How to Be a Best-Selling Author while Also Raising Little Kids {Well, Sort Of}

Because I’m an author and a mom, I’m often asked how I do it. I know people want me to give them a step-by-step plan of what to do and how to do it, but the answer is not so easy.

When I first started writing I had three little kids at home, and I want to be published SO BADLY. I thought it would validate my faith, and I wanted to do something for God. Mostly I felt that because I’d be a teen mom I had to prove myself.

I struggled with my writing for years . . . pushing, pushing, pushing. I worked hard, but I didn’t get very far. Finally one day I heard an author speak about relinquishment and putting everything into God’s hands. I did. (It was hard, but I did!) I got on my knees and lifted my hands. I told God it was all up to Him. And . . . He led me away from writing for a while.

I helped start a crisis pregnancy center. (He called me, and I followed.) I homeschooled my kids, and I helped care for my grandfather when he was dying of cancer. Yes, I still wrote, but not very much. It was for a season. It was a hard season. It was a good season. It’s a season I’m thankful for.

Then—after my grandfather’s death—doors started to open. God gave me an amazing book idea which turned into From Dust and Ashes. I got a contract to write the Mealtime Moments devotional (now titled Whit’s End Mealtime Devotions).

After those two books, the floodgates REALLY opened. I was still homeschooling, but since 2000 I’ve written forty books. There are times I felt very guilty for turning my attention to writing, BUT GOD has done amazing things with my kids. He has blessed them through my writing. We’ve gone places they never would have gone. We’ve met people they never would have met. Both of my sons are working on novels, and my daughter is twenty, graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in liberal studies, which includes writing and editing!

Mom, if you want to write, know that God has put that desire in your heart for a reason <click to tweet>. I wish I could tell you exactly how to be a best-selling author and raise kids. I’m still trying to figure that out day-by-day. It is possible to write and raise kids, but only God can tell you if that’s what He wants you to do . . . and when He wants you to do it.

Yet if He does call you, do not shrink back in fear. Your life can be the perfect model of how to follow God with your life <click to tweet>. Your children can learn to do it but seeing it done through you.

Also remember God will not call you to writing and say, “I know that you will be blessed—and your readers will be blessed—but I’m going to ruin your kids.” God’s calling for you IS His calling for your family. And His calling for your family IS His calling for you.

Yet, like I’ve learned, the only way you will know God’s plan for you is for you to draw close to Jesus. His answer for me is different from His answer for you. When you seek Him, you won’t go wrong. But remember if He tells you to step out in faith HE WILL BE THERE. And if He tells you to wait HE WILL BE THERE. He’s amazing like that!