Colossians 3:12-14
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
This Bible verse is the one I used for my first published book, The Heart’s Homecoming, in which the hero must forgive the heroine for leaving him at the altar.
The verse above mentions a lot of themes that one might find in a book. Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Forgiveness. The theme of forgiveness plays a big part in many of my books. Sometimes a character has to forgive someone who has wronged them, and sometimes the character even has to forgive himself. I’ve often asked myself why I gravitate toward the theme of forgiveness. I think forgiveness is a universal thing that everyone must confront from time to time. We can all relate to the need to forgive even when it might seem impossible.
In my latest book, A Place to Call Home, the hero has a lot to forgive. He was sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. His struggle makes the heroine realize that she must forgive herself, too. You can read an excerpt here.
Even my upcoming January 2015 book for Love Inspired, Second Chance Reunion, is about forgiveness. The hero and heroine must forgive each other in order to have a second chance at love.
What themes do you like in the books you read?
Merrillee Whren is an award-winning author who writes inspirational romance. She is the winner of the 2003 Golden Heart Award for best inspirational romance manuscript presented by Romance Writers of America. She has also been the recipient of the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award and the Maggie Award for Excellence. She is married to her own personal hero, her husband of thirty plus years, and has two grown daughters. She has lived in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Florida but now makes her home in the Arizona desert. When she’s not writing, she spends her free time playing tennis or walking while she does the plotting for her novels.
