If this sounds familiar, I used a portion of it in my last post, which I later deleted. I'll keep this shorter and tighter.
I recently combined a two-novel set into one novel. It was, after all, one story overall, and I saw no need to keep it as two. Part I was a story in itself. It's about facing and overcoming profound fears and learning to stand on one's own feet with the help of those the Lord brings into our lives for such times. It's also about facing temptations and using the Scriptures as a guide to overcome them.
The second half (previously a separate novel) is the part where lessons learned in Part I have been tossed aside
as the characters make rash decisions based on their wants and perceived
needs.
I set up the potential consequences to those decisions during a conversation the
characters had with their pastor early in the story. Then, in subsequent
chapters, I let each of the disasters unfold, along with the overall
damage it inflicted on the their lives and on the lives of those
around them. I
ended the novel by showing how God can
still use His people even when we fail.
This is just one of the lessons in the story--and most importantly, in life.