The other day my husband and I were out running some errands. At one of the stops, he took some time to visit with someone, while I sat and waited. Knowing we needed to get going so we could get the rest of our errands run, I began to get fidgety. Nearly thirty minutes later, he finally stopped talking and said it was time for us to move on. Our next stop was the grocery store, where we purchased a few things and mailed some letters. Hurrying towards the door, all I could think about was getting home, fixing some lunch, and getting back to work on my recent novel. However, God had other plans. Just as we were nearing the door, a woman we hadn’t seen in a long time, approached us. In a few short words she told us about some difficulties she and her family had been going through, and we were able to offer her counsel. Heading out the door twenty minutes later, after inviting her to church and saying that we would be praying for her situation, a sudden thought came to me. If my husband hadn’t taken so long talking to the person he’d met at our first stop of the morning, we would have been done with our shopping and home by now. And if that had happened, we would have missed the opportunity to speak with the lady who needed to share her story with us. We were definitely at the right place, at the right time, but only because we’d been delayed.

Have you ever been in a situation similar to mine, where you wished you didn’t have to wait for someone, and then later found out that because you were late, you met someone who needed you to listen? Or perhaps, in being late, you were spared from an accident of some sort.

As this new year begins, I’m asking the Lord to give me more patience and help me to remember that having to wait on someone or being late isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes, like it happened for us, that extra half hour delay turned out to be a blessing.

During one of our visits to an Amish schoolhouse in Indiana, my husband made some twisty balloon animals for the children. Since Richard has been blowing up balloons for a good many years, his lungs are strong and he rarely uses a pump. The children were impressed at how easy he made it look, and several of the boys wanted to try blowing up a balloon. After a few attempts, all except one of the red-faced boys gave up. The determined boy had a bit more patience than the others. He continued trying to blow up the balloon, until he ran out of air and passed out for a few seconds. Undaunted, and unhurt, he picked himself up and continued blowing until his balloon was fully inflated.
Seeing the patience of this young boy made me think of how easily some people give up when they’re faced with a challenge. Sometimes we give up praying because we don’t receive an answer quickly enough. God wants us to wait patiently for Him, and He wants us to pray and continually seek to do His will.
Are you faced with a challenge today that seems un-daunting? Ask the Lord for the courage and strength to keep going. Ask Him for an attitude of patience as you wait for answers from Him.

I’m often asked how I knew I wanted to become an author. It all began when I was in the second grade and my teacher asked the class to draw a picture of a moth. Knowing I couldn’t draw well, I wrote a about a poem to go with my picture. After class my teacher called me up to her desk and pointing to the poem, she said, “Wanda, I think you have a talent for writing.” From that moment on, a seed was planted. It wasn’t until I was married and my two children were in school that I became serious about writing. After taking a writing course for short stories and articles, I submitted my first story, which was eventually published with a Mennonite Sunday school children’s take-home paper. For the next several years I wrote stories, articles, poems, and puppet plays published with numerous Christian publishers. Then, after taking another writing course, I submitted my first novel, “A Merry Heart,” to Barbour Publishing’s Heartsong Presents Bookclub and it was accepted. Since that time I have written more than 60 books, which includes novels, novellas, devotionals, cookbooks, and children’s books. I enjoy using my ability to write and consider it to be a ministry, as I often hear from readers that something they have read in one of my books has helped them through a difficult time or helped them in some way. I believe that everyone has been blessed with a special talent or gift. What talent do you have and how are you using it to serve the Lord?