When I was involved with Awana, a Bible-based ministry for youth ages 2-18, I became a leader of third and fourth grade girls. As their leader, I assisted in helping them understand the meaning of various Bible verses as well as memorizing them. In fact, the girls were better than I with memorization. However, one of the many Bible verses that were included in the memorization process was Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” (NKJV) At the time, the verse was merely another for the girls to learn, but as I memorized it too, its meaning became my password to life.
Throughout the years I have leaned on this verse
repeatedly as each stage of my life has brought challenges too heavy for me to
handle alone. Consequently, the words in these verses remind me to trust God,
to be aware of His Presence in my life, and to keep alert to His leading no
matter the outcome or the time frame. Yes, the time frame because I don’t
always wait on Him. In the following account, I want to share how
God had directed my path concerning a dream which had been planted in my heart
60 years ago.
After I had accepted Jesus as my personal Savior in
1961, I dreamed of publishing a book as a way to serve Him. Actually, my love
for books began at an early age. Our mother read Bible stories to my old
brother and me, usually before bedtime. As she read, visions of the people and
their lives filled my little mind. Sometimes my imagination would take me into
those stories, and I would dream of being a part of them. Perhaps that’s when,
unaware at that time, my desire to write stories began.
My teenage years brought me a mix of adventures with
new friends, with deeper relationships, with higher education goals, and with
more insights to life. However, despite these various experiences, my writing
desires remained; actually, they grew because I had more to write about.
However, my literary genres changed. From writing movie scripts and poetry in
high school, in college I focused on non-fiction, personal essays, research
papers, mainly because of my English major. I did continue writing poetry and
submitted several of my poems to one of the literature professors on campus. He
gave me an encouraging review. I also took a journalism class where I enjoyed
writing feature stories and editorials, new formats for me. When I graduated
from college and began my teaching career, I soon found composing lesson plans
and tests took most of my writing endeavors. Consequently, my dream of
publishing a book momentarily ended, but life as a married woman began.
It was not until 1974 when I was pregnant with our
first child that my dream resurfaced. Since I was no longer teaching, I had
time to write again. However, this time
I concentrated on children’s stories for magazines as well as picture book
manuscripts. I took a correspondence writing class designed for children
authors and successfully completed it. Along with my dream to publish, my
desire to serve Jesus through my writing also remained. I started to write
Christian-centered stories as well as Bible-related story themes. One of my
manuscripts entitled, Only a Small Pot of Oil, was one of two chosen for
a children’s book from Concordia Publishing, but mine wasn’t the final
selection. I was disappointed and thought of giving up since I had received
LOTS of rejection forms before this one.
As years passed, God led me along different paths,
including being a stay at home Mom of four for 22 years, an English outreach
instructor for 26 years, and director of an outreach site for a community
college for 11 years. While all these various occupations took time away from
my dream of publishing, I could not dismiss my desire. Consequently, whenever
free moments occurred, I took advantage and with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, I began to write short stories about my childhood. Then, in the summer
of 2010 when my job with the community college ended abruptly, I found myself
wandering, uncertain of my next path. But Alexander Graham Bell’s famous quote,
“When one door closes, another opens.”, reminded me to trust God once again.
And in the fall of 2010, only a few months after losing my job, God led me to
attend a Christian Simulcast presented by Beth Moore, who is an Anglican
evangelist, author and Bible teacher. During her presentation I heard a small
voice within my soul whisper, “Pick up the pen and write.” When I heard it
again, I was awestricken…my heart pounded and a blanket of warmth covered me.
Tears blurred my eyes. God had revealed my path.
After that amazing encounter, I began to write
spiritual pieces about how Jesus had been active in my life through simple,
everyday happenings. In 2014 with the assistance of my son and his wife, I was
able to begin a blog, “Spiritual Simplicities in Everyday Life.” Even though I had been directed along this new
path, I continued to feel incomplete in my writing endeavors. That was when I
realized I had overlooked my childhood short stories. The ideas for those
stories had come so easily for me as I remembered events that drew me in as a child.
Writing them brought me joy. I knew, then, I must pursue to finish them and
organize a collection.
As I now reflect upon writing these short stories, I
can clearly see God’s leading through the Holy Spirit. Whenever I was stuck on
the story line or the right words would escape me, the Holy Spirit would
intercede. He opened doors to willing people to edit my story collection and
with their encouragement to seek publication. From previous experiences with
publishing, I decided to search online for possibilities. The market for short
story collections didn’t offer many choices, but I began to inquire with what
was available. However, I quickly realized that my subject matter wasn’t
suitable for many publishing houses. I became discouraged and once again put my
manuscript aside for several years.
It wasn’t until 2021 when a dear friend of mine, whom
God had placed in my life in 2008, kept encouraging me to seek publication. She
had read my blog posts and a few of my stories and as a result, strongly
suggested I continue my search. In fact, her husband was a published author
whose manuscripts had been published by Wick House Publishing. With both of
their support and connections, I took the plunge of faith, trusted God with
whatever the outcome would be, and sent my manuscript to Wick House Publishing.
Within a few months, my manuscript had been accepted. My dream of becoming a
published author to serve Jesus had come true in 2021, 60 years from when the
dream had begun. I truly believe in a statement I read from a devotional: “When
God gives you a dream, He gives you all that’s needed to fulfill it.” My dream was
accomplished only by the underlying work of the Holy Spirit and trusting in
God’s direction on the path He was leading me, no matter the span of time! To
God be the glory!!
“Delight yourself also in
the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
