Gina Conroy: The Voice of Revelation

Gina Conroy is a writing mom of four, trying to figure out how to balance family, faith and a writing career. She shares all about triumphs and failures on her blog Portrait of a Writer...Interrupted. So far she's not doing so well with the balancing, but through her interviews with other writing moms on her blog, she's determined to figure out how to do it! When she's not interviewing writing moms or blogging about family, writing and books she manages the Writer...Interrupted webring, which has grown to over 200 members!

Gina Conroy
http://portraitofawriter.ginaconroy.com
http://ginawrites.ginaconroy.com
http://writerinterrupted.com

Space is filling up for Spring & Summer: Advertise your writing related service or book on Writer...Interrupted!


It's been over two years since I signed up for a Bible Study with some home schooling friends that changed my life and course of my writing career. I really didn't feel like committing to another night out of the home especially since my family was already over scheduled with activities, but my husband encouraged me to go, and I knew I needed something to help me get into the Word and be accountable. I didn't know the Bible study was on hearing the voice of God.

If you've read my then you already know what happened about half way through the Bible study. Though God had been dealing with me on some level, I didn't want to believe it was His voice whispering to me about my skewed priorities. Just like what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus, God decided to knock me off my horse. Yet, instead of blinding me as He did with Saul, the scales fell from my eyes.

The topic of discussion at our Bible study that week had been sold out hunger for God. The author Pricilla Shirer shared these words.

"More and more the Lord is showing me what I consider interruptions are often divine distractions designed to reveal His plans for me…"
Pricilla Shirer wrote about her young son tugging on her leg, trying to get her attention while she sat engrossed in writing the Bible study. "Ignoring this interruption ignores God's attempt to move me away from my plan for my day to His."

Talk about an "ah-ha" moment! It was then that I realized I was treating my children as interruptions in my life and to my writing career. I had become so focused on what I thought my calling from God was that I'd been missing His divine plan for my life.

When I decided to home school almost two years earlier, I felt that was an interruption in my life. The time I thought I would have to write now had to be allocated to schooling. Still I was determined to make it work even if it meant staying up past midnight writing and "winging it" through my lessons the following day. During a quick break or at lunch, I'd steal away to the computer and get on email only to stay longer than I had planned. My three-year-old would often interrupt what I was doing, and I'd either shoo her away or get irritated at the interruption. If I lingered too long on the computer I knew chaos would erupt in the rooms below with my boys, but somehow I couldn't pull myself away in time to prevent the inevitable.

Pricilla goes on to write
"…we all become frustrated when seemingly meaningless interruptions interfere with plans we have for our careers, families, finances, or ministries. Are we missing God's interventions as He seeks to divert us to His will?"

Was I missing God's intervention as He sought to divert me to His will? I thought home schooling was an interruption in my life, but maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was God's divine intervention to steer me back on the path He had already designed for me.

Pricilla said, "Sometimes when our plans are interrupted, we are staring God's direction in the face. We must not push them aside to complete what we feel is most important."

I'm still learning to hear God's voice, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that sometimes I think maybe I missed Him on this one. But for now I'm going to walk this path and cling to Isaiah 55:8-9 "My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours."

It's been two years since this revelation. I've since put my three oldest in school and plan to homeschool my younger two next year. I still struggle with seeing my kids as interruptions, but it's easier to pull myself away and get back on the path God has for me.

Thank you so much Surrendered Scribe for allowing me to be your voice here today. If your readers are interested in finding out more about how I juggle faith, family and a writing career, I'd love them to visit me at Portrait of a Writer...Interrupted.