This week has been extraordinary. If I thought Tuesday was joyful, well I am re-joy-cing today! For those of you who don’t know me, I have recently felt a gentle nudging from the Lord to write. It is my dream to write a book someday. I have no education past a semester of junior college and so from the outside, it looks to be quite the impossibility. But the God I serve is the God of impossibilities. I don’t know how or when in my lifetime this book is going to be written but God does. It is a desire that I feel has been put in my heart by the very One who fashioned my heart.
About six months ago, on a whim, I was perusing the ‘Today’s Christian Woman’ site and saw that they were asking women to send in their ideas on how they have simplified their lives. I had recently written an article for the women’s newsletter at our church. I cut and pasted the article and shipped it off to the editors of the magazine. Meanwhile, I forgot all about it.
Tuesday I received an email from the ‘Today’s Christian Woman’ coordinating editor requesting my home address so they could send me some free copies of the magazine with my piece included. Their package arrived today and I was so thrilled to see on page 38 my very own little paragraph. They spelled my name right and everything!!!
On an even sweeter note…when my family heard the news about my being published in a Christian Woman’s magazine they were even more excited than I was. My sister Jennifer was driving around like a mad woman from store to store trying to find the Sept./Oct. edition of the magazine. When my dad and step-mom heard the good news I felt like I was in kindergarten again bringing home one of those stick figure pictures. You know the kind of picture I am talking about, where the arms protrude out of the sides of a grotesquely abnormal sized head. My dad said, “My daughter the author! I am so proud of you Joey. We are going to take you out to lunch to celebrate” I said, “Dad, please, I am not an author and you really don’t have to take me out to lunch to celebrate a paragraph.”
As I type this I have a burrito the size of a Honda Civic weighing in my tummy. I am glad that I didn’t cancel our lunch date...and even though it is only a paragraph, it’s a start.
Shout joyfully all the earth and break forth In song, rejoice and sing praises. Psalm 98:4
2 comments:
Hi Joanne,
It is wonderful to see your family celebrating your early success. You go girl! Keep writing! And like you said, God will bring the harvest.
Blessings,
Sue
Wow tell me how you got that opportunity. I'm writing for a small Christian mag. here in Mississippi, but would love to do more! :)
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