Healing In His Wings: How I Am Making It Through

After preparing, researching, and praying while writing the book Strength to Speak: One Woman’s Struggle to Make Peace with Her Past, Joy was initially relieved. “Yes. I have spoken, and now I no longer have to talk about this anymore. All is well.” So she began to look for other subjects to write about. During this process, God showed her visions of speaking to large groups of people, and it frightened her. You might ask, “Why was she sacred?” Joy has a bad habit of making something small into a huge mountain. She allows the little things to overwhelm her. “How do I start making speeches? Whom will I speak to, or where will I go? I need someone to help me and lead the way. I am definitely not a leader. What if schools, churches, and organizations say no? Then what’s the next step? But what I am now realizing is that I have to pray and have faith and the Lord will provide. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.”

Joy remembers vividly working at the bank and how her coworkers were excited when they found out she had written her first book, Strength to Speak. “Wow, Joy. You might become famous. Don’t forget to sign my book; your signature might be worth millions.”

Along this journey, the Lord has blessed Joy with a wonderful sister friend, Johanna, who is also a published author. During their friendship, Johanna continues to bless Joy by praying, guiding, and speaking life to her. She is the older sister Joy always wanted. Johanna insisted that this book was needed and that Joy had to start as soon as possible.

In actuality, there are two reasons why Joy stalled with moving forward. First, she just didn’t want to do it. Second, she didn’t really know what to write, and most of the time, she didn’t feel like it; she was tired or not feeling well. Joy had to pray, seek God, shake the dust off her pen, and set her mind on things above. Sharing your own dark secrets to the world can be terrifying; however, Joy realized that she was not alone. At every book event she had, there was always one woman who experienced something similar. That would always give her hope to continue. Sometimes Joy would watch potential customers pass by at the literary fest. They would quietly examine the book from afar and walk away. It was sometimes disheartening to see. A large percentage of people did not want to read about that topic, and as of today, it’s OK and she understands.