The Deeper Meaning

It was the week following my very first writer’s conference and I had a job to do. I had to turn a twenty minute talk into a book proposal (a sixty plus page document that includes three sample chapters, a full table of contents and several other marketing documents…basically a business plan for your book idea that will convince a publisher to invest an exorbitant amount of money in you) and I was frozen in fear….no, that’s not quite right, I was stuck in a cycle of shallow breathing, bouts of extreme nausea, and heart palpitations. While this cycle repeated itself over and over, a cadence of specific sentences began to sound like a rap in my head…


What were you thinking?
You don’t know how to write a book!
You’re going to look like an idiot!
Why did you tell the publishers about this idea…you’re not a writer…you don’t even know what a book proposal is?!

You get the idea…it was a bad scene and when I actually approached the computer the voices in my head would swell to a fevered pitch…

I don’t know how to write a book!
I don’t know how to write a book!
I DON'T KNOW HOW TO WRITE A BOOK!

That’s when the picture of the little boy came to my mind and a firm and loving voice called for my attention. It was one of those times that I sensed the Lord had something to say and He didn't want me to miss it...

“Tracy, I know how to write a book! All that I am asking you to do is to come and talk to me each day…come and be with me…come and worship me. Moment by moment, I want you to do what that little boy in the picture is doing…come and stand open armed and empty handed in front of me. That’s all. Pull up to the computer and think of it as the place you are coming to stand open armed and empty handed. Tracy, as you do that I, your Father, will fill your hands with the seed that will satisfy not only your soul but the soul of a love-starved world. I will tell you what to write. I will give you what you need.”

Immediately, I went to find the photo album from our dream trip to France. I dusted off the cover and pulled out the picture of the boy. I taped the picture to the wall above my computer so that I could see it every day. It helped me. It reminded me of the verse that, years before had so radically changed my life… “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33) And, while I did have setbacks…crying jags and mantras of failure repeating in my head every few hours, they never lasted for very long, that is if I obediently pulled up to the computer and remembered that the only thing God was asking me to do was to come to him open armed and empty handed.


A few weeks later I had a completed book proposal and, a few weeks after that a book contract and, a few months after that a completed manuscript and shortly thereafter my first book Prayer Starters for Busy Moms—How to Pray All Day and Still Put the Laundry Away.

Now, lest you think this blog is going to be all about writing, publishing and the likes I would like to clarify….I am planning to write about how we as moms can live a “Magnificent Life.” I define “The Magnificent Life” as a life that sees and senses God at work and reflects God to those around us. I believe that is achieved only as we stand, with the simple faith of a child before our Heavenly Father and trust that our lives are in His hands and that He is not only in control of everything but that He loves us and has our best interest in mind. Perhaps you now find yourself asking "How do I do that?" How do I stand there with faith, with trust especially if I've have been hurt by people or by the circumstances of life? How do I believe that God is close by if I’ve only been raised to think that He is far off and much too busy dealing with the bigger problems in the world like poverty, AIDS, and war? How do I stand there and wait on my Heavenly Father to give me what I need if I’ve always needed to figure things out on my own and make my life happen? How?

That, my friends, is precisely what this blog is about…the how, the why, the sometimes fun, oftentimes messy, always meaningful process of living life... “The Magnificent Life.”