Me:  How is your day look?

Prodigal:  I got to slop the hogs, dig the well, and plow the north forty before dinner.

Me:  Busy day!  But remember to work unto the Lord!

Prodigal:  Thanks for encouragement!

 

This is from the book God’s Little Devotional Book for Women

 

Janette Oke, best-selling novelist with more than 40 books to her credit, is considered the modern “pioneer author” for Christian fiction.  Her books have sold millions of copies since her first novel was published in 1979.

When she first decided to write, she said to God, “Lord, I’m going to write this book. If it works, and if I discover I have talent, I’ll give it all to You.”

Janette sensed God was not pleased with the bargain she was trying to strike with Him.  She felt in her heart as if He were responding, “If you’re serious about this, then I want everything before you start.”  Thus she gave Him her ambitions and dreams, and trusted Him to teach her, whether she was successful or not.

Out of that resolve came a second resolve.  She refused to compromise her principles.  Although she would write realistically, her stories would be “wholesome and good and encouraging.”  Many thought that approach was doomed to failure at the outset, but a shelf of novels later…Janette Oke has proven “God can teach spiritual truths through fictional characters.

 

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Matthew 22:37

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org