It’s the one-year birthday of my book, Ask Me Anything, Lord, and I’m throwing a party of sorts! To say many thanks for your part in this journey, I’m hosting a giveaway!!
The prizes:
- One first prize of a $25 gift card to Amazon.com
- Three prizes for ‘runners up:’ one autographed copy each of Ask Me Anything, Lord to keep for yourself or to give away to a friend.
How to enter:
- Subscribe to get my devotionals sent to your email by following this blog. If you already subscribe, that counts, too! Then post a comment on this page saying, “I follow the blog” in order for it to count as an entry.
- Like my Facebook Author page: http://www.facebook.com/roomtobreathe3 If you already follow me on Facebook, then that counts. Be sure to post a comment here on this blog page saying, “I’m a Facebook fan” so that you get entered in the giveaway.
- Comment on this post with the answer to the question: “When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?”
Please make sure you comment here on this page—not just on Facebook. It only counts as an entry if it shows up here!
I’ll close the contest on Sunday, November 16th at 11:59 p.m. and announce the winner Monday, November 17th.
Many thanks to you my friends for your support of Ask Me Anything, Lord this past year!
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He had a scraggly brownish gray beard and glasses and wore a faded t-shirt with worn-out jeans.
I was about 17 at the time, and I had stopped into the tiny used book shop not far from my home. It was a regular haunt of mine because I could pick up classic treasures for a dollar or so.
It’s been so long ago now. I can’t remember how the conversation started or even why. Knowing me, I certainly wasn’t the one to initiate a chat with a stranger, especially as a teenage girl with a unknown guy in a store.
But I do remember that he asked me what I wanted to do.
And I said, “I want to write,” in a whispered confession kind of way, the kind of admission you make in embarrassment because you know what you just said was crazy, impractical and surely impossible.
After all, I’m a practical person. I may have majored in English in college, but I wasn’t silly enough to think that meant writing. I told people maybe I could edit, or work in publishing, or go to law school, or teach…..all more logical options than dreaming the impossible dream.
But for some reason, I said, “I want to write,” and I didn’t know how to take it back.
He didn’t even blink. He just said, “Well, what you have to do is read the best and just write and write and keep on writing.” Then he handed me a book called Seize the Day, which I still have on my bookshelf now, and walked away.
I get emails now a few times a month from ladies asking me how to get published and could they do what I do, and I give them all the practical information I possibly can. Unfortunately I can’t give them “Ten Steps to Publishing Success” or “The Five Things You Need to Know About Christian Publishing” and I wish I could—really and truly.
After all, I’m just a humble girl still plugging away at writing myself.
All I can say is just obey and trust God and start small. Don’t dream about bestsellers or fame or personal glory or royalty checks.
Ten years after a chance meeting in a book shop, I was a mom with two kids and a job working from home, a job at the church, and ministry responsibilities, and I felt like God was telling me I needed to be writing….in my “free time.”
I started as that tired out mama typing away devotionals and articles in a word processor after my kids went to bed at night. I didn’t think anyone in the world would ever read them. Maybe one day I could print them off my own printer and slip them into a three-ring binder for my daughters to enjoy.
Then someone asked me to edit for an online Christian women’s magazine. And then she allowed me to start writing articles. Then I felt like God wanted me to write devotionals and publish them online, so there was this blog….and then a book idea that took discipline to write in the middle of crazy busy days….
Then there the day last year when I cradled my newborn son in one arm and held the author’s copy of Ask Me Anything, Lord in my other hand.
And I cried. Of course.
I didn’t think this was ever possible and it certainly wasn’t on my own.
But God.
Maybe we all have “but God…” moments. They so rarely start with a grand vision of success in any worldly way. They start with the smallest steps of obedience, humbly just doing the quiet things and being faithful in the here and now, and then one day we look up and wonder how in the world all this happened—-and know it can’t be anything but Him.
That’s the beauty of the “….but God” testimony; He gets the glory.
Like Asaph tells us in the Psalm:
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever (Psalm 73:26 HCSB)
And it’s the testimony of David, who “stayed in the wilderness strongholds and in the hill country of the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul searched for him every day, but God did not hand David over to him” (1 Samuel 23:14 HCSB).
It’s impossible. We don’t deserve it. It’s hard and we’re weary. Maybe there are enemies; surely there are obstacles.
But God….He is our Strength, our Hope, our Deliverer.
Heather King is a wife, mom, Bible Study teacher, writer and worship leader. Most importantly, she is a Christ follower with a desire to help others apply the Bible to everyday life with all its mess, noise, and busyness. Her book, Ask Me Anything, Lord: Opening Our Hearts to God’s Questions, is available now! To read more devotionals by Heather King, click here.
Copyright © 2014 Heather King
Heather C. King - Room to Breathe 
I am a Facebook fan of yours. ❤
Thanks so much!
I already follow your blog.
I have been following you on facebook through WBC but now I am following just your page too. I do truly love this blog. I am so thankful to God that he allows you to find the time.
Thanks for following and for the sweet encouragement, Stephanie! I’m so glad we can be part of WBC together!
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a farm wife or a teacher.
Teacher was definitely on my list also.
I follow the blog.
Thanks, Kim!
I am a facebook fan and I not only follow the blog, I love it. It makes a huge difference in my day. Thank you for heeding God’s direction.
I wanted to be a teacher, a truck driver, a vet, a pianist, in an orchestra….and the list goes on. 🙂
You sound a little like me! 🙂
I’m a Facebook fan 🙂
I subscribed for your emails!
