down. Thisnisnthe story of Darius and Karis, a happily married couple who end up going through a lot of drama in their lives that causes heartbreak, confusion, and a whokenlot of drama. Once you begin you will NOT want to out it down. I certainly hope Lakisha Johnson has a part 2, I need to know that Karis is really alright. Lakisha Johnson, you are quickly becoming my new favorite author. 👏
