Beautiful
Forever Experience
As many of you may or may not know, I
recently finished my first book titled; “Beautiful Forever” and I sent it to
the Women of Faith writing contest. I
have been asked to share that experience with you and this might also help you
understand why I haven’t written anything for the blog in quite some time. The experience itself was challenging,
consuming, and rewarding.
The experience
was challenging because when I committed to finishing the book I only had the
introduction and a small part of chapter one finished. The deadline for submission to the contest
was about two months from the commitment date.
Then the whole family got sick over Christmas break…twice. This was a
time when I intended to get a good chunk of writing done. When God calls us to do something he will
give us what is necessary to accomplish that goal, even if it seems
impossible! So I spent the whole month
of January writing every chance that I got and most of those chances came late
at night when the kids and husband were asleep.
January became a month of little sleep and always a messy house that I
had to make myself let go of! Since the
book is based around the concept of transformation as a caterpillar transforms
into a butterfly, I had to do some research regarding caterpillars and butterflies. This posed a challenge to me because I’m not
a huge fan of research and the contest rules did not give clear directions on
how things needed to be cited or if that was even necessary. I submitted citations just in case.
The experience of
writing “Beautiful Forever” was consuming because as you just read above, I was
consumed with the goal of finishing the book on time. It consumed any extra time, energy, and thoughts
that I had to give to it, although, the majority of why it was consuming was
because of the scope of my experiences that went into the book; which were
expanded over the last ten years or so.
Originally, I thought most of the message from the book would come from
things that I had learned while Josh was in Afghanistan but as I got further
along, I realized this was a message that I had been learning since I gave my
life over to Christ ten years ago. This
is a message that consumes my entire being, my thoughts, words, actions and is
very near and dear to my heart. I
believe if everyone and specifically women (and their daughters) would take
this message of great LOVE, WORTH and VALUE to consume their souls with this
truth then we would have a world that is free to love self and others without
fear. Being human poses a challenge
sometime and I do get off track and forget this truth, but gratefully since
Christ consumes my life it doesn’t take long before He reroutes me back to Him
and the truth that sets me free.
Writing
“Beautiful Forever” was rewarding!! Of
course it was because I love to write, because when I put things down on paper
whether in my journal or on this computer, it then becomes real, it becomes
tangible. “Beautiful Forever” isn’t just
an idea that I came up with because it sounded good. It is real to me because I have lived
it. I have been the one who hated me and
everything about me before meeting Christ.
I had so many issues like anger, fear, comparison issues, perfectionist,
insecurities, control, and oh, what? You want me to choose forgiveness
Lord? What? Are you sure, that I have to forgive somebody
really?? Oh, why me?! Yep, been there done that…and sometimes I still
struggle depending on the issue, after all…yes, I’m still human. This has also been a rewarding experience
because I was able to share some of the true stories that God has done in my
life and tell about His amazing grace.
It was very rewarding to see my children and husband step up with
helping around the house also, that is always worthy of some praise! J Most importantly this experience was
rewarding because it was something that I promised to finish for myself but
also for my Immanuel. Understanding that
I no longer have to live my life to please others and my focus is on pleasing
Christ is such a freeing lesson. Being
consumed with God’s love is sometimes challenging because it might not make
sense to others but it is also the most rewarding love that ever will be.
SMP*
Sara M. Podorski
***For anyone who is
curious…I won’t know results of the contest until end of March or beginning of
April but even if I don’t win anything, I still have completed an awesome goal
and will probably go through with publishing on my own, God willing of course!