Trial Duty

Shouldn't that title be 'Jury Duty'? No, but let me explain...

Like a multitude of other families, we live in an area severely affected economically. This has hit close to home now to the point where I realize we are truly going to have to walk by faith in order to continue paying for what are considered 'basic bills' here in America--water, electricity, gas, home-health-auto insurances etc. Oh, and let's not forget groceries!

This is not something entirely new to me. In the very first year of our marriage, I was forced to stop working early due to a car accident resulting in the premature birth of our first child. (I share this story and the harrowing tales of my other two pregnancies in The Mommy Manual. Click here.)

Financial help was short in supply and our own auto insurance company was trying to pin the blame for the accident on us so that they wouldn't have to pay us! (The other driver was a minor who ran the light and smashed into us at high speed totalling our car. It was a miracle Tom and I and our unborn survived.)

The thought of having to live through a time similar to that pulled me down into a dark place--a place I did not want to go. Like David in Psalms, I poured my heart out to my Heavenly Father. I was led to read in I Corinthians beginning in Chapter 9, but kept reading the next chapter. A verse that had been of great encouragement to me in the past was there like an old friend to greet me again~

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV

This verse if powerful once you better understand the word 'temptation'. It was translated from the Greek word peirasmos and means 'trial, proof'. What a promise!

No trial will come upon you that any other person hasn't already gone through. God is faithful and will not allow you to be proved beyond what you can bear and will make a way for you to come up out of the trial, so that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 LOV (Lyn's Own Version)

As I write this, I am remembering two specific things the Lord did for us that difficult year. I received a check for $200 unexpectedly from the State with a note claiming that I had overpaid my taxes. This was the exact amount we were short that month in order to pay the rent! Another incident was that we found groceries sitting outside our apartment door, although we had not told anyone of our plight.

Again, like David, I am thankful to remember how my God is faithful. He has delivered us through the fire before, so I know I can trust Him to come through for us once again.

[Note: The LOV is based on studying the words according to the Young's Analytical Concordance.]

You Might Be a Writer IF...

You might be a writer if…someone asks you to explain what your day was like and you actually tell the person—in the long, drawn-out version instead of the condensed short story.

To the best of my recollection, this is how I began. It started with that first writing assignment in school and then progressed to the high school newsletter. My writing pen lost its shine a bit during my college years and was promptly replaced by an electric typewriter and a desk job in Washington, D.C.

In 1978 I was born again of God’s Holy Spirit and married the following year. I began to experience the reality of the spiritual realm and learn to know His voice. My husband Tom and I had three children together with out-of-the-ordinary circumstances surrounding each of my pregnancies.

As I shared these stories with family and friends, almost every one of them would say, “You should write that down,” or “You should write a book.” I liked the idea of picking up a pen once again, so I did as they suggested.


One day I pondered the possibility of having my multitude of notes compiled and published. “Lord, I will only do this if it is Your will.” I had recently written a letter to the editor of a Christian magazine, so I prayed, “Lord, if you want me to pursue publishing, let this letter be printed in the next issue.” (I was really into asking God for signs back then.)

Well, wouldn’t you know it—the letter was in the next issue of that magazine! Not that I would call it a miracle, but I believed it was my Heavenly Father’s go-ahead signal. I submitted my manuscript to only one publishing house whose representative sent me a rejection letter—a very kind one—I should mention.

I thought perhaps I had ‘missed’ God and the book was to be a manuscript I would hand down to my children. So I dismissed it.

One morning not many days later, Tom and I were just waking up and he blurted out, “The Lord gave me a dream last night. I am supposed to publish your book.” And that is how The Mommy Manual (With Notes for Daddy Too) came into existence. (See the “Published Work” section of my blog for more information.)

Life with a husband who worked at home, three children, a cat, and a turtle kept me busy, but I did squeak out a couple of articles that were published. Still I did not think of myself as a ‘writer’.


I have learned, however, that the people of God go through seasons. Women especially go through defined periods of time when they marry and have children. We choose to set aside aspirations only to pick them up again later.

Being an author was never a goal of mine, but lately more ideas for books have sprung up within my mind. Having gone through the arduous process of self-publication, I shoved them to the files in the back of my brain. “No way am I going to go through that process again, Lord,” I told Him. "Not unless You show me in a BIG way." I prayed this even though several years ago, He spoke clearly to my spirit that I should not be asking for signs for every situation; BUT:

You might be a writer if…the Lord Jesus Christ sends a stranger to confirm it to you. But that’s another story…

Despise Not Small Beginnings

Writing is one of the main passions poured into me by the Lord. Most any subject interests me, but the things of the Spirit of God intrigue me the most. I am a grandmother now but began journaling my thoughts and experiences when I was a young mother and then published them in 1991 in a book entitled The Mommy Manual (With Notes for Daddy Too). While working recently on a new book project, I stumbled across a copy of my first publication. Nostalgia swept over me and I began to think about when my kids were first born and remember how in the midst of the hustle and bustle of motherhood the Holy Spirit was there helping me. I flipped open the pages and began reading one of the many stories...

One day as I was bathing my newborn son, he seemed unusually fussy and wouldn't stop crying. Thanks to God, I noticed that there was a clear plastic thread wrapped around one of his toes which was cutting off the circulation. His toe was very red but had not turned blue yet.

Later on as I shared with my husband what had happened I realized it was the Holy Spirit who spoke to my spirit to check the baby's toes! Because of incidents like this I learned that I served a practical God--one that cared about everyday quandaries. Not an unfeeling, uncaring deity but the epitome of LOVE!

It is stories such as this I would like for you to share with me--everyday situations (big or small) where God showed up. Perhaps He spoke to you and gave you enlightenment of a scripture or understanding as to why someone spoke to you the way they did. My purpose in blogging and my prayer for the Body of Christ is Ephesians 1:4-23 which states (in part):

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love...That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ...

The computer is not a whole new world to me, but blogging is. Sometimes I think too much about what I am to write because I don't want to dishonor the Lord in any way. I was even obsessing over what I should use as a title for this first post when I heard that still small voice say, "Despise not small beginnings".