Celebrate Recovery Offers a Safe Place to Share Struggles

Please welcome one of Hope Tour's charter sponsors, author Naty Matos, as our guest blogger today.

Every time someone hears the words Celebrate Recovery their mind goes to the most known addictions like alcohol, drugs or sex.  Although those life issues are addressed at this program there is so much more to it. 

Many Christians struggle with different issues and fear revealing their struggles for fear of judgment. There tends to be the erroneous conception that once you have achieved salvation the fact that you struggle with habits and hang-ups is lack of prayer or faith.  Nothing can be farther from the truth. 

Celebrate Recovery was created by Pastor Rick Warren out of his own need to recover from hang-ups himself. He’s the Pastor of Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA. He struggled with the fact that secular 12 steps were resistant to the notion of Jesus as their higher power. He found that the 8 principles to live were found in the Beatitudes and that there was basis for the 12 steps of recovery in the Scriptures. He then designed the program around that. 

Celebrate Recovery provides hope to believers that there’s a safe place where they can share their struggles without judgment.  The attendees find support from fellow Christians who are further along in the process and others that are at the same level of progress. A great sense of accountability is encouraged. We all know that we act better when we are being watched, but it’s not forced, it’s actually solicited and welcomed by the participants. 

The program allows the participants to dig deep into their pasts. They are able to share hurts that have impacted most of their lives and many times address behaviors for the first time in their lives. They finally experience the freedom of not being held back from their past. They experience acceptance, live and love without condemnation, which ultimately helps them grow in their relationship with God. 

As stated at the beginning of this article, the program addresses more than the known addictions.  Issues like divorce, grief, depression, codependency, anxiety, anger, food addiction, just to name a few, are addressed through this program. It's Bible-based and I’ve had the opportunity to see it work miracles in many lives. I’ve seen marriages being restored, parents and children improving their relationships, and broken people being healed and finding true joy for the first time. 

There are thousands of chapters of Celebrate Recovery around the world and they can be found at www.celebraterecovery.com.

About the Author: Naty Matos was born in the city of New York. She grew up in the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico and now lives in the city of Atlanta.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Clinical Psychology with a Minor in Mass Media Communications and a Master's Degree in Mental Health Counseling.

Naty writes Christian fiction and non-fiction. She maintains a blog on Christian Living Topics at The Rising Muse. 

The Road Home

He was finally coming. He told Desiree that once her task was complete, he would be there to pick her up. And they could finally be together forever. Desiree was finally going to be with the one she loved. But what did she need to do? And how was she going to figure out what it was?

Desiree’s life has been less than perfect.  All she wanted was to find true love. To everyone on the outside she was beautiful, fun loving, and the life of the party.  On the inside Desiree is afraid.  Her fear of rejection places her in situations that will alter her life forever and possible tear her family apart. She has the love and support of a good friend, but more importantly she has her prayers. As Desiree makes changes in her own life, she slowly realizes that her dreams are within her reach.  Journey with Desiree as she reflects on her life, through both good and bad times and discover what is really preventing her from having the ultimate dream.  True love!!!

Follow Magnificent Hope's Journey on the Hope Tour:

• Magnificent Hope Shares Hope with Homeless Shelter
• What Can You Do to Offer Hope?
• Grandparenting Challenge Contest
• "Here I Am - Use Me - Use My Story" ~ Sheryl Holmes
• A Few of Her Favorite Things ~ Author Vicki Tiede
• When Life Grows Difficult
• Sheryl Holmes Shares Magnificent Hope
• Week 8: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? CONTEST
• Magnificent Hope Attends the Golden Scroll Banquet
• Seven Authors Offer Hope to Concord Victims
• What's So Important About Hope?
• Week 7: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? CONTEST
• Magnificent Hope Visits Kentucky Conference
• Week 6: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? CONTEST
• Sheryl Holmes Shares Her Story with Magnificent Hope's Assistance
• Book Signings Aren't Just for Selling Books
• Books of Hope Contest Finalists Announced
• Tips to Help You Win Writing Contests
• Christmas Book Writing Contest
• Two New Writing Contests Announced
• Future Writers: Passing the Mantel
• Week 5: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? CONTEST
• Dreams Can Come True by Ruth O'Neil
• Week 4: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? CONTEST
• A Special Treat from Jennifer Fromke (and a huge hint for the Week 2 photo!)
• Week 3: Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? Pays Respect
• Magnificent Hope Encounters Dianne E. Butts at the CCWC
• Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? Contest - Week 2
• Magnificent Hope Arrives at the Colorado Christian Writers Conference with Elsi Dodge
• Magnificent Hope visits a Recording Studio with Zillah Williams
• Where in the World is Magnificent Hope? Contest - Week 1
• Books of Hope Manuscript Contest Announced
• Rides motorcycles with Dianne E. Butts

