A First For Me

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving. Colossians 4:2

As a first time mom, there wasn’t anywhere I went without words of been-there-done-that-wisdom showered on me. Grocery stores, the cleaners, sidelines at my kid’s sports events, all became classrooms for colic, ear infections, and potty training lessons. I welcomed their information. Some experiences like “new mommy” are common. That’s a great thing too, because I love to glean from a weathered mom’s harvest of parenting years.

As a new author, sadly, I’m not accosted in public places with nuggets of knowledge. Where are other authors like me who’ve stayed up all night worrying about their first book—their “baby”? Why can’t I find someone at the post office to share fears about the many “firsts” of their publishing dream; first speaking engagement, first book signing, first big conference? Trudging through the land of “What should I do?” is a lonely and scary place. So, you can understand why this morning while speaking on the phone with a secretary at my publishing house—I cried.

“Hi. I’m an author with your publishing house and I need to order books for the MOPS convention in Nashville.”

“Sure thing. I can help you with that.” The voice was kind and comforting. Apparently, she couldn’t hear my knees knocking as I awaited her grand total and broke into a cold sweat.

Lord, how am I going to pay for this?

An hour after our transaction my phone rang again. “Hi, Joanne, this is Teresa again. You know what? I think I can help save you quite a bit of money on your books. If we ship them to…..” Off she went trying to figure out ways for my books to reach their MOPS destination that would save me quite a bit of money, $231.00 to be exact.

The savings was an incredible blessing. But it’s what she said at the end of our conversation that made me weep.

“Joanne, before I let you go, can I just ask you one more thing? Can I pray for you?”

Maybe she had heard my knees knocking earlier!

Teresa didn’t know that I was taking her call from the passenger seat of our car. While my husband drove down the road I was moved to tears as she poured out her heart to the Lord on my behalf. When I got off the phone Paul watched me sniffle and wipe my face, as I quietly thanked God for this precious, precious woman.

Teresa had no idea that she’d been one of my “firsts”—the very first to pray with me from my publishing house. I’m not sure if it’s common for employees from Christian publishing houses to pray with their authors or not, but mine did.

I’m grateful for her words poured out to my God.  I’ll be thanking the very same God for her, and pouring out my words of gratitude into a letter to her boss this evening.