Everlasting Love by Danyelle Scroggins

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About the author:

My name is Danyelle and I am the Senior Pastor of New Vessels Ministries North in Shreveport, Louisiana. I'm the author of both Christian fiction and non-fiction books. I studied Theology at Louisiana Baptist University, have a Psychology Degree from the University of Phoenix, an Interdisciplinary Degree in Psychology /Biblical Studies, and a Masters in Religious Education from Liberty University. I owns Divinely Sown Publishing LLC. 

What inspired you to write your book?

Book 3: Everlasting Love was birth from the E Love Series inspired by my granddaughter Emiya'rai. I fell in love with "E", when she was born. In the course of writing, it just seemed natural to put two people, who both had issues, but one with racism together.

Here is a short sample from the book:

Chapter One
Jamecia moved to the back and pulled every shoebox to the front of the closet. When she had gathered all of the boxes, she crawled out and started-one by one-placing the boxes on the dresser. Regina had entirely too many shoes, but Jamecia promised to help her pack as long as she could take whatever she wanted. Sure, she’d rather be hanging bulbs on a Christmas tree, but the reward for cleaning the closet brought greater satisfaction.
She stacked eight boxes of Coach shoes to the side, along with four pairs of red bottoms she absolutely adored. One thing for sure, Regina had style and great taste, and Jamecia did not mind hand-me-downs. Especially coming from a lady with as much class as Regina.
Not only did she adore her, but their entire family. Regina was cool, and after all she’d gone through, she was undoubtedly a woman of faith who was worthy of double honor.
She could hear Regina moving around in the living room, and every now and then she’d stop working, to make sure she heard no signs of distress.
Regina was now walking, but that didn’t stop Nathan or for that matter, even her, from being cautious of her. After things sounded calm, she went back into the closet to gather more items.

