At age 43, I’m a multi-published author of magazine articles, Bible-study notes, curriculum and 15 books. My book for teenage mothers was nominated for a prestigious award. I’m a national speaker, traveling to share God’s good news.
While in my 20s, I helped to launch a Crisis Pregnancy Center, helped start numerous abstinence programs, and launched support groups for Teen Moms.
Now, if I were not a believer, all these would be things I could really tout. But honestly, I can say that it doesn’t have to do with me at all.
It’s about:
- A BIG God with BIG dreams.
- A God who has made an agreement with me that is eternal, final and sealed.
- A God who is constantly looking after my safety and success.
- A God who is strong in my weakness.
- A God who sees the future, sees the past, and has a perfect plan for me.
Well, I guess the whole truth is that I do have something to do with it. It’s only a little something, but I guess it makes a pretty big difference.
See, God can be all those things in my life only if I let Him.
There is one thing I must do … and that is be available. Of course, I didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Here I am. God, use me.” I didn’t just clear my schedule and wait for God to show up.
Rather, the steps toward my availability were a work-in-progress. They started on the day I was six months pregnant and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I like to look at that as Day One.
In those 26 years from then to now, I’ve learned a lot.
Lesson #1: Sometimes being available means stepping away from status quo.
For me that meant moving 1,000 miles away. Seriously, 1,000 miles. You see, after I gave my heart to the Lord, I birthed a beautiful son. Not too long later, God gave me an amazing, Christian husband and two more children. Then He asked us to move … (in a roundabout way.)
First, God put us into a community of like-minded people. Our friends longed for a simple life away from the hurry and worry in California.
Next, He placed a desire in our hearts to raise our children in a better place. A place called Montana. We’d talk about it with our friends, we’d dreamt about it, and hoped that many someday it would come true.
Then, we decided to pray. My husband and I got on our knees and prayed that IF it was God’s desire, He would make it clear. John was just graduated from college, and I was raising three small children under the age of 5.
We knew we’d be leaving our families, leaving our friends, leaving everything we knew. We had no job in Montana, no money to move, in fact we’d never even been there before! Still, we had a desire. One we couldn’t shake.
At the time, my husband sold computers on commission in a small store. He’d usually sell one or two a week. He went to work the next day after our joint prayer and sold 11 computers! Enough to pay off our current bills, enough to move and live on. It was the confirmation we’d been looking for.
Janet Perez Eckles 
Shawn Akers 
Abby Trivett 
