Nick and I are nearly done working on Soul Mates: Path to a Praying Partnership, a book I knew would happen, from the moment I held his hands to pray with him on July 11, 2021.

How could I know? I’d basically stopped writing on the day we’d met, some three days before that, at least when it came to blogging (obviously) and writing for publication. I did journal. I’ve actually filled ten journals in the three years since I met Nick.

But writing for publication? I was too busy reveling in love to do any writing. Still, I knew we’d write a book together because God had told me. When I’d informed Nick of that fact, he’d just shake his head and wonder at the incredulity of my claim. Him, a writer?

From Chapter 2 of our book:

“What does that mean, to hear God’s voice?” people have asked me. I explain it this way: You’re in a grocery store and hear a distinctive peal of laughter an aisle or two away, immediately recognizing who it is because you know that laugh so well. Or you answer the phone and recognize the voice even before they identify themselves.

That’s what happens when we get to know God through reading His Word and learning to be still, to listen for an answer when we pray. It isn’t a booming voice from up above we hear, but one inside our head, a thought we know didn’t come from ourselves. We recognize it as His because of our familiarity with Him. The voice can be loud, like a booming laugh two aisles over in the store. It was when I heard “Pray for him” in the summer of 2018. Alone in my car, I looked around to see where it had come from.

More often though, the voice is quieter, which is why we have to listen closely for it. In fact, the Bible tells us it comes to us in a whisper. “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:11-12) That whisper was God.

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Even though I had no doubt this book would happen, I wasn’t sure how or when it would evolve. During the first year of marriage, I jotted down some notes, chapter titles and bible verses that fit the topic, and wrote an introduction. In the second year of marriage, after being diagnosed with cancer, I woke up the morning before my surgery and wrote an entire chapter, certain the rest of the book would come during my recovery. It didn’t. Instead, during recovery, I read half a dozen books on marriage and filled two of them with handwritten prayers for my husband. It wasn’t until our third year of marriage, after the Cedar Falls conference this June, that I seriously began writing. I’d write a chapter, then Nick would add a paragraph or two from the male perspective. By late July, we had several chapters completed before we attended the weeklong Cedar Falls Bible Conference held here on the Riverside grounds where we now live. That week of listening to powerful Christian speakers was a breakthrough for us. Nick’s one or two paragraphs on each topic suddenly became two or three pages! Not only that, but as we were writing, we began experiencing what had happened to me as I worked on Called to Be Creative: A Guide to Reigniting Creativity, where I began living whatever I was writing about. Which is all fine and good when writing about pleasant topics, but eerily disconcerting when composing a chapter on the flaming arrows of the evil one! When we felt “stuck” in the chapter on the Holy Spirit, suddenly every devotional and bible study we read or watched for three days discussed that very topic. For the first time in our shared writing journey, Nick finished his chapter before I even began mine.

We have some beta readers taking a look at the rough draft manuscript. Their feedback will help us make changes before turning it over to the book designer for editing. We changed the title and added a landing page for our publishing imprint this week. You can click here to view: Woodnest Publishing.