Love a Boll Weevil: And Other Lessons God Taught Me

Bonnye learned the reason she went to church was to worship God at the age of three. Her great aunt Katy explained God was holy and invisible. She defined holy. At the word holy, Bonnye was hooked. She had to know more. She learned basic Christianity as her family lived temporarily with her great grandmother and Katy, waiting for her dad to return from England following the end of World War II. When Katy went to evening church, she took Bonnye with her. Bonnye learned to talk to God in the Sanctuary.

Bonnye and Katy would spend time with Christian teaching. She was:

• learning about Jesus and why He was important
• listening to Katy tell the old Bible stories
• singing children's hymns
• memorizing answers from the Westminster Catechism for Children
• learning parts of the church building

Bonnye devoured the information as a starving one eats a first meal, slowly and with intense attention. Bonnye, as one of Jesus' sheep, was quietly "talking with God," a joy she'd experience for the rest of her life. As Jesus had said, "My sheep hear my voice." She heard His word.

Bonnye learned that God had a future assignment for her at age six, . Some seventy years later He told her: produce a book to share with others what we've experienced together. Bonnye will tell you, "I live with one foot in the physical world and the other in the spiritual world. I may be different, but I'm the happiest person I know."

Bonnye's future assignment for the Lord became Love a Boll Weevil: And Other Lessons God Taught Me. This is that book.

Bonnye Matthews moved to Alaska to retire in the clean air of a beautiful place she'd come to love in 2005. Fiction writing had never crossed her mind until she took a class at Mat-Su College on Alaska History and became fascinated with the first Americans. Matthews wrote a five-book novel series and followed that with a three-volume novella series with a focus on specific archaeological sites. She wrapped up that set of books with her peopling of the Americas paradigm in 2018. Bonnye next turned to dinosaurs and completed Arctic Dinosaurs of Alaska, a middle-grade novel chock full of multidisciplinary learning opportunities in 2022.Bonnye's newest book details her greatest joy in life: her long-term deep and abiding love and worship of God. Bonnye's life is one where happiness and joy abound. From early childhood, she learned what Solomon wrote about in Ecclesiastes in the Bible: work is the source of joy. Whether she works to learn something or communicate with others, her motto has been two words her great-aunt Katy Bradley wrote on her soul: beyond beyond. If giving 80% were the basic standard, giving 100% might mean going beyond. Bonnye would give 120%. It's where joy is found, she explains.