Dineen Miller didn’t intend to
write about a demon.
She first started her novel The Soul Saver
(Barbour Books) as a way to fictionalize
some very real truths about marriage
that she’d written about in her nonfiction
book Winning Him Without Words, written
with Lynn Donovan. “[Through the novel] I
wanted to show that God is very present in
mismatched marriages,” Dineen says, “blessing
and helping the believing spouse to love
their unbeliever right where they are.”
Tobias, a demon who wreaks havoc on the
characters, was a complete surprise to Miller,
but he revealed himself during the early
stages of writing. After some serious prayer,
she went with it. “Tobias became an element
to show that evil is real and very present. But
it’s not stronger than God, and we have the
power through our salvation in Christ to live
in victory.”
The Soul Saver stars Lexie Baltimore, a
sculptor with an unusual gift. God reveals
to her what faces to sculpt; faces of people
she’s supposed to meet and help. But when
she meets her latest face, a man who’s everything
her unbelieving husband is not, Lexie
faces the spiritual battle of her life.
“Lexie is much like I was when I was just
starting to understand what it meant to be
spiritually mismatched,” Miller says. “My
husband is still an atheist, but we now
have an amazing marriage full of love and
friendship. I’m the one who has changed
the most—the one God changed first, which
is how it works in mismatched marriages. I
consider it a high calling to be the aroma of
Christ to my hubby. The Soul Saver is about
letting go of our expectations, our pain and
even our lives, and letting God show us how
He takes it all and turns it into dreams we
never dared to dream.”
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2012 issue of FamilyFiction Edge digital magazine. Subscribe for free today!