The Author – Books by Melanie Thurston

About
The Author

Melanie Thurston grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania, between Philadelphia and Amish country. She currently resides in South Carolina, smack in the middle of the Bible Belt. This is her second foray into writing about her Creator and Savior. She and her husband have three beautiful daughters and three cuddly cats. Along with writing, she loves cooking (specifically making homemade jam!), reading, and crocheting-all with Southern Gospel music playing in the background.

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So why did I start writing?

I’ve had various people ask me this in the past two years…

Honestly most people are surprised…shocked even.
For anyone who has known me for any length of time, they know me as a CVICU nurse…I take care of patients after open heart surgery. Straight outta the OR.

Many people who have known me for more than two or three years know the issues I’ve had with my joints…12 surgeries’ worth.

But the two do coincide…

In truth, though, so much started with COVID. Shudder and groan, right? But in the strangest way, I’m so incredibly thankful for it…it produced some crazy major upheavals in my life that I desperately needed. I just didn’t realize it at the time.

In short, I did my first organized Bible study during quarantine. I am ashamed to admit it took me 38 years of being a Christian to do a Bible study apart from Bible college. But I’m so thankful I did it. The study was about experiencing God, and it wound through the process of knowing God’s love, to full obedience to Him…to wanting to work where He was and seeking those moments.

Soon I was asking God to show me where those moments were. I found myself going back into stores and inviting people to church. I couldn’t walk away from the nudge of the Holy Spirit. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

So in 2020, not long before I turned 48, I was in dire straits at work…I had tears in my shoulder and we were swimming in COVID patients. There is a lot of stuff we put on to take care of them…I couldn’t tie the gowns. Could barely dress myself. And I had carpal tunnel so bad in my right hand (of course my dominant hand!), I couldn’t hold a pen for more than a couple minutes. The pen would just fall out! I had to learn to start IV’s left handed!

I was sitting in my recliner before work feeling desperate and praying to God for wisdom, an answer, something. “God, I don’t know how I can do this. I need some help…I need to work.” And I felt the thought go through my mind, Write a book. What?!?!

I remember looking up and saying, “But God? I can’t hold a pen!”

Honestly I wasn’t trying to argue with God…I just was…confused. And the thought was gone as quickly as it entered.

A month or so later, I had shoulder surgery. Two and a half weeks later, I had my carpal tunnel released. By December that year, I could hold a pen!

Fast forward to June or July of 2021. Again, my joints…sigh. But what a weird blessing they have moved me to, with this newer chapter…

Again…I’m praying. My left knee had been operated on; my back was awful. I couldn’t take more injections and other therapies had failed, except for a permanent stimulator in my spine. And I was waiting for clearance for that procedure.

“God…I’m getting desperate again…I know I can do all things through Christ, but this pain…” He knew…He knew where I was. He has never left me!!

And there was the whisper again…Write a book. I looked up and said, “Okay”…not having a clue what I was doing. “About what?”

And the whispered thought, Grace.

And so it began…

Melanie Thurston

More of where God is continuing to work, to smooth out those rough spots I have…thank you Jesus that He doesn’t give up on me!

April 2023, I was sitting in church on Easter Sunday after the choir had sung and was listening to my pastor preach on the sacrifice Jesus made for mankind at Calvary. I had already had my first book published; it came out in October 2022. I was already typing out my second book, I Will Praise Him.

But I was struggling…still…with being so open, so raw about my first book. Still not wanting people to hear my story of God’s grace and all He had done in my life…because I was focusing on myself still, and how vulnerable I felt about this book.
I really truly did want to help people with it. And I really truly wanted to obey what God had called me to do.

But that Easter Sunday, thinking about what Jesus had done for me at Calvary, I started crying…because here I was, sitting on a church pew after singing about my Savior and His sacrifice, and yet I couldn’t just tell people what He did for me? What, seriously, was my problem?

Something changed that morning…and my heart shifted by God’s grace…from “I can’t do this, I don’t want people to hear about my life” to “Let me just tell you what God has done for me and what He can do for YOU if you will just trust Him!”

There are moments I am still just a little (read: a lot!) stunned He has asked this of me; times when I have had doubts, when my faith has wavered (to my shame!); but I know without a doubt He has put this desire in my heart. It is absolutely not something I would do on my own.

This desire to write…it’s not of me. Truly, I want people to read what God has done for me. I want to help and encourage people by letting them know there is a God, a Savior, who loves them and wants a relationship with Him…if they will just open their heart to Him. My desire is to write what He wants me to write; to obey His leading. I want to please Him and I want to praise Him.

I pray this book will do just that…and as I am working on the next book I pray that I continue to write what He wants me to; that I continue to listen to His leading and put on paper what will honor Him and, prayerfully, help others.