I was sitting at my desk today half worrying and half praying about the contents of the Editor’s Note in the magazine. This page is usually the last to be sent to the printer, often because I haven’t figured out what to write about until the last minute. I was reaching that point where commonplace fretting starts to morph into icy panic when the phone burbled. It was a reader trying to reach customer service. I definitely consider myself in the customer-service business.
The woman on the other end of the line said she’d recently moved and wasn’t certain all her mail was getting forwarded. “I’m looking for my renewal notice for the 2012 edition of Daily Guideposts and I haven’t gotten it yet,” she explained. “I don’t want to miss a year. I love the magazine but it only comes once a month. Daily Guideposts is here every day!”
I was happy to help her, especially when I learned that she’d been getting Daily Guideposts and giving it as a gift for 15 years, which is about the same amount of time I’ve been writing for the book. I’ve talked before about how reluctant I was to write devotionals. But once I started contributing to Daily Guideposts every year, it changed the way I look at life. Writing devotionals—and learning lessons from the other writers in Daily Guideposts like Tibby Sherrill, Rick Hamlin, Marion Bond West, Debbie Macomber and Mary Lou Carney—gave me a spiritual perspective on everyday events. Through these amazing little stories I saw how faith intersected with living. I saw how God worked in my life, even in the smallest ways.
That happens with Daily Guideposts readers too, which is why so many say they begin their mornings with one of the devotional stories and a prayer. As my caller said, “It’s a good way of getting my day into spiritual gear.” I know just what she means.
