Category: faith

 Amy J. McCart

Christian, wife, mother of 4 kids ages 6, 7, 9, &  11, like most moms, Amy does her best to get her kids to all their sports, theatre, & after-school schedules.  She has had two books published and looks forward to writing many more. In the meantime,  most school days she can be found helping out in her kids classrooms as room mom and helping her husband run several of their business’. Aside from their 2 podcasts, Family on a Mission and Kingdom Success, they have some real estate business’, a network marketing business, an options trading business, & some additional family ventures. Amy loves volunteering her time but also comes alive at any public speaking opportunities that arise. She is passionate about helping this next generation run after Jesus and encouraging them to pursue purity in their dating years. Her perfect day looks like writing Bible studies and books until about 11:00, re-emerging into her home, and speaking at Youth or Woman’s Conferences across the country…. but for now, getting hugs from 6 and 7 year olds at school is a pretty perfect day too! She is in love with her hottie husband of 20 years and also enjoys working out.
You can follow her life on Instagram and Facebook @amyjmccart.

What brought you to write your book, Fairytales Do Come True, When God Writes Your Love Story?
I always knew I was going to write this book and that it would probably be my first book because I lived it out and saw it to its finish. A testimony of how God is so faithful even when you feel like you’re not worthy. It’s a fairy tale story, one of those stories that should be in a movie. I just didn’t know when I was going to write it. So, in 2010 after my first child was born, I just felt it was time and I began the process of writing. I typically wouldn’t consider myself that sort of a writer, I write devotions and things that dive into scripture. So, writing Christian fiction was a little different. But it was awesome and has been neat to see how it’s impacted, people.

What is the process of writing a book and getting a Publisher? How did High Bridge Books get involved? Well, I have a really interesting relationship with the Holy Spirit. When I wake up and have my quiet time, I might journal and read a little bit from what I’m currently reading. I may read through Proverbs, a Bible reading plan, or a specific devotion. But I always take time to stop and listen to the Holy Spirit, allow Him to speak to me, or just be still, and stop asking questions. One morning while I was in my quiet time, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Alright it’s time to start your book.” I was just starting to get through all my answers of why it wasn’t the right time to start and I’m like well, but I don’t have a publisher or an editor. Who would do the artwork for the cover? I felt like the Holy Spirit came back and said, “You don’t need any of that stuff because you don’t have a book. The first step that I need you to do is write the book.” But I don’t know how to write a book, I’ve never written a book, and I was just giving Him all the reasons why I couldn’t do it yet. So, He gave me a very simple plan and said, “I want you to write for one hour every morning before you have your quiet time, for four mornings a week.” My response was probably getting a little legalistic, but I didn’t want to spend time writing before I had my quiet time and spent time with the Lord. I always want to give my first fruits to the Lord, my first part of the day. He said, “This is me asking you to do this. This is part of your first fruits, you’re giving first to the Lord.” In that season of life, I had just resigned from Corporate America and my first child was nine months old. So, from the time I woke up at 7 am until about 11 am I had that time to write, with a 20 min break around 9 am to feed my son. I’d set a timer and just type. I wouldn’t go through and edit or try to fix anything. I just wanted to get the entire story out on paper because there’s a lot of hard parts to the story. So, that was kind of the process of writing the book.

Now the process of finding a publisher was pretty seamless and easy. My husband has a podcast, called, “Kingdom Success Podcast.” He interviews Christian business people in the marketplace and had interviewed this gentleman, Darren Shearer who is the publisher of High Bridge Books. I was at the point in the phase of my book that I needed a publisher, so I sent him an email and a copy of the manuscript and the rest is history.

How many mornings, weeks did it take you to write the book? It was September 2010 when I felt lead to start writing because the Holy Spirit had given me a deadline. He told me, “I want you to be done writing by December 31st.” Since I had never written a book before, I didn’t know what that would look like. I was about a week late on my deadline, but I finished the first week in January 2011.

How did you get into speaking? We’re business owners so I’ve spoken on the business side of things. More opportunities came about as our business became more successful. Speaking in front of an audience from a couple of hundred people to about 18,000 people. Though I look forward to breaking out into the speaking circuit as an author.

