Authors: Elizabeth Byler Younts

Promise to Cherish (42 page)

As I look back at my ancestry and the lineup of nonresistant men and women, I’m also proud. I respect that they followed through with their beliefs and didn’t just do what was popular or acceptable. In World War II the pacifists were hated and despised yet they stood for their right to be a C.O. Consider how difficult this would’ve been for them. I’m proud of my present and my ancestry because in both I see a resolve to follow one’s conscience, no matter how difficult. Both require a strong-willed spirit and perseverance.

The reader follows both Christine and Eli on a spiritual journey. With which character can you relate the most, speaking in terms of your own spiritual journey? Why?

I think maybe pieces of both. Christine and Eli, in different ways, saw their spiritual value in how people perceived them. This is not where our value lies. No matter how much good people see in you or if you are someone easily judged for wrongs . . . your
value comes from God. This is such a hard concept. This affects not just how we view ourselves but how we make friends and our sense of belonging.

I am constantly reminding myself that what truly matters are God’s wondrous thoughts toward me. I fail so often but God reminds me that He knows the number of the hairs on my head, that He knit me in my mother’s womb before the world was set in motion, and that He would’ve sent Jesus to die even if I was the only person who needed a Savior. My life has value to the Lord and He cherishes me. Ultimately, this is what Christine and Eli needed to learn. They are worth loving and cherishing no matter the mistakes they have made or the opinions of others.

Who is your least favorite character in
Promise to Cherish
? Why?

I really enjoyed these characters. I had several that could make this list but because I see redemption in them, even Jack, I think my least favorite would have to be Nurse Minton. My reason for this is because she let her circumstances make her jaded and harsh. She couldn’t see the humanity that was within the walls of the hospital anymore. The years of hard, thankless work had crushed her spirit. In writing that, however, it makes me sad for her and I wonder what her story was.

I also didn’t like Bucket, a very minor character, at all. I believe the vast majority of our heroic World War II soldiers would’ve disapproved of how he belittled Eli.

The reader is challenged to consider how World War II demanded change from the lives of conscientious objectors. Their financial climate was altered. Expectations were redefined. Loved ones spent an indefinite amount of time waiting on their conscientious objectors to return home. And when these individuals
did
return, they themselves were different. What do you hope the reader gains by considering how conscientious objectors sacrificed for the war as well?

All I can truly hope for readers to gain is what I’ve gained myself. It’s important to see a new and untold perspective and that everyone has a story to share. I’m learning not to condemn the decision not to fight but to be thankful we are in a country that allows for personal freedoms with regards to faith and conscience. Their sacrifices were different from soldiers—true, but they still sacrificed. Just because it wasn’t dangerous or didn’t cost their lives doesn’t mean it’s a sacrifice that should be forgotten.

With
Promise to Cherish
now complete, what are your plans for future writing?

I am currently writing the third book in the series. It is tentatively titled
Promise to Keep.
Esther Detweiler was brought up knowing too much about abandonment and broken promises. Through a fear of rejection and an independent streak she has rejected the concept of love and marriage. When Esther is asked to care for a little motherless English girl while her father, Joe, goes off to the Pacific in World War II, Esther’s life changes. The real complications start, however, when Joe returns from war four years later.

Once this book is finished I hope to write many more stories that challenge our thinking and provide readers with an ear to the past.

About the Author

Photograph © Esther M. Byler

E
lizabeth Byler Younts is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers. She is an Air Force officer’s wife and a homeschooling mom with two young daughters. She makes her home wherever her family is stationed. Elizabeth was Amish as a child and after her parents left the church she still grew up among her Amish family and continues to speak Pennsylvania Dutch.

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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First Howard Books trade paperback edition October 2014

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Cover design by Faceout Studio

People photograph by Steve Gardner/Pixelworks

Other images by iStock and Shutterstock

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Younts, Elizabeth Byler.

Promise to cherish : a novel / Elizabeth Byler Younts. — First Howard Books trade paperback edition.

pages cm. — (Promise of sunrise)

1. Nurses—Fiction. 2. Amish—Fiction. 3. Civilian Public Service—Fiction.

I. Title.

PS3625.O983P75 2014

813’.6—dc23

2014002400