After much encouragement from friends and neighbors, I finally wrote down the story of us moving to the country. It was a humorous story and contained many miracles of God's provision.

When I visited my dad at his home in Florida on his deathbed, I was so proud to be able to tell him that I had finally written a book.

He looked out into space and said, "You should show it to Rhea. She likes books."

What?

He didn't even recognize his own daughter?

It broke my heart.

I had finished the project too late.

I had spent my entire married life raising and educating sevent children while putting my aspirations on the back burner. When I finally got organized enough to put a great story on paper, the one incredibly intelligent person I wanted to please was no longer able to even recognize me.

After his funeral, I went home shattered.

He had gotten saved on his deathbed and for that I rejoiced. I had prayed for him for 37 years after meeting the Lord Jesus in college in 1975.

He had paid for almost six years of out-of-state college and seemed somewhat disappointed that I had never used my degree for anything other than raising a few good children.

So I wanted to please him by showing him the book I had written.

I never recovered from that incident and eventually lost the draft in a computer crash.

It was years before I could even think about writing again.

Then my family got seriously involved in Internet marketing and I found myself in a mastermind group of millionaires where I was continually being encouraged to write a book.

I didn't feel that I was expert enough at anything to actually produce a book but I decided to give it a try anyway.

After a few years, I finally compiled an extensive outline to be proud of.

But before I could begin work on it, I lost it in another computer crash. That was back in the day before Carbonite would back everything up every night.

So I started over again anyway and eventually produced a book on educational philosophies explaining what we had done to educate the children that was different from what I had been taught.

Where is that book today?

You guessed it.

The victim of another computer crash.

Gone.

Does this sound depressing?

Well it has been for me.

And then I read in Jeremiah 36 today about the Lord commanding Jeremiah to write words on a scroll. He obeyed, yet the king had the scroll cut up in pieces and burned in the fire.

Jeremiah immediately spoke the word of the Lord to the king, which wasn't pretty, then gave another blank scroll to Baruch the scribe and started speaking the entire message over again.

The scriptures don't mention he got mad. They just say he started over.

They don't indicate he even took a break to recover. He just kept going.

That passage encouraged me so much. Jeremiah faced a temporary set back but he didn't let it slow him down. He didn't even miss a step. He just kept going.

I have been trying to write down all the things the Lord has done in our life for over 15 years. And I haven't been able to tell our story or share the discoveries we've made with the world of education, all because I lost heart.

I got frustrated with circumstances.

Is that being an overcomer?

Have I ever been so dangerously persecuted that I feared for my life?

Nope. Then why should I be so seriously discouraged from doing something I know I am called to do just because of circumstances?

If you have ever tried to produce something that you knew was of God yet circumstances, whatever they may have been, prevented you from being successful, here's encouragement.

Don't do what I did, do what Jeremiah did.

Don't lose heart, keep going.

Start over.

This world is like an obstacle course. It is fast-paced, unpredictable, and full of objects that can trip you up.

But instead of letting it get the best of you, decide to conquer it.

Be an overcomer. Do the thing God has called you to do.

Even if someone steals your work and claims it for their own, you will have at least accomplished the thing God had for you to do.

When you stand before Him on Judgment Day, He won't ask you where it is, He will ask you if you did it.

And whether your work was stolen by an enemy or burned up in a fire, you'll still get credit for passing the test if you did what you were asked to do. That's what God wants of us.

So the next time you're at Amazon, search for my name. That book I'm supposed to write may not be there now, but one day it will be.