I love my dog (I love cats, too, but my husband is allergic). Dogs are loyal, faithful, devoted, and compassionate creatures. These qualities I’ve found in my heavenly Father, whose Spirit came to live in me when as a child I trusted Jesus as my Savior.
During my childhood, my family moved about every two years. I discovered that books were the one constant I could take with me wherever I lived. I became an unabashed bookworm. (The maddest my mother ever got with me was when she discovered me in the backseat of our car reading a book when I should have been playing with my cousins at a family reunion.)
Book reading seemed to lead to book writing. In elementary school, I actually thought I was writing a book, hiding the papers under my bed until I was ready to send it off to the publisher. Now I realize the plot resembled very closely my mother’s favorite soap opera.
In high school I traded my juvenile masterpieces for the high school newspaper. Then in college I was a reporter for the county newspaper, covering everything from weddings to murder trials to preseason football. By graduate school I was writing Bible studies and lesson plans for publication. I wrote for my denomination for the ensuing twenty-five years before becoming a lead editor and editor-in-chief for LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, TN.
I was also a pastor’s wife. I had plenty of opportunities to observe human nature and, especially, to watch how faith displayed itself in difficult situations. I also saw the tragedies of misplaced or misdirected faith, whether in ourselves, others, or manmade idols.
To discover how my observations led to the Trophies of Grace series, read the tab “About The Series.”
