I am So Blessed

I have an update on my book proposals. In the middle of December I submitted two book proposals (click here to read about those). Well I got news that both have been accepted for publication!

I cannot begin to describe to you the feelings I have about this. I understand that it is an incredible blessing. It is also a tremendous responsibility! I was so overwhelmed when I got the news that I cried, for days.

I guess in many ways my journey started when I was 7 and decided I wanted to be an author one day. But my active journey began in 2007 during a bible study for which I was a table leader. My group selected a study from a choice of three that I was not enthusiastic about. Well that study posed a question about what dreams had you tucked away that perhaps you needed to dust off and pray about.

I took out my writing dream, dusted it off and prayed about it for 4 months. God gave me the green light to begin pursuing it. I registered for the She Speaks! Speakers/Writers Conference early in 2008. I attended the conference in July (click here, here and here for more on that). In the months that followed, I submitted some items and got some rejections. I was finally accepted for publication in a devotional anthology called Penned From The Heart.

Fueled with that success, I pushed forward with my book. Where I started with it was not where God ultimately led me. I am glad. His plans are always so much better than mine! So here I sit, just six months post-conference, with two book deals. I would have never imagined that. I am sure glad God did though.

I can now look back on the hard experience of my husband's unemployment and see God's hand in it. Our journey through that is the basis for both the books. What a wonderful lesson! Our valley experience may actually serve as a tool for helping others. It makes so much sense now. It didn't while we were in the valley, but it surely does now.

There is so much more I could share about how I've looked back and seen God's hand. However, since this post is running long, I'll save some of those insights for later posts. I'll close with this question for you. Are there any dreams you've long since put away that perhaps you need to dust off and seek God about what to do with them? Whatever His answer, at least ask :)

Be blessed this weekend!