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How Bring a Friend to Primary came to be…

It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon in Mountain View, California. A light breeze blew through my open window, and the smell of jasmine filled my apartment. As if by magic, both my boys were napping at the same time. Our cozy apartment was all in order, and I had nothing on my agenda for the rest of the day.  I should have been giddy to have a quiet moment to myself, but instead, my heart was feeling heavy. My hubby was away on business, and I was at a complete loss of what to do. For some reason, weekends without my husband seem so much harder to get through on my own than a weekday. I sat down at the computer desk, absentmindedly turning to technology to try and fill the loneliness that was seeping in. I knew I should be basking in my break from motherhood, but my heart just felt it wasn’t right to be alone on a Sunday afternoon. As I started to scroll through my blog feed, I paused as three words entered my mind. Write the story.

The previous evening I had been putting together a family home evening lesson to teach my boys about how to be reverent in church. As part of my lesson, I had found a short story about a mother taking her son to the zoo to teach him how he shouldn’t act in church. During my shower that morning, I chuckled as I imagined how entertaining it would be if animals actually DID come to church!  I envisioned a book with pictures of monkeys swinging through the primary room, and a dog howling along to the songs. It made me smile.

Write the story. I knew immediately what story I should be writing. The story I had imagined that morning while showering. The thought was so strong.

“But why would animals ever be in church?” I asked myself. And as if in answer to my unspoken question, the first line just popped into my head. I could see the whole story unfold in my mind. The excitement started to bubble up in my chest, pushing the loneliness aside. I clicked open google docs, and with enthusiasm, I started to write. I worked all afternoon and wrote any chance I could through the next few days. I didn’t know what I would do with this story, but to be creating something filled a void I hadn’t even realized was there.

It would be several years before I had the courage to submit the story for consideration for publication. I was grocery shopping when I got the email from Covenant Communications accepting my manuscript. I squealed with delight and did a little happy dance right there in the middle of the potato chips aisle. A few other shoppers passed by, staring at me like I was a crazy lady. Tears came to my eyes, and I called my husband with the news. I was going to be a published author!