A friend who read my post two weeks ago asked a question that reminded me that I assume everyone understands what I call Christian Speak. He said, “What does “Delight yourself in the Lord” mean?”

It took me a minute, actually, all night, to come up with an explanation that wasn’t more Christian Speak. The next morning when we talked, the subject came up again, and this time I knew a better way of explaining than I had the night before.

“Delighting yourself in the Lord” means you know God intimately,” I said, quite pleased with myself.

“What do you mean by that?”

Maybe I hadn’t thought this through as well as I thought I had…”Well…” I chewed my bottom lip. “Why do I make you caramel cake?”

“Because you know that’s my favorite dessert.”

“And why don’t I cook you Brussels sprouts or broccoli?”

“Because you know I hate those things.”

“In other words, I know you so well that I know what you like and don’t like, and I delight in doing things that make you happy. It’s the same way with God. When we know God that well, our desires often change to match his, and that’s when he gives us the desires of our hearts.”

It was the second time someone had questioned me on a Scripture verse I quoted. That time, our family was going through a hard time, and I told my youngest daughter that I had been meditating on Isaiah 26:3. “He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on Him because he trusts Him.”

“Tell me what that means,” she said.

Again it took me a minute to collect my thoughts because I thought it was self-explanatory. Then I remembered another verse and said, “For me, it goes hand in hand with Isaiah 43:1-2 ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;’ “

If God has called us by name and we are his, he’ll walk this hard road with us–he’ll give us strength to get through it.” And he did.

All this to say, be careful how you represent God in life and in your books. Make sure what you tell someone is plain and say it in words that even a third-grader can understand.

In my romantic suspense books, I want to show believers and nonbelievers that Christians have problems and how we solve them in God’s way rather than the world’s way. But I have to be careful not to preach to my readers or use Christian speak or platitudes like God helps those who help themselves or when God closes a door, he opens a window…neither are in the Bible, by the way, but they sure do sound good. And besides, sometimes he closes the door and the window.