Today is a Treasure

Humbled.  Honored.  Excited. 

Unbelievable!  A dream come true! 

A racing heart … a dry mouth … a mind that pauses in wonder.

This week has held a red-letter day for me … but this week, the first week of April 2014, is not really where it all began. 

It started on September 7, 1960 … the day that my beautiful mother walked my sister and me halfway to the one room schoolhouse in the tiny village of Alabama, NY. 

Mom held my hand from the safety of our family home to the Methodist Church, which was halfway to school.  She kissed my expectant cheeks and then waved good-bye as I walked the rest of the way without her gentle voice and her guiding touch.

I was about to start school … the grandest adventure of my life!  Waiting at the one room schoolhouse for me was my teacher … a young Australian war bride by the name of Margaret Dombrowski.  I fell in love that early autumn day.

I fell in love with Mrs. Dombrowski and with school.

Mrs. Dombrowski didn’t merely teach me to read and write … she taught me to LOVE reading and writing.  Her impact on my young life was profound as she was my teacher for the first three years of school.

On the third day of the second grade, in September of 1962, Mrs. Dombrowski placed a book in my hands.  It was “Little House in the Big Woods”  by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I was in love with again … with Pa and Ma, Laura and Mary, Baby Carrie … and their good old bulldog, Jack!

I finished “Little House in the Big Woods” in 3 days and had read through the entire Little House series by the end of second grade.  I was not a child genius by any stretch of the imagination … I just simply loved to read.

While long division and figuring out the order of the planets gave me a headache … I would read anything that Mrs. Dombrowski placed in my anxious hands.

While I never was chosen first for the kickball team or learned how to do a cartwheel … I knew the delight of rolling words around in the caverns of my brain.

Can you really know your calling in the second grade?  I certainly did.  I wanted to write books just like Laura … and Louisa May Alcott … and Carol Ryrie Brink … and Maud Hart Lovelace.

I knew that my love for communication and the written word would never be a passing fancy but it might be the reason for which I had been born.

I knew that I knew that I knew that someday I would be an author … that someday I would write a book.

I grew up … went to college … fell in love … married the boy of my dreams … and began having babies.  5 of them.

And I fell in love again.  I fell in love with motherhood.

Hence, the childhood dreams of yesterday faded into the very real existence of wiping noses, changing diapers, dying Easter Eggs, hanging Christmas stockings and praying bedtime prayers.

But every January 1, when the McLeod family sat down to talk about New Year’s resolutions and goals … mine was always the same … to write a book.

While my children were dreaming of hitting home runs … buying a new bike … convincing their Dad to get a puppy … saving their pennies to buy an American Girl Doll … or being the president of their class … my dream never changed.

I wanted to write a book.

What I didn’t realize then … but I do now … is that during those years of Little League and tea parties … of piano lessons and roller blades … of puppies and American Girl dolls … is that I was indeed writing a masterpiece.

Actually … I was writing 5 masterpieces by the titles of Matthew, Christopher, Jordan, Joy and Joni Becca.

Every year, from the time I was 12 years old to the year that I turned 51, writing a book was my primary New Year’s resolution.  In case you have trouble with math like I do … that was 39 l-o-n-g years.

Oh … I had written hundreds of books in my mind and heart over the decades but never did I have the convergence of time, self-discipline and desire until the spring of my 51st. year.  Then … I wrote my first book and had the audacity to self-publish it.

What’s not to love about a book named, “The Rooms of a Woman’s Heart”?!

Since writing the first book nearly 10 years ago, God has opened doors in the publishing industry for 3 other books.

“Defiant Joy!” is the story of my battle with depression after losing 5 babies and the power that I found to battle that wicked emotion with the principles found in the Word of God.

“Holy Estrogen!” is a humorous, hopeful look into the world of emotions gone wild.  Who knew that the Bible talks about stress, anger, worry, difficult people and even broken hearts?!

This week, my fourth book, “No More Ordinary!” was published by Bridge-Logos.

"No More Ordinary" is my attempt to challenge believers to tap into the life of God’s dreams.  Every day is a miracle!  There is no such thing as an “ordinary” day or a “blah” day when God is involved.

Life is a rare and priceless treasure!  Do not waste one more hour or even one more minute in the dregs of worry, discouragement or grayness.

What is your dream?  Perhaps today is your day to get off the couch of mediocrity and remember your childhood passion.

Why were you born?  If you are still breathing, there is still time to discover the purpose for which you were created.  Do it today!

What do you love to do the very most?!  That is where the dream begins that God placed in your heart!  Trust me … I know.

God has a life of “No More Ordinary!” for you.

Humbled.  Honored.  Excited.

Unbelievable!  A dream come true!

A racing heart … a dry mouth … a mind that pauses in absolute wonder.