Good afternoon, lovely Arrowheads! I’ve got a confession to make… over the last month or so, I’ve been discouraged both about my writing, and if I’ll ever reach the success I desire as an author. Over the past few weeks, I’ve constantly worried about what readers think of my writing, worried about my upcoming release, and haven’t written a word on my main-focus WIP. I’ve been through seasons like this before, so I know God will help me overcome these doubts in His time, but still…

I’ve constantly had to remind myself that God’s Will be done and not mine. This is especially hard for me, because when it comes to my goals, I’m a control freak. I expect everything to turn out as I planned. So often I forget that God has better plans for me than I have for myself, and I just need to be patient! At the time of writing this post (May 16th), I read two blog posts concerning our dreams and succeeding as an author, by Kellyn Roth and Livy Lynn. I feel that God is prompting me to reevaluate my expectations as a writer, and to look to Him in my anxiety. I don’t believe for a second that these events just coincidentally correspond with my life verse, which I was planning to post about today anyway.

My Life Verse:

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
-2 Corinthians 5:7

So often in my author career (a year and 3 months so far), I’ve measured “success” in the number of books sold, the average of the book’s ratings, and the number of adds on Goodreads. With all these details, it’s easy to forget the readers you’ve already impacted. Over the past week, I’ve met two girls who’ve read Can’t Beat the Heart of a Carolina Girl, one who I know and the other who I am acquainted with her family. Both girls raved about the book, reminding me of one thing statistics don’t show: personal impact on the readers.

So, how does this relate to my life verse? “For we walk by faith, not by sight”. Lately, I’ve been walking by sight, taking the statistics to heart, worrying about success. Instead, I should be walking by faith, trusting God to direct my path as an author. If He wants me to succeed as an author, He’ll make a way. If not, He’ll allow me to keep writing, to hopefully use my writing to impact both Christians and non-believers to help them learn more about God’s love. Satan wants me to be discouraged as a Christian author. Satan wants to silence me by depicting that my writing isn’t making an impact through sales records. But God, through allowing those readers to cross my path, by placing those blog posts on my newsfeed, speaks the Truth I need to put faith in. Y’all, please pray for me as I try to walk in faith.

What’s your life verse? Please share in the comments!

-Allyson 😀