The Neverending Pursuit of Life Goals

A literary gift I received from the great George MacDonald – mentor to the likes of C.S. Lewis - is a sense of timelessness. What is a day – or a year – or a decade but a drop in the bucket that is eternity? And so, years sometimes pass between blog entries. I started this blog as an outlet for my writing, while I was praying that God would open a door that would enable me to find work paying from home while I honed my publishability.

In 2012 I started working as an editor/advisor on graduate-level theses, which paid the bills on the children’s extracurriculars. Over the past year, I started working as an artificial intelligence data trainer, a lucrative opportunity that paid for the bills plus a trip to Germany with my husband. The downside of making your living on the computer is that it is woefully difficult to spend unpaid time doing something you love but that might not pay off for a number of years.

Yet, somehow, I managed to go through the painful process of revising my Christian romance manuscript, Running from Love. (Thank you to the friends and family that occasionally prodded me with a question about ‘how my writing is going’.) I resubmitted it and, if it still does not meet this publisher’s needs, I have decided to locate an agent to help with this process. The next step for me is to go back to my ‘baby’, Teresa and the Diamond Castle. My Uncle Bob Pehrsson, also an author, advised that I add more off his favorite character in the book, a dragon named Glory. I also made a decision to publish under the German spelling of my first name, along with my maiden name: Elisabeth Gerold.

In the meantime, my youngest daughter is already a sophomore in college. The others have established their own households and are pursuing their dreams. I have demonstrated I can make a living from my desk at home. I have flown to Europe with my husband. There is just that one unmet life goal of publishing my first novel. I know God gave me the gift of writing for a reason. And so, I continue to write, and pray, and write some more.

What are your unmet life goals? My mom got her doctorate in her 40s. My mother-in-law (may she rest in peace) got her nursing degree in her 50s. It is never too late. God has a plan for you, but you need to do the work to help it along.

Merry Christmas!

                     ~ Elisabeth

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Isaiah 29:11