From Grit to Pearl

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. I hope you will find hope and encouragement here.

We all seem to be dealing with increasingly difficult life storms and these life storms seem to be increasing in amount, intensity and frequency. Some might even say 2020 is proof of that.

In my life, lived through intense storms-tracheotomy, cancer 2x, father with Alzheimer’s, mother with kidney cancer… and many minor life storms. I still consider myself to be blessed with God’s favor in my life!

Fast forward to my mid-life…When I started chemo treatments for breast cancer at the age of 44 and ovarian cancer at 54, I had no idea how I would complete the treatments and “survive.” Through His Word, prayers, doctors, nurses, emotions, stretching, and faith building I endured. Along with those, I had past journals. I was amazed at how my journals reminded me of God’s faithfulness in the past and there was no reason His faithfulness wouldn’t continue. I would make my storms and pain worth something. God’s previous words to me helped me to move forward taking what I learned from the past to move forward with me into my future-whatever that would be.

In the midst of everything, God showed me how I was His pearl-chosen, valuable and worth so much to Him. As time has moved on, I have come to the realization that there’s more to a pearl the meets the eye. It’s a narrative of my beginning as gritty grains of sand to a lustrous, beautiful pearl. In Matt. 13:46 the man sold ALL he had to buy one, single pearl. It meant that much to him. Jesus is the one who gave ALL He had to purchase you and I.

Through prophetic words in 2018, I was told I had a story to share. I knew I did but didn’t feel like I handled my “storms” well or had the words to say. The prophetic words were “You’ve been through so much in your life that you could be a benefit to others. You’re thinking, ‘I didn’t walk through them very well.’ But that’s okay because sometimes with that comes the wisdom they need to help them get through their situations.’”

In July, I put out a short synopsis of my writing on a website that publishers can search for book proposals. I heard from Kharis Publishing requesting to see 3 chapters of my proposal. They approved of those, so on to the next step. I had a Zoom interview with the Managing Editor. A week later, I had a contract! Everything happened so fast and fell into place so I feel like this is what God has called me to do.

My book, Don’t Let Sand Fool You, will be available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A- Million and other various places. A portion of sales will always go to various orphanages in developing countries to establish resource centers that will empower children with literacy tools.

This blog (future blogs will not be as long) is an overview of my journey and my way of writing down what I have learned about God’s faithfulness. I pray my words are a message of hope and encouragement to those who are struggling.