Letters from the Heart

The letters I write were born out of a desire to encourage and bless others. Though I wrote a few articles for our church bulletin back in 1999 I didn’t really start writing until I was about 44 years old (2004). Sometime around 2003-2004 our church was hosting ladies’ meetings and at the suggestion of my Pastor’s wife, Ann Mann, the ladies attending the meetings would take turns either calling, visiting or writing little notes of encouragement to the ladies in our church that were unable to come to church or going through various hard times.

I am basically shy, so for me it was easier to write than to call or visit. Thus, I took up “Pen & Paper” and began to write notes of encouragement. I found that I really loved writing these little notes to our ladies and found that it was fast becoming one of the greatest joys of my heart. In time, I also learned the notes were a great source of blessing, often bringing much needed hope and encouragement to the reader.

Initially I only wrote encouraging notes in cards, and I was only writing to a select few in our church that were going through difficult times and/or not able to come to church for one reason or another. However, I had a great desire to reach more people once I realized how much it blessed the few. I remember praying and asking God to help me encourage everyone in our church, I wanted to reach out to more. The first story I ever wrote, very short and simple, was called Thorns.

Our youth group had purchased a couple dozen roses the day before Mother’s Day 2004. We drove to all the homebound ladies’ homes to give them each a single red rose wishing them Mother’s Day Blessings. But the roses were “dangerous,” so we decided to snap off the thorns before handing them out. For unclear reasons I absently put the thorns in the middle console of my little gold Kia instead of discarding them.

Thereafter, I would periodically look down at those little thorns and I would think two things, “I need to do something with those thorns” and “There is a story in those thorns.” But predictably, I would drive on forgetting about them. Then, one hot summer morning, after the umpteenth time of looking at them and having my usual thoughts, new reflections began to fully take shape in my mind, and the story was born. I ended up taking the thorns and wrapping each individual one in a little piece of clear cellophane tied with a pretty little ribbon and then taping them to the “Thorns” letter which I gave out to all our church family one Sunday service.

Until that fateful day, I really had no idea that I could actually write a story that someone would actually read! Now, in hindsight, I am of the firm belief that the ladies’ meeting request coupled with my shyness, the Mother’s Day gifting and the thorns sitting in my console for a few months was no accident. God was at the helm, gently leading, guiding, and answering my prayers so that I could reach more people. Even now, the stories are written as the Lord gives the ideas. 

And, as with the thorns, many of the stories are often sparked with the same “there’s a story in that” thought. Sometimes I write one a month and sometimes I have gone as long as six or more months without writing another one. I first I gave the letters out at church, a small congregation, about 30 or so families. More and more people started asking for them and the mail/email list continued to grow. Through a string of what I believe to be “God-incidence” meetings with magazine owners and publishers I was invited to publish the letters in local magazines and an online magazine.

Through the years so many have come to me and said, Michele, you really should make a book with all your letters. Though I have always wanted to do just that, it is only now that dream is coming to fruition and this book is a realization of that dream. May the letters herein bless and encourage you.
Love in Christ, Michele