I Am Hopeful

I have a special prayer request.  I have to admit it is a selfish one.

I am waiting for a publisher to pick up my first book project.   As my agent has expressed to me, “If you are in this for instant gratification, then the publishing business is not for you.”   

I understand that waiting on God’s timing is a good thing.  He has always shown himself to be faithful, and the results are better than I could have ever dreamt.  I can look back and see where His blessings have slowly interwoven themselves through each situation.  The problem is, it’s so doggone hard to wait.

To provide you with a little background information, the premise of my first book is based on The Marriage Minute Daily Devotional offered at Growthtrac.com.  I have written new Marriage Minutes, intertwined scripture, and added short stories.  Similar to the Marriage Minute Daily Devotional, it’s meant to be short and sweet daily moments to think about your marriage. Many of our devoted readers have written to us over the years because they love to put Marriage Minutes into cards, or make anniversary and birthday gifts with them.  A man in Pennsylvania e-mailed us a copy of the marriage proposal to his girlfriend (it looked like a playbill for a Broadway play) with a Marriage Minute inside the proposal.

There appeared to be a very interested publisher who kept me on pins and needles for sixteen months as they kept asking for revisions and formatting tweaks.   Unfortunately, they came back to my agent last month and said, “no thanks.”  I keep praying… and this week, good news came that another publisher is interested.  They requested commitments from marriage experts who will provide additional wisdom and morsels of marriage advice for the book.   I am excited to say that several authors have been kind enough to say they are willing to contribute.

I believe God still has a lot to teach me about patience.  Perhaps, that is why this book-writing journey is taking so long.  Send up a little prayer for an infusion of patience after you finish reading this today – I would be grateful.