Persevere, that has some meaning behind it. Persistence in doing something despite the difficulty or delay in achieving success.
What a perfect definition for me and my topic today. This one is a bit longer than usual. I do hope you read it through because I am excited to share this one with you!!
Hebrews 10:36 (NIV) 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
This writing thing may seem like second nature to me but honestly, it is not always so easy. It makes things harder when you are told you have a gift for something and when you attempt to use that gift you get a slammed door, get told HUGE NO or you get a yes but there is nothing about your talent behind that yes, they just want your money. I’m not saying a slammed door every so often is not a good thing because it is. Sometimes perseverance needs to be tested or sharpened like a knife. Sometimes you just don’t get to take the easy road. Sometimes you have to walk the path less taken. That needs to be ok sometimes. Being an innovator is not a bad thing, it can be frightening because you are walking in new and unknown territory but hey.
As Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” The road less travelled is for sure the unknown, it is possible forging a new path will come with challenges but we have to be willing to step out on faith and pave the way. If I don’t try – I’ll never have success. I would always wonder – what if.
For me and I said this before, submitting my manuscript of devotionals to a publishing house a while back was a huge leap of faith for me. I felt good about my writing but not super secure. The nod from a publishing house would be just the needed boost to push me forward to write and maybe that become less and less my hobby and more of my job – that’s the goal anyways. So when the publishing house wrote back and said “Congratulations” I was jumping up and down and doing the happy dance. Stay with me though because it wasn’t time to celebrate. They wanted to publish my book but I would have to pay full publishing price to do this. This is $3000.00 that I didn’t have. I picked this particular publishing company because the commercial said FREE and Christian was part of the name of the publishing house. I thought that was good and better. They were not mean, they just wanted the money. Obviously that was not in the cards for me.
I did some research, next step. Investigating told me I needed to write a blog and put my devotionals out there for folks to read. Get an audience that way. I thought ok sounds good. Then we had a lunch here at work, in this lunch were people from a very large local church who do publishing for members a lot. They were discussing self-publishing. The man who was part of that group said “If you can get readership on a blog, that helps you have readership of a book so self-publishing becomes easier to you at no cost if you have readers already”. So it cemented what I had been doing already for several weeks.
Fast forward several months, I use https://www.BibleGateway.com/ and if you’ve never used it – it is a wonderful tool. I have been using it long before I had a Bible app on my phone and I have used it in tandem with my personal Bible. It’s easy and allows you to look up different versions of the scriptures and it also has other resources like studies and reading plans. Just an overall very handy tool. So one of the other things it has is a section called the GRID, this is a place where you can do and read Blogs written by lots of contributors, you can look them up by keywords, or name etc. https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/bloggergrid/
Why am I telling you all this? Well I have a good reason. If you click on that link above for the blogger grid and you choose the letter S you might see something you recognize.
S T E D E – AndreaP is ME!! I am a guest blogger on BibleGateway.com. Now mind you I need to get more blogs done on my site and I need to establish the keywords well then as people look for specific topics my blog could come up and they could read mine. This could mean worldwide readership for me.
This is HUGE though. I am so thrilled I can hardly see straight! Me on a national website. I have to thank God because between Him and my devoted family and friends who read I am blessed that my perseverance has paid off. I don’t think I’ll stop asking if I can post to other sites too. I’ve reached out to Proverbs31 as well. We will see how that one goes. Oh I would LOVE that.
So remember friends, sometimes you might get a NO, sometimes you might get a slammed door, just don’t give up – especially when you know that this gift is a true gift, something God given. Now I know my writing is indeed a gift but the true gift is encouragement. I want to love on people and writing is my outlet to do so.
I just want to encourage all of you out there. Your dream is not too big or too small, it’s just your dream and you should go after it. I encourage you to try plan A and if that doesn’t work figure out Plan B, keep going. Keep praying for God to help you get there. God wants you to dream, He wants you to use those gifts He has given you to do His work, for His people.
Dear Heavenly Father – I just want to thank You for allowing my blog to be on this website. I thank You for every person that has or will read it. I am grateful for the gifts You have afforded me. I pray that every person reading this will dare to dream and with Your help realize that dream. We thank You and pray in Jesus Name - AMEN