I wanted to be a Mom! I’m living my dream ❤
And a beautiful dream it is!!! Thanks, Betsy!
I am a Facebook fan and get your emails. I wanted to be a singer or dancer. I have no talent in either one.
Thanks for following! You must have been an entertainer at heart 🙂
I get your emails and see them on Facebook and I grew up to do what I always wanted to do when I was a kid, be a wife and a mom.
That’s wonderful, Regina! Thank you!
I love reading your blog, Heather! Sometimes I can’t believe the wisdom that comes from such a young woman. I will continue to suggest your book and blog to my friends!
Thank you so much! You are so sweet and such a blessing!
As a kid, I always wanted to be a nurse when I grew up. I became a mom- kinda the same thing!!
Definitely close to the same thing. I often think I’d be a better mom if I had some nursing training at least!
I follow the blog
I’m a Facebook fan!!
I follow your blog and have liked your Facebook fan page! 🙂 When I was a child, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do as far as a career, but I knew for sure I wanted to be a mom!
My oldest girl has her heart set on being a mom in that same way—a beautiful desire!
I love all your writings, Heather, and I’m so very proud of you.
Thank you!
I love the blog and am a Facebook fan of yours. I love your gifted writing.
Thanks for following!
I love the blog, am a Facebook fan of yours and love your gifted writing. I wanted to be a writer in a loft in New York City. (Still love to write, but have a family instead.)
I have to say something about the idea of writing in a loft sure seems inspirational!!
I am a FB fan and I follow your blog. When I was younger I wanted to be a dancer, like on the Solid Gold dancers. That is such a passion and it is relaxing.
Thanks, Pam! I am always amazed by those with a talent for dance!!!
I follow your blog. Also
I am a facebook fan
After working together and then following your writings, I came to appreciate how very down to earth your relationship with God is — As a child, I had wanted to be a nun, in retrospect maybe because of the good I saw them doing…. While I could no longer say that is what I want to be some 40years later, the earthiness and wholesome values certainly are what I strive for now… With God’s help, even the most basic earthiness is so much more than it appears to be. Your words inspire me to that ideal, so thank you 🙂
It’s been so wonderful to ‘meet’ people from work or online through the blog, Anne! Thank you for following along. How amazing that God has brought you on that faith journey—not as a nun—but in ways you didn’t expect!
I follow your blog!!
And a fan on FB too.
Thanks so much for following!
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a teacher. 🙂
Me too!
I am a Facebook Fan!
Thanks, Genia!
When I was little, I wanted to be a librarian, a teacher, and a nurse. God has blessed me, and in His amazing way…I have become all 3!
Wow! That’s amazing! So many of us changed our plans along the way—-or God changed them for us 🙂
I follow the blog, and Facebook, and When I was little and all the way into High School I knew without a doubt that God wanted me to be an Orthopedic Surgeon or Rheumatologist! But I look back and everything I did as a child was planned and fashioned for me to be the Drama Teacher and Mom I have become, and I am His vessel he continues to fashion of love!
PS I always said I NEVER wanted to be a teacher! God had a different plan!
That’s so like Him—to have a different (and better) plan!
i get your blog, and I’m a Facebook fan!
Thanks, Kim!
I didn’t know what I wanted to be, I just knew I didn’t want to be a teacher like my parents. Oh, well!
Hahaha!! That’s so God! I bet you’re amazing!
I follow the blog via e-mail. I am a FB fan!
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, I wasn’t a graceful dancer at all!
I wasn’t meant to be a ballet dancer either and I can’t get over how God gave me daughters who like to dance! Thanks, Bev!
I follow the facebook page and the blog.
I wanted to be a Mom and a teacher and a nurse and a mail lady and ….. One day when I grow up and my kids do too I’ll go back and finish that degree.
Thanks for following, Crystal! Don’t give up on going back and finishing! We really can keep pursuing dreams—thanks for the reminder!
I follow your blog and am a FB fan. As for what I wanted to be when I grow up, I thought I wanted to be a nurse, wife and mom. Two out of three is great! I don’t think I could have been a nurse but it is one of my job descriptions as a mom 🙂
I always think that I’d feel like a more confident mom if I had some medical training! Two out of three is definitely great! Thanks, Eva!
You know I’m a big fan! I follow on FB and just signed up for the blog. In middle school, I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse until I actually started volunteering at our local hospital. Not for me so in ninth grade, I decided I to be a marine scientist, and the rest is history!
I love the idea of volunteering in that field to kind of test things out. I used to tell my students that the first year or so of college they needed to find out what they didn’t want to do. Thanks, Donna!
I follow you on FB and just signed up for email devotionals. I wanted to be a wife, mom, and a movie star.
Love it—a movie star! Well, maybe it will still happen! Who can tell?! Thanks, Betty!
Well it’s no secret that I think you are Awesome. I love your blog, you bless so many with your words. I love being your co-leader to WBC Book Club, you do an amazing job there too. Your book should be number 1 on the Best Sellers List FOREVER… Whoever wins this prize will surely be blessed. 💜
I love being your co-leader also, Rebecca! I’m so thankful God put us together at the Womens Bible Cafe! ❤ Thank you, my friend, for always being such a blessing of encouragement.
I found your blog today through Pinterest- it looks like a great resource!
When I was little, I wanted to be a teacher.
I’m so glad you found the blog! Teacher was definitely on my list, too!
I’m an email subscriber. Thank you! 🙂
When I was growing up, I wanted to be a nurse. Sadly, that didn’t happen.