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So...I wrote a book. Just a tiny electronic one. It is made up of short devotionals that I wrote years ago. But why did I publish it? It's not going to be a best-seller. To be honest, I probably won't even make up the copyright fee.
However, this was a promise to my grandparents that I wanted to see fulfilled.
Back in 2014, when my life was VERY different, I was inspired to send out some encouraging emails to friends and family about the names of Jesus during the Thanksgiving and Advent season (November 1st - December 25th). At the time, I was in charge of the prayer team at our church, and my husband and I were also leading a small community group. I had proposed doing a different name of Jesus (55 of them) each day to get in the Christmas spirit. I LOVE Christmas! And I started in November because there's nothing in my life I'm more thankful for that the love of God.
I enjoyed it so much! I did the same the next year with prophecies of Jesus. Then the year after I started a blog and used it to share the words of Jesus in entries from November 1st-December 25th, and finally finished up in 2017 with devotionals on the Holy Spirit of Jesus.
My grandparents in Nashville had enjoyed the emails (and then the blog entries), and they encouraged me to self-publish books in order to preserve the content. Thus, when I retired in fall 2019 from my full-time job I figured it was the perfect time to venture into the realm of "real" writing.
Well...then Covid hit. Additionally, I learned that editing by yourself is harder than it sounds (PLEASE let me know if you find typos in the book so I can fix them!). And I figured out the copyright process is super slow. But, two years later, I finally did it! Additionally, I'm hoping this is the first of many books to come (if there are any publishers out there - I've got a WHOPPER of a hard science-fiction novel outlined already! And a book of poetry! ***Call me***).
The dedication page is for my sweet grandmother who passed away December of last year. 2020 was awful for so many of us, but that was probably the darkest, most sorrowful point for me. I was not ready for her to go. Yes, she was a Christian woman who had lived a long and fulfilling life, but I REALLY was not prepared to let her leave us. The loss was palpable. Even now, my heart strings tighten thinking about all of the daily prayers she would wrap around us. I miss those prayers. I am also disheartened that she wasn't able to see this book come to life on this side of heaven. However, "what is unseen is eternal" so I hope the eternal part of her is able to see this.
I love you Grandma.
