Third Time’s A Charm—The Persuasive Christian Parent is Finally Available!

I made one of the big mistakes of my life back when I was a young Christian some four decades ago. I asked God to give me patience . . . . and I’ve been waiting ever since! Writing a book, and finally getting a version up I’m not embarrassed by, has been a long, long wait, especially when I was thinking that I’d be doing what I’m doing right now three and a half years ago. As I’ve learned over the years, God’s timing is never our timing. Just read the Bible and that will become readily apparent not too many pages in. I’m pretty stubborn, though (ask my family), and I was determined that sooner or later I would get the book published, and it was definitely later. As the title indicates, the third publishing option finally worked: Me!

A funny thing happened after all this time on the way to publishing fame, I no longer really cared. I just kept trying to knock down walls as they appeared in front of me, and after a bloody nose or two, I would find a way through, over, or around, and made progress. It also seems in spite of myself, and by God’s grace, through the process I found I’ve actually matured a bit in my Christian life. I’m still fundamentally rotten (increasingly) old sinful me, but I find it’s much easier after four-plus decades to “let go and let God.” I do hate that phrase, but it does capture something of the trust I have in him that comes easier than when I was a younger man and lived as if I was the master of my fate, and the captain of my soul. When I was young and naive and full of myself (I’m only half full now), I believed I could change the world. It didn’t take all that long for God to disabuse me of that notion, and it was rarely a pleasant experience. But God crushes those whom he loves so that they will put their hope and trust in him alone.

I have found over time that I can be a pretty persuasive fellow to those who are persuadable, and it seems I’m not too bad at it. You’d have to ask my children who have been the object of my persistent persuasion (often annoyingly so) over the years, but I think they would agree. So writing this book, and finally getting it published, has been a wonderful experience, even if it took way longer than I thought it would. If others are blessed by it, and the confidence in the faith of my brothers and sisters in Christ, parents or not, grows because of it, all the better. Now on to the next part of the journey, which is trying to promote it. I don’t know if anyone will be interested, but you don’t know until you ask. Actually, somebody already was, and I got my first interview. I’ll put that in another post soon, but there is nothing I love doing more than talking about Jesus!