On Every Side
Authors: Karen Kingsbury
RAISE FOR
K
AREN
K
INGSBURY'S
B
OOKS
When Joy Came to Stay
“Kingsbury confronts hard issues with truth and sensitivity.”
FRANCINE RIVERS, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
LEOTA'S GARDEN
“Kingsbury's poignant tale of a lost and broken family and how they experience God's miraculous healing is a sure guarantee to bring hope and joy to her readers.”
MELODY CARLSON, AUTHOR OF
DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL AND IT'S MY LIFE
“A thought-provoking account of the battle of depression in a believer's life. It leaves no doubt that God is loving, merciful, and faithful.”
NANCY MOSER, AUTHOR OF THE MUSTARD SEED SERIES
A Moment of Weakness
“Kingsbury spins a tale of love and loss, lies and betrayal, that sent me breathlessly turning pages…”
LIZ CURTIS HIGGS, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
BOOKENDS
AND
MIXED SIGNALS
“A gripping love story A
Moment of Weakness
demonstrates the devastating consequences of wrong choices and the long shadows deception casts over the lives of God's children. It also shows the even longer reach of God's providence, grace, and forgiveness.”
RANDY ALCORN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
DEADLINE
AND
DOMINION
“One message shines clear and strong through Karen Kingsbury's A
Moment of Weakness:
Our loving God is a God of second chances.”
ANGELA ELWELL HUNT, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF
THE IMMORTAL
Waiting for Morning
“What a talent! I love her work.”
GARY SMALLEY, BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“Kingsbury not only entertains but goes a step further and confronts readers with situations that are all too common, even for Christians. At the same time, it will remind believers of God's mercy and challenge them to pray for America. The book… reveals God's awesome love and His amazing ability to turn moments of weakness into times of strengthening.”
CHRISTIAN RETAILING
,
SPOTLIGHT REVIEW
NOVELS BY KAREN KINGSBURY
Where Yesterday Lives
When Joy Came to Stay
On Every Side
A Time to Dance
A Time to Embrace
One Tuesday Morning
Oceans Apart
Beyond Tuesday Morning
THE FOREVER FAITHFUL SERIES
Waitngjor Morning
A Moment of Weakness
Halfway to Forever
THE REDEMPTION SERIES
(Co-written with Gary Smalley)
Redemption
Remember
Return
Rejoice
Reunion
Dedicated to…
D
ONALD
, my closest friend, my other half, the best husband always and forever. I love you more today than a hundred yesterdays, laugh more at the silliness between us, and live more with one eye on the rearview mirror, only too aware of how fast the days go. With you all of life is a series of memories and blessed magical moments, a roller coaster of thrills in which you are constantly at my side, steady and strong. Remember when you told me you loved the Lord more than me? Let's just say I'm glad it's still true. It's what makes it all so good.
K
ELSEY
, my sweet and precious little Norm, who can boot a soccer ball like no one else and still be the prettiest girl around. I thank God that He lives within you, helping you know right from wrong, helping you understand the plans He alone has for you. Your tender heart has more discernment than most adults. As you told me the other day, you don't need a “play” boyfriend to feel good about yourself. You need the Lord. And I'm so thankful you have Him in a way that shows in everything you do… your eyes, your smile, and the joy you bring me and your dad every day of our lives.
T
YLER
, my strapping eight-year-old treasure, who has no idea how talented and bright and kindhearted he truly is. If only you could see the picture God is painting of you, the one your dad and I see more clearly every day Please know that I'm glad you're not rushing the process, grateful that for a little while longer I might hear your humming, happy voice making up the music of our lives. Congratulations on winning statewide honors on your “Reflections” story, Ty One day I'll be reading
your
dedications!
A
USTIN
, who is still Michael Jordan. The marvel of you, my precious child, is not that at three years old you can slip into your No. 23 jersey and dribble a ball between your legs, watching wide-eyed when your dad coaches the big guys and taking in every bit of it. It isn't the way you can reverse dunk on your kid-size hoop, or shoot nothing-but-nets all afternoon. Rather, it's the way your eyes fill with tears when you hear a song about Jesus. We knew from the beginning that your heart was special… we're beginning to see how very special it really is.
E. J. and S
EAN
—As I write this I am twelve days from taking a plane to Haiti where I will pick you up and bring you home to live with us forever. My prayer for you, my chosen sons, is that God will impress upon your hearts how very special you both are, how great the plans He has for you. As surely as night follows day, He has amazing reasons why He brought you here to be a part of our family. We have prayed and planned for this moment for a very long time and are humbly awed at the privilege of being your parents. We—all of us—love you more than you could know or understand.
And to
GOD ALMIGHTY
, who has, for now, blessed me with these.
Acknowledgments
As always, when I put together a novel there are people to thank, people without whom the entire process simply would not have been possible. On that note I thank the Lord first and foremost for allowing me the dream of writing stories straight from my heart while still being a stay-at-home mom. Also thanks to my husband and kids for not complaining when dinner is little more than a cold tuna sandwich and a sliced apple. You guys are the best family in the world.
