At my son’s recent field trip to a literary festival, one of the speakers said “the happiest adults are those, who find a way to do what they loved as a child.”
This caught my attention because after ten years of being a stay-at-home mom, I sent my baby to kindergarten this fall. I’m in a transition period of my life and open to possibilities of what to do next.
Yes, I love writing, and that’s where most of my drive is right now. But what did I love as a child? Building forts in the neighbor’s lilac bushes when they were in bloom, playing running bases in the front yard with my brothers, creek walking and riding bikes into town for cheese fries … none of those seem like good arrows pointing into the direction of a fruitful career.
But randomly this afternoon, I was flooded with a wonderful childhood memory, which makes me think I’m on track with my writing. I adored my silver-haired 6th grade English teacher Mrs. Obrien. She was a woman of great imagination, who brought each of us a tuppence from her annual trip to Ireland and dazzled us (or at least me) with tales of how she swam across an entire lake on vacation every summer. I also loved her dramatic re-enactments of classic literature – she was my favorite middle school teacher by far.
More than anything, I loved how she’d have us write poetry by hand, then use colored pencils to decorate the page. I think it was my all-time favorite, most centering, even meditative, assignment in grade school.
In the past year, I’ve been surprised to find myself called to write mystical poetry. I absolutely love expressing my faith in this way and teaming it up with photography to illustrate the message – though it is hard work, it feels centering and satisfying to my soul. The creative wellspring is flowing.
BUT – I’ve been struggling to embrace this calling because I don’t think it’s a very practical thing to be doing, and I’m not very confident about sharing my work because I’m shy and prefer to be private with my faith.
The more I pray about it, the more I’m lead by God to continue writing and stretching my comfort zone by sharing it as much as possible. The writing has been a delight, the sharing a struggle.
Realizing this common thread back into my childhood regarding my love for poetry and images is reassuring somehow – at this point of stepping out on fath with my writing, it helps me trust that God created me for a purpose and this is part of it. He’s had this plan for me all along, and my job is to be obedient to His spirit like I have been for many years – this is just the next step in my journey, no big deal.
Psalm 139 13-14 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
So what about you? Do you know what God created You to do? What did you love doing as a child? Could you carve out a little time to resurrect that part of yourself soon, just to see what happened? Comment below, and I’ll lift you in prayer to live a fulfilling, joyful life doing exactly what God created you to do. We’re all in this faith journey together.
Related Scripture
Matthew 18: 3-4 3 “Truly I tell you, He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”