God’s Marvelous Behind-the-Scenes Work and a Mega Book Giveaway

Posted August 20, 2025 | xochitldixon

In 2021, God led me to serve with three Christian authors who I’d known for years as we hosted Representation Matters, a celebration of biblical diversity in children’s picture books. I knew these sisters in Christ loved Jesus and people. I knew they shared my passion for celebrating God’s beautifully diverse image-bearers. And most importantly, I knew they honored the unerring, unchanging, and infallible God-breathed words of Scripture.

What I didn’t know is that all three of those women were also working with my editor, Bunmi Ishola, and writing new children’s picture books that were scheduled to be published by the same Christian publisher—WaterBrook Kids.

Over the next few years, we prayed for one another, encouraged each other, and supported each other through the writing, editing, publishing, and promoting of multiple picture books. We rejoiced and prayed for one another when God led us to share His truth and love through different genres, too.

It’s been a blessing to invest in authentic relationships with people who understand the unique challenges that I face when using writing and public speaking or Bible teaching as tools for ministry.

So, when the God designed and biblically supported ideas of diversity, equity, and inclusion were under attack by those who proclaimed the name of Jesus—just like me—I looked for support from people I knew would pray with me.

I knew these women would know how I was feeling without being told. I knew they would be hurting as we watched God’s name taken in vain by those promoting hate, division, and an attack on truth and the beautifully diverse people God made.

As my heart ached, I reached out to my sisters.

During the summer of 2025, God led us to host Right Representation Matters: Honoring Diversity and the Unerring Words of Scripture.

The heartbeat of our mission is to proclaim and honor what God says about diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Bible. Our first step was to declare the clear biblical truth declared through the apostle Paul, a truth that should unite all people . . . especially those who say Jesus is Lord.

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’” Acts 17:24-28

During our panel discussion, we explored how diversity is God’s idea. We shared the challenges and victories we’ve experienced behind-the-scenes as we serve God in this unique way.

We declared the hope God has given us as we continue the good work, the often difficult work, the rewarding work, and the absolutely necessary work God that has entrusted to each of us.

You can join the conversation on the Pause for Prayer Right Representation Matters episode (CLICK HERE).

To thank you for your continued prayers and ongoing support, we’re hosting a mega book giveaway.

Between August 20, 2025 and August 23, 2025, you can enter by:

  1. Connecting with all of us on Instagram.

Dorena Williamson at @dorinawilliamson 

Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young at @dorinagilmore

Tina M. Cho at @tinamcho

Xochitl Dixon at @xochitl.e.dixon

Optional: Callie the Service Dog at @callie.the.service.dog

  1. Subscribing to our newsletters.

Dorena Williamson at www.dorenawilliamson.com

Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young at www.dorinagilmore.com

Tina M. Cho at www.tinamcho.com

Xochitl Dixon at www.xedixon.com

  1. Commenting under this post.
  1. Tagging a friend or two or more.

BONUS ENTRY: Watch and leave a comment under our panel discussion the Pause for Prayer Right Representation Matters episode on YouTube. (CLICK HERE)

This mega book giveaway is sponsored by Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young, Dorena Williamson, Tina M. Cho, and Xochitl Dixon only. The giveaway is not sponsored or affiliated with Instagram, Facebook, Meta, or any other publisher, business, or entity. Each individual author will mail one copy of one title (author’s choice) to the recipient we choose at random. To be eligible to enter for your chance to be the recipient of this mega book giveaway, you must fulfill all of the 4 requirements listed above and have a current deliverable mailing address in the continental United States of America.

We will randomly select one person from all of the entries on all of our pages to be the recipient of this mega book giveaway and announce our special recipient on Sunday, August 25, 2025.

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The Skin Colors of God’s Image-Bearers and Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown Pre-Order Discount for Barnes & Noble Members

Posted September 6, 2024 | xochitldixon

 

If you’ve read any of my writing, you know I love Jesus and people.

I celebrate God’s intentional plan for diversity in His Kingdom, as well as His heart for all people . . . even those who have yet to surrender to Him ̶ the lost.

I wrote my first picture book, Different Like Me, after a student called my son a racial slur in kindergarten. Different Like Me and Diferente como yo celebrates our differences and our sameness as God’s beautifully diverse image-bearers.

In my second picture book, What Color is God’s Love?, I used the colors God created to reveal the full spectrum of His unchanging character. I worked with the publisher and the talented illustrator Darshika Varma to ensure we included multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-generational characters, some with and some without disabilities, working and playing together.

My third picture book, Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, has been added to Brightly’s “The Most Exciting Picture Books Coming Fall 2024.” To God be the glory!

I wrote Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown after a student told my granddaughter she couldn’t be related to her sisters because she is Black and they are White.

I affirmed that God made and uses melanin, which is BROWN, to design the perfect skin tones for all His image-bearers around the world.

I assured Brooklyn that she, her sisters, our diverse family members, and all the people God made are wonderfully, marvelously BROWN ̶ from the darkest ebony to the lightest ivory ̶ because we all have melanin.

These statements about melanin and the various hues of human skin are scientific facts. However, Scripture ̶ which is most important to me ̶ also supports this truth.

