Thoughts and prayers for Moms

Local author publishes new book, with help of her sons

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

A Commerce City author has turned her thoughts about raising her three sons into a top selling on Amazon.

Commerce City’s Andrea Lende published “A Mother’s Love,” this past Mother’s Day. e book is a collection of words of wisdom about motherhood and poems and prayers.

Lende is CEO of Beatitudes Publishing and Cofounder of Children’s Publishing Company: Bookworms Publishing. She has published ten books, two bestsellers, and seven Amazon number-one new releases since November 2020 and hosts a podcast on religion and spirituality called “Downloads From God”.

A Mother’s Love made the bestseller list on Amazon.

“Whether you’re a new mother or a seasoned pro, this collection will speak to your heart and encourage you to be the best mom you can be as you guide your children to their best selves,” Lende said. “So, take a moment to relax, re ect, and cherish the joys of motherhood as you read through each piece. Allow yourself to be immersed in the power of God’s love and blessings for your children.”

In addition to publishing “A Mother’s Love,” last week she published another book, the “Bible Doodle Journal,” that teaches how to creatively journal God’s message. e Bible Doodle Journal features Christian coloring pages on one side and a Bible journal on the other. It’s a place for people to write their journals and keep track of their spiritual journey.

“Journaling the Bible has become one of the most signi cant activities I have ever undertaken and continue to pursue. I hope you enjoy reading God’s Word, studying his Word, and journaling your way to understanding, wisdom, and joy in the Lord,” Lende said.

Lende said she and her sons decided to do a homemade Christmas this year.

“We grabbed all the birthday, graduation cards, written poems, and sayings from them and put them all into the Mothers Love book, “ she said.

“ ey go through the Bible and keep track of the day and the Bible verses that stand out to them on a particular day. We all go through seasons, where di erent verses stand out to us a message they hear from God speaking to their heart,” Lende said.

She said the idea for the journal was inspired by her friend Billie Ortega, owner of Shades of Divine. e duo plan to teach a Bible journal class at Ortega’s store this summer.

“Billie had a lot of people come into the store asking how they journal through the Bible. I have been journaling through the Bible for up to 14 years,” Lende said. “As I was talking to Billie, she said the holy spirit beckons to her heart when she’s drawing, creative, coloring, and doodling.”

Lende said a journal passage is about nding peace in a chaotic time of her life. A journal is a place for people to write their gratitude for the day because gratitude is so important.

“It’s mindful to write those things down when things get tough for us. But when we intentionally write down things, we’re grateful in our hearts and it turns into thankfulness,” Lende said.

Friendly skies

Lende grew up in North Dakota and then moved to Brighton in her mid-20s with her husband, a pilot. She and her husband bought a small plane for recreational ying when she was 25 “As it turns out, I fell in love with ying my rst ight up in the sky,” Lende said.

Lende trained and received her certi cation as a private instrument, commercial multi-engine ight instructor. She was also a commercial pilot teaching, people how to y until she got sick with Lupus.

“God redirects our lives in interesting ways, and at 30, my body broke, I was diagnosed with lupus, and I did heal from it,” Lende said. “I cured myself naturally. It wasn’t necessarily popular 30 years ago, but I found a naturopath and worked with a medical doctor.”

Lende’s experience with Lupus leads her to write a book “Life After Lupus”. She was able to have children at 35 and raised three boys.

“By the time I was 39, I had three kids under age three. I was a stay-at-home mom who schooled them at home for many years and got into God’s Word writing devotions, prayers, journals, and Bible reading plans,” Lende said.

A couple of Lende boys went to Landmark Academy for a while then all attended Eagle Ridge Academy in Commerce City.

“After the kids left home, I started writing and reading the Bible repeatedly, which led to another book of mine on how to read the Bible in a year,” Lende said.

Lende said she journaled her way through the Bible repeatedly, starting to write prayers and devotions and penning more than 1000 devotions and prayers, leading her to write more books.

“It was a slow process working on my books after her kids left. It was like pulling a rubber band back for ten years, then letting it go, then developing books about God put into my heart to publish,” Lende said.

Lende said she is publishing online exclusively with Amazon and is thankful for the platform that allows writers like herself to get their work out there.

“I’ve met a number of women who have spent an incredible amount of money publishing,” Lende said. “ ey are called vanity publishers where they spend their money to get published.”

Lende said God led her heart to start helping women to publish for a lot less, so she began the Beatitudes publishing company assisting women in publishing their work.

For more information about Lende books, visit believinghim.com, baselfpub.com, and bookwormspublishing.com.

You can connect with her on social media at: facebook.com/AuthorAndreaLende. Or call 303960-7584 or visit her website at andrea@andrealende.com.

M

WINNING didn’t a ny years ago, I remember hearing this question posed to a group of people going through some training, “How often should you tell your spouse that you love them?” Take a moment to consider what your response might be, and I will share the answer a little later in this column.A publication of VOICES LOCAL

In speaking with a friend of mine who is a salesperson, he shared with me that he recently lost one of his best accounts. When I asked him what happened, he didn’t blame his company, the competition, the economy or anything else. He took full responsibility for not paying enough attention to them once the agreement was signed, he took the relationship for granted, never showing the customer how grateful he was that they trusted him with their business.

There is another story that I will share that came from a woman I know that I think we can all relate to. As she reflected on her relationship with her daughter, she said that she thought she was doing everything right when it came to raising her daughter, but like most of us parents who are far less than perfect, we miss things along the way. Her daughter grew distant and started making bad choices relative to the friends she was hanging around with. The woman said the one thing she could have done better is letting her daughter know just how much she loved her and appreciated her. Even though she did say those things, she felt like maybe it wasn’t enough.

Do you have your answers ready to the question of how often we should tell our spouses that we love them? The answer is this, before someone else does.

How often should we tell or show our customers how much we love and appreciate them? How often should we tell our children how much we love them and cherish them? How often should we let our friends know how much they mean to us? How often should we tell the people who report to us how grateful we are for all that they do? The answer of course to each one of these questions is, before someone else does.

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A spouse who feels unloved will eventually turn to someone else for love. A customer who isn’t feeling the love from a company will bring their business elsewhere. A child who isn’t receiving love, recognition or time from us will be left to their own to decide where they can feel like they are wanted or where they belong. Even our closest friends will start to drift away if they feel ignored or feel like it is a one-sided friendship. And we know how hard it is to find great people to join our team, and how hard it is to retain top talent, we know that people usually don’t leave the company, they leave their leader or manager. Money isn’t the reason they leave either, it’s usually because they feel under appreciated.

I have asked the same question to many groups over the years when I was conducting sales training or leadership training, so I have heard many of the responses that may have been running through your mind as you considered your response, every day, three times a day, all the time, every

STEVE SMITH Sports Editor ssmith@coloradocommunitymedia.com time you part company and every time you see each other again, morning noon and night, and many others. And these are all great answers, and when we can internalize the thought around, “Before someone else does,” we will more than likely increase our frequency for showing love and appreciation for those that matter most to us.

Are you making sure that the people around you are feeling loved and appreciated? Or was this a good reminder that even if we think we are saying it enough, we might be able to show it and say it a little bit more often? I would love to hear your story at gotonorton@gmail.com and when we can let others know how much we love them before anyone else does, it really will be a better than good life.

Michael Norton is an author, a personal and professional coach, consultant, trainer, encourager and motivator of individuals and businesses, working with organizations and associations across multiple industries.

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