Friday, June 13, 2008

God's Provision

When things don’t go the way we wish it is easy to get discouraged. But if we depend on God for those things, for everything, then we can trust in His provision. I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to find an agent. I’ve done research, mailed letters, emailed companies with no luck. I began to get the feeling that perhaps all I needed was a little more information on how to go about looking for an agent and how to get them to give my manuscript a try.

Then the other day, while shopping with my husband, at the local B&N store, he spotted a book with an interesting title. “The First Five Pages” by: Noah Lukeman was sitting on the shelf along with a collection of books on various subjects. My dear husband handed it to me thinking I might be interested and after reading the forward I decided to purchase the book and take it home.

Sunday afternoon we drove to a small town on the nearby coast with a shopping district, carnival and upscale restaurants. On the drive I opened the book and started reading the introduction. I could tell right away that this book would be worth the money I paid for it. I can see it sitting on my shelves years from now, dog eared, marked and highlighted. Some might regard this a horrible way to treat a good book but I have a feeling that Mr. Lukeman would understand and be pleased to find that his work had found such an appreciative reader.

Although I never treat books this way I feel sure that this book will be so indispensable that I will refer to it often, place bookmarks and post-its in it’s pages and of course recommend it to my writing friends.

I can see now that there is much to be done with my manuscript and I am grateful God led me to this tool. It will help me improve my work so that when I do submit it will be in the best shape for perusal by an agent or editor.

Have you found a good tool lately? Has God shown you something about your work?

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