Who am I to write children’s books? By the world’s standards, I am not eloquent, beautiful, successful or popular. There is nothing about me that would make people take note of me. And yet God has given me a purpose.

He has allowed circumstances and experiences, people and positioning, dreams and dares to coalesce into writing books for children and youth.

I can’t boast about my degrees, my strategic plan or my insider knowledge. I don’t have any of that. I can’t brag that I knew just the right time to start writing or found just the right agent or discovered the key to being a best-selling author because none of that is true.

When God dropped the idea for my first book into my mind I had a thirty-year-old college diploma, no plan and zero strategy. I published my first book in the fear-riddled, housebound world of 2020. I don’t have an agent and I’ve never been close to a best-seller list.

But none of that matters to God. My books aren’t written and published because I’m so good but because He is. He has led me to a publisher whose sole mandate is to develop good books for middle-grade kids. That’s it. No hidden agenda. Just good, clean stories with traditional values. Things like honesty, compassion, empathy, the power of family, kindness and integrity. I feel honoured to be part of that work and humbled that God can use someone like me to reach kids.

And I guess that’s the point. God can use anyone to accomplish His purposes. You don’t have to be well-connected, attractive, rich or educated. Often, it’s best if you aren’t. Sometimes those things can lead us into believing in our own self-sufficiency, thinking that we have all the answers and our goals are well deserved and always within reach. That kind of thinking doesn’t leave much room for the sovereignty of God.

And since His ways are higher than our ways and His plans so much better than anything we can dream up, I think we are far better off placing ourselves in His hands than trying to figure this whole thing out by ourselves.