Regina got up slowly from her recliner and walked into the kitchen. She’d only been at home for two days and dreadfully missed the Stallone’s family home. She stayed there eight months after the wreck and had enjoyed every moment. The only consolation prize was having Jamecia staying with her.
Therapy had been both joy and pain, causing her to fight hard to regain her full range of motions. Although she still limped, she was thankful she could walk. Nathan was too.
Regina refused to set a wedding date until she made steps by herself without the assistance of a walker. Unbeknownst to anyone, she was going to fight hard to walk down the aisle even without a cane. It would be her Christmas gift to the man she loved and herself.
As soon as she took her first step, Nathan set their wedding date, which was now two weeks away. It would have been their first fallout if she had not agreed because Nathan refused to go into the new year without her being his wife.
Now that she was walking, she was okay with that. Things were moving quickly, but so much work was still ahead of them. She wanted to have her house all packed out before their winter wedding, and leaving for their honeymoon. Sometimes her goals even felt unrealistic to her, but understanding the strength of God gave her motivation in her weakness.
Most of her family members were flying in from Vegas by Wednesday of the next week. Although it was only Monday, she still felt like Wednesday was breathing down her neck. If things went her way, her parents and her two aunts could stay in her house and have enough room for cousins who didn’t mind sleeping on the blow-up mattresses.
Nathan made her promise to take it slow, but with all the planning, packing, and preparing, slow was nowhere in her plan or vocabulary. Regina pulled out another box and taped it with duct tape, and then she flipped it over. There were already nine filled boxes, and four of them were shoes. This time, she wrote on it the word Charity. Nathan also made her promise to give so much of her stuff away, which made her nervous and anxious.
As she filled this box, the Lord spoke into her spirit, “Give and it shall be given to you. They will pour into your lap with good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.” She immediately went over to two of the four boxes and wrote Charity on them. Of course, she already knew she should have been packing more than one box to give away, but she loved all things shoes.
She decided not to even look inside the boxes to see what they were because that would have only caused her to put a line through the word. Regina blew out a deep breath and smiled. If the truth was told, most of the high heels she’d grown accustomed to were so out of her league now.
Although her body had healed quite well, there were times when she felt awful and fragile. Even then, she dared not speak it out of her mouth. She was healed in Jesus’ name, and regardless of what her mind considered as her feelings, she believed God’s word above all. His word said, “For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares the Lord,” and she was sure as the Lord restores Zion, He restores her body daily.
Knock! Knock!
Regina stopped, startled by the knock, because no one told her they were coming over. She closed the newly filled box and carefully stepped over some items to get to the door.
“Who is it?”
“Open the door and see.”
She immediately knew exactly who it was. At the sound of his voice, all doubt disappeared and anxiousness ceased to exist. And she cheerfully swung the door open and threw out her arms.
“Hey, baby.”
“Oh, you are such a blessing to sore eyes. How has your day been?”
“Once you kiss me, I will tell you,” Nathan said, pulling her closer and kissing her with passion and love.
“You can’t keep kissing me like this, Nathan. You know we are trying to stay holy.”
“I know, and that is why I’m letting you go right now.”
“Thank you. I so appreciate you honoring our vow unto the Lord. We definitely would not want to make a vow and turn from it, would we?” she asked with a smirk.
“No, and stop looking provocative before I’m held accountable for lacking self-control.”
“Yes, and so let’s move on. Can you pull all of the boxes in the rooms in here? The moving company should be here in three days.”
“So, how is this coming along?”
“It’s been tough at times and I’d rather be decorating instead of packing, but as long as God keeps speaking, I will have more going to charity than to the storage. I only wished they were finished building our home and we could just send these boxes there.”
“Well, this is another reason I came by. I found out the storage right down the highway from our house is available, and they will pick up in the morning.”
“Oh, Nathan, that’s good, but look at this house. I am not even halfway done.”
“Regina, who am I?”
“You are Nathan, the love of my life and my enchanting love.”
“Yes. I accept your answer. But don’t I get things done?”
“Yes, baby, you do.”
“Well, in about five, four, three, two, one…”
Knock! Knock!
“Yes! I’m the man.” Nathan raised his arms outward.
“Who is it?”
“Girl, if you don’t open this door and let us in.”
“Priscilla, Steven, Karen, oh and my little baby niece! What in the world are you guys doing?”
Priscilla rushed through the door. “Baby, Nathan told us we’re having a pizza packing party, and we are here. Where’s the music? You need to put on some Lecrae so we can do this.”
“You know I have plenty music in here. Baby is just on top of things. This is why I love you, man,” Regina blew kisses at Nathan who was busily packing CDs and DVDs from the shelf.
Knock! Knock!
“Nathan? Who else is coming?”
“Lady, I’m a white man in a black neighborhood at dusk. If you don’t open this door and let me in.”
“Well, we may need to let you stay right outside this door until the Lord delivers you from the spirit of fear.”
“Okay, okay. I was just playing. Please let me in.”
Regina swung open the door to let Jacob in. He was a mess all by himself, but Regina had quickly gotten used to him. He was so full of jokes, and although she needed so much patience to deal with him, he was genuinely helping her to perfect long-suffering.
“Girl, you should have let Holy Angels, the towns largest non-profit charity, come to get all of this stuff because you got his mind so he would have repurchased it all in two days,” he said, pointing at Nathan.
“Mind your own business, but you have spoken correctly. Now, you just start helping Regina pack whatever she tells you to pack, and you and I are going to be all right.”
“A little testy huh, Nathan?”
“No, he just gets tired of hearing your mouth constantly running,” Jamecia said, coming from the backroom.
“Hello, everyone, and hey, Jacob,” she said, throwing her hand towards him as if it hurt her to speak
“Hey, Jamecia. I had no clue you were already here.”
“I know. Right, Nathan. I was deep in the closet, and I almost didn’t know you all were here until I heard Jacob’s big mouth.”
Everyone laughed because Jacob, who usually always had something to say, did not say one word. He just kept pulling down DVDs and stacking them neatly in the box Nathan had already begun packing. The women all looked at each other, and Jamecia quickly discerned what they were thinking and said, “No way in —”
Regina quickly interrupted. “You better not say that!”
“Okay, Regina. Let me go back to this room before y’all make me say something you are dead against. Call me when the pizza comes.”
“We will.” Regina and Nathan answered.
“Okay, let’s make this a packing praise party!” Steven shouted.
“How are we gonna do that thou faithful worship leader?” Karen asked.
“Just follow my lead,” and Steven began to sing.
“As I lift my voice to You, the sound of praise is what You hear. As I open my heart, it’s music to Your ears. Hear my praise, Hear my praise.” Everyone in the room joined in.
Before long, all of them who were natural worshipers were singing while others like Jacob just stood in awe.

Jacob was baffled. He felt something he never experienced. Jacob had never seen anyone go into ecstatic worship at home or outside of the church, period. Everyone was singing except he and Karen, and even Jamecia ran from the back, taking over the lead of Steven’s worship song.
“Hear my praise, my hallelujah belongs to You. Hear my praise, Lord-ord-ord, thank You is what I do, In my praise, please hear my praise, oh Lord.” Jamecia sang with so much heart, and then she began to sing, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, it’s my praise.”
Jacob had no idea the girl could sing so good. As she sang,“Hallelujah,” he could feel his body began to tingle. Something was happening to him, and if he didn’t get out of there, he wouldn’t be able to explain the tears threatening to fall from his eyes.
He searched the room looking for his keys, and when he spotted them lying on the bookshelf, he scurried to the shelf, picked up his keys, and slid through the boxes to the door. Nathan must have had his eyes on him because as soon as he opened the door and closed it, Nathan came behind him.