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Lisa Lickel
Promotion in Motion: Carol Stratton – Moving again and again
Posted by Lisa Lickel on July 3, 2012
Welcome, Carol Stratton, to Reflections in Hindsight. Carol’s new book, Changing Zip Codes, Finding Community Wherever You’re Transplanted, is a devotional to help those of us who move a lot cope with all the changes.
About the book:
Changing Zip Codes: Finding Community Wherever You’re Transplanted is a forty-day devotional to encourage families and lift the spirits of those finding themselves relocating to a new home and potentially a new lifestyle. www.ChangingZipCodes.com
As many more veterans return from deployment it is devastating the challenges couples face readjusting to a normal routine and back into daily family life. With the passion to support these families, Carol dedicates a portion of all proceeds to the Family Life Ministries project, ‘The Art of Marriage Ops.’ This initiative provides workshops and weekend retreats to couples; strengthening their marriage and loving bond… www.theartofmarriageops.org
Carol, what do you love about the book?
I love the fact that I can (masquerading as a book) be a friend to any woman struggling with a move. The number one need for women is security and when the house is packed up, friends have waved goodbye and you are heading down the highway to a new zip code the insecurities and doubts hit you faster than the bugs on a North Carolina windshield. After twenty-two moves I decided to become that friend who holds your hand and says, “Yes, you will have a life and a good one at that.”
Can you share something you learned during the process of getting this book in print?
While writing this book I was able to think through and extract what truths I’d learned through all my moves. Somehow putting together my stories with scripture ministered to me. For example, I talk about waiting fourteen months to sell our house in Chicago. My husband and I felt like we were under house arrest as the days drug by. We were moving out of the area and eager to find employment down south where two of our children lived. It inspired me to write the first devotion about Paul’s imprisonment and how he redeemed what seemed to be a useless time for him. Sometimes when we quite fighting our chains, God will show us a greater purpose in those chains. it’s scary to pull back the tent flap and show people your true emotions and struggles but in the long run it helps for others to know they aren’t alone in their struggles.
What do you hope your readers will learn?
I hope anyone reading this book will realize God is always at the end of any big life transition. (and yes He’s at the beginning, also). My book will help anyone facing a big life change. My cousin in California (who is a 62 years old male and still lives in the family home in a small town near the desert) said the book helped encourage him. Moving can be seen as a metaphor for the Christian life…are we going to trust Jesus for the unknown. If we aren’t, then what kind of faith do we have? Remember in Hebrews the Word says “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Well, as a person who loves community and friends, my “hoped for” is a connected life. I have to hold onto His hand while I explore a new territory. Life is an adventure and if we constantly fight change we may be missing some of the greatest blessings of our life. Even if we are in a place a short time, you we can bless our neighbors and friends. When we make the huge decision to be Christ’s servants we have already relinquished our perfectly planned life. And, what a relief as our Creator knows and understands what life is best for us. Dullness comes from predictable schedules, knowing the same people, never making new friends, and being TOO COMFORTABLE… and a dull Christian is an oxymoron! I’d rather be exhausted and feeling used by God than stuck in a rut with a predictable life.
About the author:
Carol G. Stratton has been a freelance writer and speaker for over a decade with over sixty articles in publications including InTouch magazine, CBN.com, Kyria, Forsyth Women and the
Grand Rapids Press as well as two anthologies, Writing so Heaven Will be Different (Wine Press) and Extraordinary Answers to Prayers (Guideposts). Because she has logged 22 moves with her husband, four children and a dog, and has heard every joke about moving (“Guess you’re moving cause you hate to clean your house.” or, “Is the IRS is looking for you?”), she decided to share her experiences with a website: www.ChangingZipCodes.com. Her motto: helping people move while keeping their families and humor intact.
Her book, Changing Zip Codes, Finding Community Wherever You’re Transplanted is an outgrowth of the website and her humorous and inspiring stories will motivate anyone face a big transition in their life. This forty-day devotional is now available from the Christian Devotions Ministries in association with Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas.
Carol has four grown children and two grandchildren. Currently she and her husband, John, live in Mooresville. She is available to speak to women’s groups, community groups and elementary school classes.
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