These are the Bookend Bible verses God used as the foundational truth for the message He entrusted me to share in Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown.

“When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them ‘Mankind’ when they were created.” Genesis 5:1-2

“God saw all that he made and it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown is my creative way of equipping readers to break down the lies that divide God’s beautifully, diverse image-bearers. I worked with the amazing WaterBrook Kids publishing team and the Pura Bulpre Honor Artist Sara Palacios to ensure we represented a wide range of the spectacular shades of brown God made.

In Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, a young boy with an invisible illness (like me) and his service dog (inspired by my service dog Callie) join a diverse cast of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-generational characters with and without disabilities on an adventure across five regions of the United States.

Each page rejoices in a child’s sense of curiosity and imagination, while celebrating the beauty of God’s creativity in designing brown things in the world, including His wonderfully, marvelously brown image-bearers.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER: Barnes & Noble Members will receive 25% OFF Pre-orders for Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown September 4-6, 2024!

Premium Members will also receive an additional 10% off print book pre-orders.

USE Coupon Code: PREORDER25 at checkout (case-sensitive, no spaces). 

Please click HERE to pre-order Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown from Barnes & Noble.

Love your neighbors and pre-order extra copies to share as gifts and to donate to your church, a local library, school, Free Little Library, or afterschool program.

#BNPreorder

I can do nothing without God or your ongoing prayers, encouragement, practical support, and reviews!

Will you come alongside me in ministry by supporting me in prayer and helping me spread the word about Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, published by WaterBrook Kids, an imprint of Penguin Random House?

Through the month of September 2024, I need people to:

  1. Pray for readers!
  2. Pre-order at least one copy of Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown before September 30, 2024. Click here for the access links provided by the publisher.
  3. Share Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown on your social media pages.
  4. Write a short review of Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown on Goodreads, NetGalley, Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and any other review platforms you enjoy between October 1, 2024 and October 31, 2024.
  5. Keep praying and sharing Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown with people as God leads in 2024 and beyond!
  6. Interview me on Instagram or Facebook Live, or for your blog, podcast, newsletter, substack, or YouTube channel.
  7. Book me as a speaker for your churche, school, classroom, Sunday School, Church Camp, or community event in 2024-2025.
  8. Encourage churches, ministries, and nonprofit organizations to order in bulk, receive discounted prices, and give away copies of Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown to neighborhood families, schools, libraries, Free Little Libraries, afterschool programs, and more.

For more information and to order in bulk, please email the following:

*Churches:  [email protected]

*Ministries:  [email protected]

*Nonprofit Organizations:  [email protected]

Thanks for coming alongside me as we fulfill the Great Commission while living out the Greatest Commandment!

God uses your partnership in ministry to keep me going as He moves mountains, breaks down dividing walls, and builds bridges to connect and celebrate His beautifully diverse image-bearers.

To God be the glory, the honor, and the praise!

 

In preparation for the release of Tyndale’s Go Bible for Kids, I joined four other contributors on the BookWorthy Podcast.

When the host asked me to share my favorite story in the Bible, I said, “Jesus’s story. The whole Bible, because the Old Testament and the New Testaments point to Christ.”

When she asked how I stay motived to read the Bible, I told her that I remember that the Bible is not just a book and reading the Bible is not just a task to be checked off a list.

When we read Scripture, we are meeting with God, hearing from God, getting to know God. We’re connecting with Him, worshipping Him, and being lavished by His love, as the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and minds to align with the unerring and unchanging God-breathed words of Scripture.

To nurture a biblical perspective, we need to know what God says in the whole Bible.

Reading the whole Bible is the only way we will know God’s whole story, God’s character, God’s commands, and God’s heart for every single one of the image-bearers He created and loves.

In 2025, I’ll be reading through the New Living Translation using Tyndale’s NLT Go Bible for Kids. I hope you will join me.

For more information, to download free activity sheets and resources, and to order Tyndale’s NLT Go Bible for Kids, please CLICK HERE.

To listen to the BookWorthy interview, please CLICK HERE.

To watch the BookWorthy interview, please CLICK HERE.

To subscribe to receive daily encouragement devotions from Our Daily Bread Ministries, including the Bible in a Year Reading Schedule, please CLICK HERE.

I am looking forward to growing with you!

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#wonderfullymarvelouslybrown #xochitldixon #ChristianBooks #Christian #faith #Jesus

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Following God to Michigan in August 2024 AND Growing in the Dark

Posted August 9, 2024 | xochitldixon

Yes. We’re following God from California to Michigan!

We’re not moving to the Midwest again, though. On August 17-25, 2024, I’ll be recording the audio book for Waiting for God, speaking at a special event for the wonderful Our Daily Bread Service Partners, and hosting a Children’s Storytime at Baker Book House.

If you are in the Grand Rapids, MI area, please join Callie the Service Dog, my husband, and me at Baker Book House on Saturday, August 24, 2024, from 11 am to 1 pm.

I’ll be reading What Color is God’s Love? and Different Like Me.

I’ll also be sharing an exclusive sneak peek of Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown, published by WaterBrook Kids and scheduled for release on October 1, 2024.

