Writing
In middle school, high school, and college, math and science were my strong points. Literature and writing? Not so much.
However, something changed after I turned forty. I had an unexplainable desire to write. Stories and poems slid from my heart and down my arm onto paper. Still, I kept all this inside me. Didn’t tell a soul.
One day, a lady approached me during a prayer conference. “Let the words that are in her heart come forth,” she said, lightly touching my forehead. How did she know? Two days later, another woman said, “You will write.”
With faith in my heart, I remembered the words of the Lord, ‘In the mouth of two or three witnesses’ (2 Corinthians 13:1).
In 2004, I made a New Year’s resolution to get serious about this writing thing. I joined the Rockwall Christian Writers Group, a local group of seasoned and beginning writers. I welcomed all of their suggestions. Towards the end of January, I sent off my first story, Tasty Dish Satisfies Ministry Wish, to be considered for an anthology entitled What I Learned from God While Cooking. Within a few weeks, I received an acceptance letter.
A few months later, I mailed a story about my dog, Bo, to Chicken Soup for the Soul. I waited. No response. Oh well, they probably had a good laugh and tossed it aside. Then, in May 2009, almost five years after I sent the manuscript, I received a letter from the Chicken Soup folks. They wanted to print my story in an upcoming edition of What I Learned from the Dog. I quickly signed the contract and faxed it to them.
The most satisfying feedback came in 2008 when I started a blog. A woman in Pennsylvania sent a message of how she came across my blog and enjoyed reading my posts. She wrote about including some of my content in her church’s weekly bulletin. Not long after that, another person commented on how she awoke one night during a horrendous storm and couldn’t sleep. During an internet search, she found my blog. She said she felt peace and comfort after reading one of my devotionals.
Putting words together is quite a change from calculations and science theories. Yet, I plan to continue, hoping my words reach hearts.
