Turning the Corner

Looking back over the past couple of years I am thankful to many people who have helped and supported me.  The Lord has used many ways to draw me back to Him.

Now that I don’t always see myself as ‘inadequate’ I can stop being defensive:

1   1)  It’s easier to apologize for mistakes.

   2)   I can forgive others more quickly, knowing they’re just human, too--and say things in the heat of the moment that they don’t really mean—like I do!

   3)   I can see the good things in my past, especially family relationships, that are no longer colored with the negative.

   4)  It’s a bit easier to keep saying the ‘long good-bye’ to my mother who has Alzheimer’s.

   5)And most important – I can see that the Lord doesn’t send bad things (or even migraines) to punish me.  I used to always ask myself, “What did I do wrong now?”  Instead I see now that the bad comes from the Prince of this World (Satan).  But the Lord can even turn these bad things around for good.  (Like when Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.  In the end, he could tell them: ‘You meant this for evil, but God meant it for good—to save many people.’)

These are all things I’m trying to communicate in my writing, and two things have happened: One is that I have learned these things for myself so the writing has been therapeutic.  The other thing is I hope and pray that I can be a help to others as they read my stories.

I don’t want to ‘give advice’ or ‘fix-it cures’ –but hopefully just by sharing my own journey I can help others who may be struggling.  I have not physically experienced all the things my characters have, but the emotional impacts of things in my life I’ve translated into fictional physical actions.