How did you start writing devotions? I’ve always been a writer. After I broke free from Corporate America and embraced my role as a mom and a business owner. I had a lot of time to spend doing what I like to do which is researching and looking up the Greek and Hebrew meaning of words. One morning in 2010, my husband said, “Why don’t you start a blog?” So, I did and to date, have written over 500 posts. Probably half of them having to do with Proverbs 31. While reading through Proverbs a lot of them reference the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman. Which is another book I have on my list to write. I’ve already started on it because I knew I could pull content from my blog.

Were you able to use a lot of the content from the book for the study guide?
The study guide was a whole new entity. One of my best friends, Stephanie Rice has a gift for discernment and knows what content needs to be there. She thought this was a book young girls needed. We wrote the study guide together, going chapter by chapter. I would begin writing and she would go in and read what I had written and add anything or remove parts. We prayerfully did this together. The study guide was my cup of tea. Because digging into the Word is what I love to write about. The study guide was fun to write, but the first section was challenging. If you’ve ever read the book, “Redeeming Love” by Francine Rivers, this book would be today’s version of her book. The first part of “Redeeming Love” is very difficult to read because there are some really hard sections. In the first section of my book, you’re looking at the life of the main character who is living in the world, a non-Christian life doing what college students do. She’s partying and getting herself into some bad situations. The study guide allowed me to delve deeper into scripture. From a Christian perspective, I was able to give warnings that I wasn’t able to do in the book. Whether the main character was flirting and getting into a bad spot. Being forced into things she didn’t want to do that would be considered borderline rape. The study guide allowed me to look at and identify warning signs and red flags for the reader.

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What dating advice would you give to single women? Probably, save it all for marriage, everything. Every piece of purity should be saved for marriage. When you meet your dream man, the last thing you want to be thinking about on your wedding night is someone from a past relationship. You don’t want to have any flashes of being with another guy. Thinking of how he did things differently or did he do things better than your husband is doing them? That is the last thing you want to think about when God brings you the man you’re going to be with forever. You don’t want those intimate details of the past flooding into your new life. And they will unless you just have spiritual amnesia or by God’s grace, he lets you forget everything that you’ve ever been through. That, unfortunately, didn’t happen with me because I remembered a lot of that stuff and I think the enemy wants to tarnish what God meant to be beautiful. He’s going to try to sabotage your thoughts and bring back that past relationship or that boyfriend. Honestly, if you believe that God can bring you this knight in shining armor riding in on a white horse and everything you dreamed. Then he’s worth waiting for. He’s worth you saving foreplay, fondling, and other things that you can get into when you’re in a relationship, just for him. I would just say to every single woman it is worth the wait. I want to emphasize that if you’re engaged it’s not even worth giving some of that away during your engagement. It’s worth saving what God designed for marriage for that wedding night. The more a female gives herself away all of those things just chip away at you and they bring you down. Sure, we can receive healing for all of that, but it just begins to chip away at our hearts. I feel it’s worth saving it all for marriage.

For women struggling with memories of their sexual past. Is there something you’d recommend to help them through that? Well, this might be an interesting perspective, but, if somebody pees in a pool it’s very diluted with water and chlorine. But if it was in a cup you wouldn’t want to drink that because it’s disgusting and not diluted. The same happens with sin in our life. When we put something in our mind it stays there but we can dilute it by putting good in. I would say it’s the same thing with women who had sex before they were married or maybe have been with a lot of people in their life. Let’s stop that behavior, those sexual activities, and those physical relationships. Stop putting the bad in and begin to dilute them with the Word, let’s saturate ourselves with good Christian books. Start with being in the Word and having a regular quiet time every morning where you’re just pouring good in. Some of those images may never completely be gone or they might be. I’ve been married for 20 years now and we say that we’re still on our honeymoon and it just keeps getting better. But I had a lot of experiences from my past. I don’t remember things that I had done, but I think that’s because of just years of diluting it with good. I’ve been pouring in the good, whether it be listening to a good podcast, good audio, reading a good book, being in the Word, or having regular quiet time. I think that married women can overcome that and dilute a lot of that stuff. I also think it might be helpful to be open with your spouse. I had experienced more than my husband had. He’s the knight in shining armor and yet I had a black sheep past. I had some baggage and he had very little. He got saved at nine, spoke at a church when he was ten, and started FCA at his high school. He was the homecoming king, prom king, and Mr. athlete, but he was sold out for Jesus too. He is what gives me hope that you can love Jesus and still be popular and look cool.