After the reading, we’ll have a quick Q&A and fun activities for kids to enjoy while they wait for their books to be signed.

Please reserve your spot by calling the store or using this EventBrite link (Click HERE).

Please share this post and invite your church, your family, and your friends to join us.

Baker Book House will have all my books available for purchase, including the bestselling God Hears Her compilation that features the first devotion I wrote for Our Daily Bread in 2015, “When Yes Means No.”

If you pre-order Wonderfully, Marvelously Brown from Baker Book House before or during the event, you will receive an exclusive personalized signed book plate.

After the hard and hope-filled year I’ve had, I am looking forward to serving the Lord during this trip.

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When we’re abiding in Jesus, we can persevere by the power of the Holy Spirit and glow as we grow, even in the dark spaces of the valley.

Suggested Reading: Isaiah 40:1-31 (ESV)

God created the moonflower (Ipomoea alba), a member of the morning glory family, which has blossoms that are only a couple inches wide during the day. Though beautiful and fragrant, these nocturnal flowers have poisonous seeds. So the moonflower may not be a good choice for gardens where children and pets roam.

However, though most flowers thrive when they soak up the sun, the moonflower flourishes under the light of the moon.

Each blossom opens into a sweet-scented round bloom up to seven inches long. Moonflower vines can grow up to twenty feet long as they crawl up the sides of solid structures like fences, houses, and even other plants.

Like the moonflower, God’s people can grow in unexpected places.

Some of the most fragrant and beautiful spiritual growth can occur as God guides us through the dark valleys of suffering that leads to sanctification ̶ the refining process through which He makes us holy, more like Jesus so we can be fragrant with the fruit of the Spirit as we point others to the hope we have in Christ.

In September 2018, I began trudging through one of the darkest seasons of suffering in my life. We had just moved across the country, following God from California to Wisconsin. As I searched for new doctors and a new church, I was working toward the deadline to submit my first full-length devotional. Waiting for God: Trusting Daily in God’s Plan and Pace was scheduled to be released by Our Daily Bread Publishing in August 2019.

In those dark valley moments, my pain and fatigue levels increased. As I searched for a new medical team and a new church, I loneliness and discouragement overwhelmed me. Still, I had to write Waiting for God, a book filled with encouragement and hope for those struggling to trust God when the wait felt too long and too hard to endure.

God affirmed that persevering includes pushing through in the power of the Holy Spirit as well as resting in the quiet peace of His presence.

To flourish in the valley requires we wait and walk by faith in the power of the Spirit, as He nourishes the deepest roots beneath the surface.

We may not see anything that resembles growth, so it would be easy to bow down under the weight of discouragement.

However, when we’re walking and waiting in the valley with our eyes are on the horizon expecting God to show up, He changes our perspective.

We can see hope when others see hopelessness.

“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Isaiah 40:4-5, ESV).

When our weakness tempts us to doubt, we can turn to Him and stand on every promise He made, fulfilled, and those that His unchanging faithfulness assures us that He will be fulfilling.

The prophet Isaiah said, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (v. 8).

No matter what the world says, we can believe that the truth we read in the Bible will stand firm and continue to be true and relevant because God never changes.

Isaiah offered God’s people a comforting promise: “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength” (vv. 28-29).

By first affirming who God is and all how He promises to provide for us, the prophet builds a foundation that stands strong during the ever-changing seasons we walk in the light or the dark.

Though none of us is exempt from weariness or depletion, God offers hope for those who place their trust in the Jesus.

“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (vv. 30-31).

When we begin to doubt we can press on through the darkest valley moments, the Holy Spirit reminds us that the deepest roots of our faith are beneath the surface.

With our eyes on the horizon, knowing our King is coming again, we can thrive in the darkest valleys because the Light Himself is with us.

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Praise the Lord!

Join me in sharing God’s unerring and unchanging words of Scripture with the children God has placed in your sphere of influence.

In His incredible loving-kindness, God blessed me with the opportunity to serve as the contributing writer of the “Choose to Change” feature in Tyndale’s NLT Go Bible for Kids.

These fun and engaging multiple choice questions lead readers to apply God’s truth and live for Jesus.

The Go Bible, scheduled to release on September 3, 2024, includes over 600 features created by a diverse Jesus-loving team. This life-changing Bible is designed to equip readers to engage with the text, nurture their personal relationship with God, and apply the God-breathed words of Scripture in practical and relevant ways.

The Go Bible may be created for kids ages 7-11, but I’m using this full-text New Living Translation to read through the Bible in 2025.

You can visit Tyndale’s NLT Go Bible for Kids page (CLICK HERE) for more information, to download free activity pages, and to pre-order your copy from a variety of retailers by clicking here.

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In my Pause for Prayer episode, “Special Delivery,” I share why working on the Go Bible is an answer to a prayer I placed into God’s hands shortly after I surrendered my life to Jesus.

CLICK HERE to watch “Special Delivery” and join me as I celebrate the upcoming release of Tyndale’s NLT Go Bible for Kids!

Thanks for being a member of my blog family. I am praying for you and looking forward to growing with you!

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