Back in 2002, my life changed in dramatic ways.  My marriage, my career, and the dreams I had for my family and my future fell apart.  Writing became a way to heal from it all – a way to find purpose and meaning again.

I ended up writing a book (Walking Your Predestined Pathway) – one my family and close friends encouraged me to try and get published.  After several failed attempts, in May of 2006, a small Christian publisher in Oklahoma decided to publish the book.

Well…the writing didn’t stop there.  Whenever I felt God move me to write, I did.  The result has been three more books (the third halfway complete) and 350+ articles – all written with the hope that someday they would be published – encouraging people to look at God and their relationship with Him in ways they never had before.  My dream has been to establish a book ministry – selling books and using the proceeds to buy even more books to donate to libraries across the country

In 2017, that dream hit a roadblock.  The Oklahoma Attorney General filed eight felony charges and one misdemeanor charge against Tate Publishing – alleging fraud, embezzlement, extortion, and racketeering. The book they published can no longer be distributed.

When I learned of the news, I didn’t know what to do or think.  Was the writing ever good enough to become published in the first place?  Was I just a small part of a large scam?  Where was God in this?  Did He want me to lay down the dream, to head a new direction, or to keep soldiering forward? 

Bottom line was the title of “Author” no longer applied to me, so out of respect for the reader and to ensure I was clearly representing myself in a way that held true to the facts, I unpublished my Facebook articles and author page.  So, if you’ve had trouble accessing the articles or purchasing the book, now you know why.

I can say without a doubt that the one major change in my life through these last several years has been taking time out each day to be still – to quietly sit in God presence, allowing Him to guide my thoughts and move my heart in the direction He desires.  These quiet moments have brought more peace, more grace, and more clarity than I can explain or begin to articulate.

During these quiet moments, I realized how my dream (the dream to use writing to bring hope and healing to others) was still stirring within me.  After all, that dream wasn’t devised or crafted by my own doing.  I didn’t put it there – God did.  The ideas, the creativity, the ability to write them down on paper wasn’t anything I mustered up in my own strength or happened because of any special talent I possessed – They are gifts graciously given by the Creator and are His to use according to His will.

So, I decided to give what still remains, a failed book, finished manuscripts that collect dust in my closet, and the articles I’ve written over the last eight years back to God – to use or not use as He sees fit.  After all, they were never mine to withhold in the first place 🙂

I take comfort in knowing that God has a plan in it all, and no matter how it all ends – it will end in a way that is best, in a way that gives Him glory, and fits His perfect will and timing.  I know that God can take the very little we have to offer and accomplish big things with it!

A little boy long ago realized that a few fish and a couple of loaves of bread can feed five thousand people.  A desperate widow and her son gave a tiny amount of oil (all they had) and it kept flowing until there were no longer enough vessels to contain it.  A few small stones and one sling shot killed a massive giant and defeated a nation.  Even a man with no faith left at all, who begged for help in his unbelief, was given his son’s life back again.

What little do you have today that you can give back to a BIG God?

Maybe it’s a short prayer, filled with despair and little hope, which stops the cancer from spreading?  Maybe it’s a little bit of encouragement that starts the troubled, wayward child down the right path again?  Could it be one act of forgiveness that heals a relationship or one tiny step toward your goals that initiates the success you’ve longed for?  Could it be just a speck of faltering faith that God can create the miracle you desperately need within your life right now?

For me, it’s my mistakes, failures, and a few written words.  How about you?  Take what little you have and give it back to a BIG God and together let’s watch Him do the impossible with it 😊

God bless each and every one of you today and always!