Thanks to Kristy and Jeff Blake for continuing to take my little Austin on days when there's no other way the writing will get done. My heart is always at ease knowing my little boy is in your care. And to Sorena Wagner, the best nanny and all-around helper anyone could have. Truly, Sorena, I couldn't have gone to the next place in my writing career—the place God was calling me to go—without your help.
There are a number of people I am indebted to professionally, and top of the list is my agent, Greg Johnson. Greg, your God-given ideas and ways of making books come together are truly awe-inspiring. I thank the Lord for the day Terri Blackstock introduced us…and I look forward along with you to many, many more books and shared blessings together.
Thanks also to my amazing editor, Karen Ball. So often some-one comments on a certain scene in my books or on a character's personality, and I smile proudly and tell them the truth: That came from Karen Ball! You're blessed at what you do, and I am doubly so for working with you.
The staff at Multnomah Publishers always deserves a great big thank-you for being the amazing people you are. Every one of you, from Don Jacobson to the staff of sales and marketing and editorial, is driven by God's purpose. Clearly the Lord is blessing
your efforts on His behalf, and I pray He continues to do so a hundredfold in the years to come. Thank you for believing in me four years ago when I first set out to write inspirational fiction.
It may not be customary to thank the cover designer, but in our world a book truly is judged by its cover. That being the case, I attribute much of my recent success to the God-given tal-ents of Kirk DouPonce from Uttley/DouPonce DesignWorks. You have a way of bringing all the emotion of my stories—the heartache and joy, the highs and lows—into a single illustration. And you do it better than anyone around. I am humbly grateful for your work on my books.
There are always certain friends who take my books and make them topics of conversation at their work places or among their social circles. In my life those faithful friends and public relations experts include my sisters Tricia, Sue, and Lynne; my parents, Anne and Ted Kingsbury; my niece, Shannon Kane; Phyllis Cummins; Betty Russell; Lisa Alexander; Joan Westfall; Debbie Kimsie; Tish Baum; the Chapman family; Christine Wessel; Pastor Mark Atteberry and his wife, Marilyn; Sylvia and Walt Wallgren; Ann Hudson; Vicki Graves; Barbara Okel; the Provo family; Sherry Heidenreich; Peggy Babbitts; Amber Santiago; the Daves family; Connie Schlonga; and dozens of friends from my Crossroads Church family, along with many oth-ers. Thank you for being my first line of encouragement and con-stant prayer support. Especially the handful of you who literally pray for my writing ministry and me every day How can I ever thank you for your love and prayers other than to say please, please keep praying. It's only by His power that any of this ever comes together in a way that might change lives for His glory.
A special thanks goes to the hundreds of readers who have written me at my e-mail address, which is listed in the back of my books. I feel as though Fm friends with so many of you and I
continue to look forward to your occasional updates and letters of encouragement regarding my books. You know who you are. You're the best group of readers an author could ever hope to have!
Finally to the Skyview basketball team, who this year went from being a new school with one league win to a second-place league finish under the best coach (and husband) in the state. Thanks for giving me a reason to cheer—even on deadline. Go, Storm!
J
oshua Nunn shuffled between a closet full of file cabinets and the boxes lining his office floor. He hadn't expected it to be this hard—packing up his dead partner's things and facing whatever was left of his own future. There was a heaviness in the air, a somber silence as though even the walls grieved the loss of the charismatic man whose presence had once consumed the place.
Joshua sighed. He had never felt so alone in all his life.
Bob Moses, senior attorney and Joshua's lifelong friend, opened the Religious Freedom Institute in Bethany, Pennsylvania, for one reason only: To take back ground lost to the enemy “Join me,” Bob had said when he presented the idea to Joshua three years earlier. “The promised land awaits!”
And so it had. They'd won two local Pennsylvania cases in the past six months—one in which a group opposed to religious freedom sued a school district to prevent students from praying before football games. The case threatened to capture national attention—much like the one in Texas a few years back. But this time, when the opposition faced Bob and Joshua, they backed off.
“God has His hand on this office,” Bob would say. “I can feel it, Joshua. He's taking us somewhere big.”
There were dreams of hiring more attorneys, buying a bigger office building, and finding a place on America's legal center stage where they could join similar organizations in the national fight for religious freedom.
But every one of those dreams seemed to die the day Bob Moses slumped over his office desk, dead of a heart attack at age fifty-seven.
Now there were bills to pay office expenses to maintain, and not a single viable case on the horizon. With Bob gone, clients apparently assumed the firm was closed, and now, after just three weeks of Joshua working on his own, the phone calls were few and far between.
He grabbed another stack of files, carried them across the office, and dropped them in a box. When he was finished clearing out his partner's things, he would deliver them to Bob's widow. The woman was taking it well, but many nights since Bob's death Joshua had come home to find his partner's wife sit-ting with his own dear Helen at the dining room table, tears in their eyes.