• The Shrimp Festival with Annie Keys

• The Power of a Book at the Healing Hands Youth Ranch with Tim and Tracy Ruckman

CyberMonday: Gifting E-books

Books for Christmas Presents: Paper or Plastic?

by Naty Matos

Technology is moving so fast that even I, the gadget junkie, am falling behind. As I was working on publishing my first book Growth Lessons, I started to wonder the same thing any new author asks themselves, how do I make my book available to most people? I posted the question on my Facebook page wondering what would be more attractive to customers these days; a paper book or an e-book? Of course the answer was that there was market for both formats, but the truth behind my question was that I was the one resistant to the change from paper to electronic.

After seeing the enthusiasm for e-books I downloaded the Kindle application to my phone and found me a book to read. Not only I was fascinated with the fact that I was at the doctor’s office reading my book without adding any more weight to my already packed purse, but that it was actually fun to read from an electronic device. It truly didn’t take as much out of the experience as I thought.

Can E-books be gifted?

I went back to Facebook to consult my friends. Wait a minute there is a disadvantage to this thing. I give books to friends and family all the time and now I won’t be able. Once again I was wrong. Amazon has a way to gift e-books. You would simply need to choose the “Give as a Gift” option for any book in the Kindle Store, and then send the gift to anyone with an email address.

Here are the instructions on how to do this on Amazon.

Now sitting on the customer side I thought, what a wonderful idea! E-books are far less expensive than paper books. I’ll use Growth Lesson’s for example. Let’s say you read my book, loved it and thought ten of your friends should read this book.

If you bought the paperback, at $9.99 each, that’s $100 and I didn’t add shipping. I wouldn’t complaint about your purchase, but your pocket might. However, let’s use the same book, which will be on sale for 99 cents from today and throughout the whole month of December. You can now buy the book for the same ten friends for just $10 and no shipping costs. You can even buy 2-3 different books for each person in your gift list.

What about autographed books?

I still wasn’t satisfied in my battle between paper vs. electronic and came up with another reason why maybe paper was better. Well, I can’t get my book autographed by the author if it’s an e-book. Once again I was wrong. Actually you have a better chance to have an e-book personally autographed by the author than with a paper book. For the paper book you have to find out where the author will be hosting the book signing, stand in line and if the author never makes it to your city, it just may not happen. There’s this fabulous website called “Kindlegraph”  if the e-book is registered on Kindlegraph all you have to do is submit a request and the author will personally sign it for you, absolutely free! (Editor's Note: Naty's and Tracy's books are available on Kindlegraph, so be sure to look for them when you explore the site! They'd love to autograph a book or two for you!)

Yes, personally. It is not an automated signature that goes into each request. The author will be signing with their own hand and mouse (instead of pen) each request. You do need a twitter account to enter the request, but if you do not use twitter, you can make up the account just for this purpose, it’s free and who knows, it may get you tweeting!

So as this Christmas season approaches, and with our budgets a little tighter this year, think of gifting an e-book. Don’t worry if the person doesn’t have a Kindle reader per se. Remember that the Kindle app is free for anyone with an IPad, IPhones, Android phones, Blackberry and both Mac and PC’s.

Before you leave, one more question; what if the person who I’m trying to give an e-book doesn’t have a kindle or rather have books for other formats?

I have good and not so good news. The technology is so new that at this moment Amazon is the only provider that allows direct e-book gifting. But, the other formats like Barnes & Nobles (Nook), Smashwords, Sony, Apple (iTunes) and others have gift card options. You can buy a gift card for the person and let them know the title of the book you intended to get for them, that way they can choose the format that is convenient for them and still get that wonderful inspiring book that you wanted to share.

Let’s give the gift of reading uplifting books this Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!

About Naty Matos:

Naty Matos was born in the city of New York, from Puerto Rican descendant parents. She grew up in the beautiful Island of Puerto Rico and now lives in the city of Atlanta.

She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Clinical Psychology with a Minor in Mass Media Communications and a Master's Degree in Mental Health Counseling.

Naty writes Christian fiction and non-fiction. She’s the author of the live changing devotional Growth Lessons. She maintains a blog on Christian Living Topics at www.therisingmuse.com.

Growth Lessons on Amazon.
Growth Lessons Kindlegraph.

Naty Matos on Twitter @natycmatos

Naty Matos on Facebook.