I'm An Author!

I love to write.  I can't spell worth bananas, but I love to write.  Several years ago I had a friend tell me that I should write something for one of the church magazines.  I was very hesitant because I write to help me think and remember things, not because it makes a lot of sense to anyone else.  Sometimes when I would get a good idea for a talk or lesson I would have the thought that maybe this would be a good idea for an article.  I would write it in my journal and that would be the end of it.
About a year ago I got another idea and it really stuck with me.  Over and over I felt like I needed to write it up and send it in.  The impression was strong enough that I actually did it.  I didn't spend a lot of time drafting, I just wrote up my thoughts and sent it in.  I was surprised when I received a letter shortly after that saying that my article had been accepted.  There was something about "it could take several years" and "it still might not ever get published"  so I tried not to get too excited.  (Truth be told I still have that letter at the bottom of the stack of books on my night stand to remind me that I tried and that if I felt impressed again I should do it.)
Every month when our church magazines came I ripped them out of the plastic and flipped through them to see if my article had made it. 
We have recently moved and are playing the "mail catch up" game.  We have tried to have all of our mail forwarded but some of our mail is still being sent to our condo.  This last week we finally went and picked up a HUGE stack of mail from our condo.  In the stack was a big envelope from the church distribution center.  Weird, I didn't order anything.  When I opened it up and saw two copies of the October New Era I got really excited.  There was also a short letter saying, "Congratulations your article will be featured in the October New Era."  I opened one of the copies and there it was!  Devin was excited that it had a "big picture" with the article.
So there you have it.  I'm an author, in REAL print.  It isn't a perfect article.  There are things that I would change.  Bottom line, I am grateful that I followed the prompting to just send it in.  Hopefully it will help someone out there...possibly on the other side of the world.  How cool is that! 
Here is a link if you'd like to read it.
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