For Immediate Release

Date:          June 30, 2005

Contact:     Melanie Minter

                   Publicist

                   tel: (615) 902-2320

                   fax: (615) 902-2746

                   e-mail: MMinter@ThomasNelson.com

 

A Wake-Up Call To Life

Best-Selling Author Angela Thomas Challenges Women

to Cast Off Their “Un-Life” and Start Becoming

“Anyone who has seen or heard the remarkable testimony of this beautiful, dynamic, and intuitively wise speaker would never imagine in a million years that she is the same person who could relate to all those un-woman feelings of despair and hopelessness. But Angela is one of those rare modern-day Abigails we read about in First Samuel 25. She has sought the Lord and because of her desire for God, she has overcome.”

---Brian Irwin

from the foreword

(Nashville, Tenn.) Angela Thomas’ wake-up call happened at age thirty-eight—after fourteen years of marriage ending in an embarrassing divorce, ten years of diapering her four kids, and the unending routine of going through the motions trying to get by and emotionally fade away—comfortably numb and safely asleep to the fact that she was dead to life. She had what she calls an “un-life”. She had become an “un-woman”.

Angela says, “As it turns out, I am not the only woman to ever give up and retreat into the barren life of a wallflower…Believe me, I get it. Depending on your circumstances, it can feel like the most painless option to give into nothingness or to lose yourself in the chaos of busyness. More and more, it seems like so many women are surviving decades of their lives by turning their hearts inside out, trying not to feel. Becoming the un-woman.”

A self-proclaimed recovering “textbook” wallflower, Angela Thomas shares her deeply personal journey with a much-needed message of hope and encouragement in her new book debuting in October 2005, When Wallflowers Dance. Angela’s message is that no matter how much you try to blend in, hide in the shadows, and keep everyone out (including God), letting the years pass by because of circumstances, past hurts or fears, God is coming across heaven and earth for you.  She believes that wherever women are in their walk with God, He is already pursuing them, longing to lend a righteous confidence, extending his hand inviting them to dance.

Dance? Yes, dance. Angela says, “There is the life you life with God, and there is the life you live when you are dancing in His arms. Dancing is living in the fullness of your purpose…loving every single person that God brings to you…and [seeing] what matters for eternity. Dancing is a passionate life. Adventure.  And living without fear.”

She shares the good news in her “wallflower gospel” that a clear plan to reclaim your life and the woman God designed you to be is well within reach. When Wallflowers Dance prescribes an easy-to-understand recipe outlining exactly what steps to take to learn how to dance with God. From restoring order to restoring your body, casting off shackles, becoming free of bitterness, believing God, and choosing victory, Angela provides step-by-step “dancing lessons” that will result in joyful community with God and ultimately, becoming fully alive.

 

Her metaphor of dancing is not a trite, trivial view of abiding with God. Rather, it is an intense examination of total surrender to God’s sovereign will and a complete trust in His love that she says brings true spiritual maturity—which is the real difference between just living and full-on dancing.  This spiritual maturity required to truly be vibrantly alive and dance in the arms of God comes only through discipleship, says Angela. “I believe that learning to dance with God requires intentional discipling. Waking up to your life is a process.  Believing God…is modeled and taught…Women who have been discipled grow up. They learn how to hear the voice of their Father. They understand how to respond to His grace. And they dance. Maybe timidly at first, but confidently in time.”

Angela Thomas is the best-selling author of Do You Think I’m Beautiful, A Beautiful Offering, Prayers for the Mother to Be, Prayers for Mothers of Newborns and Tender Mercy for a Mother’s Soul, Becoming. A much-in-demand conference speaker, Thomas juggles church, parenting four children and work from her home of Knoxville, Tennessee.

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