Is it possible for someone with a black sheep past to meet an amazing man of God, her knight in shining armor? It’s absolutely possible! That is what this book is about! Maybe we should change the title to, “How the Black Sheep Married the Knight in Shining Armor.” Because it is possible and I’m a true example of it. Your readers will just have to read the book, but my past is pretty checkered. But, when I turned my life over to the Lord and started living for Jesus, when you surrender it all to Him you’ve been forgiven! You’re as white as snow, your sins are as far as the east is from the west. Jesus forgets it all and he went to the cross, shed His blood so I could be forgiven for all the stupid stuff I did in my past. When I ask for that forgiveness He’s already forgiven and forgotten so from then on, it’s just me needing to forgive myself for the things I’ve done. When the enemy brings it up and says, “No, you’re not good enough for him, or you’re not worthy of someone like that, or you don’t deserve him.” You need to take every thought captive under the obedience of Christ Jesus and say, “No! I don’t know who you’re talking to satan or enemy but last time I checked I’d been forgiven of all of that.” Just as it says in scripture, in 2 Corinthians, “I am worthy because the blood of Jesus has redeemed me, and I’m forgiven.” In the book, it mentions an old song called, “What’s Sin” by Morgan Cryar. If you’ve never heard the song, you need to look it up on YouTube and listen to it. The lyrics are very powerful, and it says, “As far as the east is from the west, I’ve said what sin? What sin?” Because God doesn’t see that sin anymore. We just have to get to the point where we don’t see it, that instead, we see ourselves as redeemed from the curse and the past. I do deserve that knight and shining armor.

For any female who has a checkered past, has a black sheep past, she can start new today, and ask for forgiveness. This doesn’t mean she won’t make mistakes still, because we are human. But every day is a new day, you can start new and be forgiven. It’s as simple as asking. I never dreamed that I would be married to the most amazing person on the planet. That when I met him that I could live a life where he is still a knight and shining armor. Not just through the courtship process but that it could be possible to live a happy and fulfilled life and be in love after 20 years of being on a honeymoon. It is possible because with God all things are possible. I’m a living testimony of it for sure. I’m sure thoughts of needing to settle happened back then but when I got sold out to the Lord, I was radically changed and did a 180. This changed the direction of my life and God just started to change me. My dream during that time was to marry a knight riding in on a white horse across the beach, that’s what I had always envisioned. I wanted him to be a Godly man and leader, but I also wanted him to be like a hottie. A big guy with big shoulders, a big back, and looking like a football player with a solid jawbone. I wanted him to look good, be fit, and just be attractive. So, I made a list of everything I wanted in my husband and God brought him to me.

What would you say to women who have baggage full of past regrets? Is there still hope for them to have a holy and amazing marriage in the future, just like women who may have a past of few or no regrets?
I would say absolutely! Again step 1, is going back to forgiving yourself first. After you have forgiven yourself and when the enemy tries to bring it up again. Go back to applying 1 Corinthians 10:5. If it’s the condemnation from your past, say out loud, “I refuse to take on that condemnation. I have been forgiven, my past is wiped clean, and Jesus has forgotten that sin. I am white as snow.” Just as it says in Psalms 103:12, “It’s as far as the east is from the west, so far, has he removed our transgressions from us.” That’s what this book talks about, someone with past regrets being able to receive their knight in shining armor. Once you’re forgiven you can believe that God will bring you the valiant, amazing leader, handsome, wise, treats you like a queen, knight and shining armor, the man of God you’ve dreamed about. It’s not a pipe dream. God’s no respecter of persons, He doesn’t show partiality just as it says in Ephesians 6:9 “If He can do it for me, He can do it for you.” We’re still on our honeymoon. Some people say, “Once you’re married, if you can make it through the first year or through the first five years, maybe you’ll make it. But, if you’re a believer of Jesus, every year should get better and every year has gotten better. We keep learning and growing in the Lord. We’ve become better parents, our finances have increased, and God keeps making it better. To someone with past regrets, don’t set your sights any lower than what God has designed for you because it’s someone awesome and amazing.

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