Childhood Journey

I was born in Iowa but grew up in Florida. My parents were not Christians, but they were good to me.

Our family was untraditional. Mom worked from 9 to 5, so I was taught to clean and cook by my stepdad. He worked at the Post office and left for work at the crack of dawn which brought him home early in the afternoon. When I had a school event or another activity, the leader would often say, “Hello, ladies and Mr. Taylor.” He didn’t mind; he loved the attention.

As a child, I was free to roam the neighborhood, walk to the drugstore and buy a Cherrie Coke, and play until the sun went down. Our neighborhood was full of kids. There was a tree house in the woods, and a road that flooded when it rained. Our lake was occasionally in the middle of the street. God blessed me with parents who cared and took care of my needs.

There are stories about my family life as a child in my book Center of the Heart. One is about my dad’s old Mercury that was my make-believe elephant, titled “Is God Enough.” Then one about fear of being alone when a beaten man came to my door, titled “The Emotion Fear.” Another story you might like is about Dad teaching me to dance, titled “Let’s Dance.”

There are other stories in Center of the Heart about my early life, but these give insight into my childhood and how God uses them to build my faith.

Seeds of Faith

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Romans 10:17

The phrase that comes by hearing catches my attention. There is noise all around us, but what do we hear, and listen to?

My grandmother, Granny, was the loudest voice of faith in my life. She was not loud, but her faith was.

Here is an excerpt from Center of the Heart found on January 12, titled Granny, the Influencer:

“This Christian woman loved God, treasured children, and lived a life that portrayed peace. Her life shows that peace and satisfaction do not come from power, money, position, or fame. She had none of those things. What she did have was a walk with God. Her influence was a gentle spirit that made time for me, a little girl whose home life was rocky. God used her influence to draw me to Himself.”

It was Granny’s influence that gave me a desire to know God and to be like her. Her Bible was always close by, and this influenced me. My first Bible has many verses underlined and small pieces of paper in a child’s handwriting with Scripture written on them.

She was planting seeds in my young heart that our gracious God would grow so I would come to know Him.

As a grandmother, I have an opportunity to be a seed planter for my grandchildren. What a privilege!

Fear to Faith

"'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved."

This line from “Amazing Grace” It reminds me of my faith journey.

Let me explain.

I don’t know why, but I always wanted to be a good girl. It might have been my grandmother’s influence or Scripture that had instilled this desire. I also respected my mom and dad, and I did not want to be a disappointment to them. Whatever it was, I wanted to be a kind, obedient child. The problem was I couldn’t do it.

This failure created great fear in my young life. I was so afraid that if I died, God would not allow me to enter heaven.

My fear of dying would send me to the bathroom mirror to see if I was pale. In fear I would decide that I would be better and s쳮d at being a good person. I would earn God’s favor. The problem was, no matter how hard I tried, I failed.

This “try harder and fail” continued for years.

When I was sixteen years old, I was a part of a Christian club at school called Young Life. Our leader was John Smith. I will forever be grateful that he did not take for granted that I was a Christian.

During the summer he visited me and shared the gospel message. I am sure a lightning bolt entered my living room because a light came into the depths of my heart. His words were life to me. I had tried so hard for so long, but what I was trying to do was impossible for me. But John Smith relieved my fears. Jesus had done for me what I was unable to do. He was the perfect One. My right standing with God was through His righteousness and not my own.

Heavenly Father used my fear and failure to prepare my heart to hear and believe the good news. He worked out the timing so that I would trust Jesus. Fear left my soul, and faith took its place.

Writing Begins

I have confessions to make. I am terrible at spelling and commas, and semicolons make no sense to me. When do you use to or too? I do know a little about paragraphs, sentence structure, and verbs, but honestly, math makes more sense to me.

So, why do I write? And when did it all begin?

Writing was born out of journaling. We moved from our family and friends in 1980. I had two children, a new business with my husband, and I became pregnant. All that was familiar to me changed and I was as lonely as a woman on a desert island.

This was the beginning of me becoming a reader and a writer. In desperation, I began to write prayers to God. This was to keep my mind and heart turned to my Father in heaven. He was my sounding board, and I poured my heart out to Him every day. I still do. I have hundreds of journal prayer books.

This journaling and pouring my heart out turned into a desire to pour out words for others to read. I write about God’s faithfulness, His kindness, His wisdom, and His heart. These things came from reading and studying His Word. I see these truths played out in ordinary day-to-day living.

What began as desperation has become my witness. I cannot not write. Sounds pretty crazy for a person with such limited abilities and skills. That is why I am so grateful for Grammarly, and all the other places you can get help with punctuation, spelling and all the skills I lack. I am grateful but I am careful not to let any of these aids take my voice in my writing. I want to know and I want everyone else to know that when you read something I wrote, you are reading my words and not words written by AI.

There is a verse that captures why I write. It is Proverbs 16:9:

“A man’s heart plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps.”

Our all-knowing God has a plan of purpose for each of our lives. I do not know why He would’ve put this desire to write in my soul, but I am thankful because it causes me to depend on Him. Without Jesus, I can do nothing of Kingdom value.

Center of the Heart

Center of the Heart is the name of my 365-day devotional book. My husband calls it “The Big Beautiful Book.” It is big and I do think it is quite beautiful. The book has 761 pages that were written straight out of my heart.

It didn’t start big. It started as articles in our church’s weekly newsletter called The Evangel. I was on staff there and each week I would submit an article. Later, I began to write devotionals for the ladies Sunday school class that I taught.

We moved and started a business in 2009. If you have ever started a business, you are aware that my life was gobbled up. I could hardly breathe, much less think about putting the devotionals in a book.

As my life began to ease off a bit, I wanted to put the devotionals together for my family. I had so many great analogies about our lives, and I thought that would be a good legacy to leave for them.

The task was so overwhelming. I only had a paper copy of the devotionals. They needed to be revised and put on the computer. I needed a digital copy.

God’s timing and God’s provision came through the help of my small group leader. She was an author and a publisher. She inspired me and helped me to begin a long, time-consuming process. The first thing was to take what was written and copy each one from a PDF to a Word document. Each devotional had to be revised over and over and over again. There was so much to be done. Along the way I wrote more devotionals. These were from more recent years.

God doesn’t just give us eternal life and leave us where He found us. No, He is always revising us over and over and over again. As I revised the book, He revised me.

It took 20-plus years of writing and rewriting the devotions that are now held together in one book, Center of the Heart.

It is amazing that I wrote it. It is amazing that it is published, and it is by God’s grace that it exists.

I discovered so much about what an author goes through to write a book and have it published. I also saw firsthand how God was using me to share His grace and love to others. I am humbled and thankful.