When God plants a desire
It was a year ago that someone asked me the question, "Do you have any dreams for the future?" It bothered me that nothing came to my mind. I had to say, "No." Someone else suggested, "What about having your own bookshop?" I hadn't thought about that before, although I had thought lots about how I would love to design things with verses on it. And it also seemed that God was getting my attention when it came to Christian Bookshops. But now a seed was planted in my mind.
Then when we went to a Bible conference in January, we stayed for 2 nights at a little holiday house that had pretty verse placemats on the table and framed verses on the wall. That desire was stirred up again. I started to do a lot of thinking about starting a pop up Christian Bookshop. But I needed to talk to my husband about it. I prayed that if this idea was from God, He would give me some alone time with my husband, as we were staying with my parents by then. About 15 minutes later, my husband told me he wanted to take me out for lunch! When I told him about my idea, he was keen, but not sure how or if it could ever work. Pop
After our lunch, we looked in some opp shops, and there were heaps of Christian books with authors or publishers I trusted. Since I had this idea in my mind, we brought all those books. A day or so later, we visited a Christian book shop in New Plymouth and found that they had tons of second Christian books for sale. I hadn't seen that in a Christian book shop before. Who knew you could sell both brand new and secondhand books and products? One of the books was called "Give Me a Dream!" I read that whole book while we were on holiday.
Then when I took my children to the opp shops in Carterton to get what they were looking for, I found a whole lot more Christian books. I brought them, even though I didn't know if this bookshop idea would ever happen. The lady at the counter laughed at me for buying so many!
The books sat in my cupboard for some time, while I wondered what would become of the idea. Sometimes I felt frustrated and wondered whether I should just put them all back in the opp shop, as I hate clutter. But God kept encouraging me through the most random means.
The desire didn't go away, and finally I decided to just try making a website. God provided the money to pay for it. And the rest is history.
My point in sharing this is to encourage you. When a desire is planted in our heart by God, it may take quite some time before it comes to fruition. There may be tears of frustration, questions and doubts, and the temptation to forget it all. But a desire is like a seed. It takes time to grow and develop. It takes a lot of patience and trust in God. At times the desire may seem buried in the dark. But if the desire is from God, with lots of patience, trust and obedience, it will come to pass. And it will be worth it!
