Mary E Hanks: My Heart Beats for You by Paula Lynn McGrew

Monday, February 10, 2014

My Heart Beats for You by Paula Lynn McGrew

"My Heart Beats for You is a heart-stirring picture of God's love for us. With tender dialogue and endearing imagery, Paula McGrew beautifully portrays how God delights in us, knows us personally, and wants us! For anyone who has a hard time picturing a father's love, this is the book to read. I felt like it was written especially for me. You will too!"

Mary Hanks

Please welcome Paula McGrew, author of My Heart Beats for You.

My Heart Beats for You is an intriguing title. How did you come up with it?

When I was first learning about God as a child, my Sunday school teacher taught my class a lesson about how we are the very breath of God, and how He breathed air into our lungs to give us life. She emphasized that we have a wonderful heavenly Father who made us in His image, He’s planned an abundant life for us, we are His treasures, and He loves us with every beat of His heart. The poetic beauty of those words resonated with me, and I used it for the title of my book.

What inspired you to write this book?

From the time they were little, I wanted my boys, Graham and Soren, to know they couldn’t do anything of their own accord to make God love them; He already did, always has and would never stop, no matter what, and that’s why I originally wrote the book.
My sons knew my husband and I love them, and that their friends and other family members love them, and writing this book was one way I used to teach them about God’s love too.

Originally, I wrote this as an individual love letter from God for my boys and used their baby and childhood pictures to put together an electronic scrapbook for each of them. From there, the book evolved into what is now My Heart Beats For You.

Who do you see this book being an encouragement to?

I see this book being an encouragement to everyone, but especially to people who have felt unloved or don’t feel like they’re anyone special. I also think this book could be encouraging to someone who might think no one cares about them, or even to people who don’t believe in God or know Him in a personal way. I want this book to be a reminder that there is a place for everyone in God’s family – the lonely, the downhearted, the seeking, the orphan. We need to feel loved in order to give love in return to someone else. I think My Heart Beats For You is also a great tool to use when talking to our children about why God created them and how much He wants to have a relationship with them and be their Friend.

Telling someone God loves them is like offering a lifeline of hope to another one of His children. It is my prayer that God will reveal Himself to others through my writing, and that those who read this book will open their heart to Him and accept Jesus as their Savior.

In one or two sentences, please tell us the theme of My Heart Beats for You.

God’s love for us is unimaginable, without limits, without end. When I delved into the Scriptures while writing this book, I felt as if I was hearing God’s heart, like He was sitting beside me, assuring me of His love and that I was uniquely made by His own hands in order to have a relationship with Him. That’s what this book is about, and the message I want to share with the world.

As a mom, how does this book affect you?

Every time I think about how much I love my boys, I get tears in my eyes, and the depth of my love for them is not even a drop in the bucket compared to how much God loves me, loves them, love us. His love far surpasses the love I feel for my own children. I wept as I wrote this book and literally felt Him speaking to my heart, His voice gentle, kind, and full of love, assuring me I was created for a purpose, and that He wanted – even craved and longed for – my companionship.