A Pivotal Moment On My Writing Path by Marcia Lee Laycock

“I’ll pay your way if you’ll go with me,” my friend Linda said. 

I sighed but nodded. “Okay, if you really want me to go that badly.”

“I think God wants you to go that badly,” she said.

My husband was about to graduate from Bible college and our funds were limited so when Linda asked me to go to a seminar called Speak Up with Confidence, being done by Carol Kent, I was reluctant. I’ll never be a public speaker, I thought, and I had a lot of packing to do to get ready for our move to Alberta in a few weeks. But my friend really wanted to go and insisted God wanted me to go with her. In the end I gave in.

Carol Kent was engaging and as she spoke about speaking she gave a lot of good tips about writing. I don’t remember the exact moment when it happened but at some point during that seminar I realized that I could now write as a believer in Christ. 

I had always written, from the time I was very young, but I had never shown anyone any of my work, other than assignments I’d done for teachers in high school and university. Although I’d been praised for that work, I did not believe that it was of any value. Since becoming a believer I had put the writing on hold. The work I had been doing no longer interested me and I had thought that part of my life was gone forever. 

But I left that seminar with a clear path to a new and exciting call to ministry, through writing. 

It wasn’t long before we arrived in the town where my husband would take on his first church. When he met with the previous pastor he told my husband one of the many things he was now responsible for was a weekly column in the local newspaper. My husband was already quite overwhelmed with all that he had to do so he asked me if I could write something for the paper. 

I felt God swinging the door wide open and I was more than delighted to walk through it. That was the beginning of almost twenty years of writing my faith column, The Spur (taken from Hebrews 10:24). The column eventually morphed into a devotional book, The Spur of the Moment, which is now in third printing. I have been stunned at what God has done with that small effort, stunned at the responses of readers from all over the world as well as the streets of my own home town. 

Then the requests to speak started to come in and another branch of my ministry blossomed. Who knew? 

Obviously God did. And all because a friend obeyed His nudge and offered to pay my way to a seminar for which I thought I neither had the time nor the finances.

****

Marcia Lee Laycock writes from central Alberta Canada where she lives with her pastor/husband and two golden retrievers. She is a long-time member and past president of InScribe.

Marcia will deliver the keynote address at Spring WorDshop in Blackfalds Ab. on April 23rd. (click Events on the InScribe website)

Marcia has published two contemporary novels, four devotional books and numerous articles and devotionals both online and in print. Her work is available on Amazon

A Christmas Family Tradition - Janice Keats

The cheerful shout echoed as dad was strutting his way upstairs, “Everybody up! Santa was just here!” All kids made record time getting up out of bed. There was no line up for the washroom, just a quick “get out of my way” as all 8 kids raced their way downstairs. What a wonderful sight to see a gathering of kids crowded in and around the Christmas tree half way under with just their bottoms sticking out grasping for their gifts. It was as if they were summoned to find that pot of gold under the tree; each child wanted to be the first to find it.

Soon a field of Christmas paper was strewn across the living room. No one cared about the mess, even if it was 2:30 in the morning. Not Dad, not Mom, not even Grandma who delightfully watched the excitement from her rocking chair with her feet obscured from the sea of paper. The air filled with excitement as the gifts were revealed. “I got a Barbie voyager!” Glenda shouted.
“I got my hockey skates!” Lorne added. Eleanor’s dream came true as her gift was being opened. She cried when she discovered that she had a brand new guitar. Filled with emotion she could barely speak. Mom and dad were so happy that everyone was satisfied with Santa’s choices. When all the unwrapping was completed, Dad got up and said, “I’m going to bed now. Make sure all the lights are turned off when you kids go back to bed.”

There was no sleep left in anyone’s eyes except Dad’s. As he exited the living room and slowly made his way upstairs to bed, the mountain of paper was moved out of the way as each one took possession of their new toys.

Janice Keats