The Fruit 🌺 of Wonder ✨
Welcome! Just a quick little intro so we can be friends faster before we dive in…
My name is Tara. (Most people call me T.) I am the author of Finding Everyday Fruit and Waiting On Wonders, and a contributing author to the 30-Day Devotional, Chosen. I couldn’t be happier that you’ve chosen to read what I’m putting into the world. I pour out my words here every week, and if you enjoy them, I’d love for you to leave a comment, restack/share with friends, or add a little heart to let me know it resonated with you.
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If you’re new here - WELCOME! What is the “Fruit of Wonder” Newsletter? Well, outside of being a play on words from the titles of my two books, it’s a pretty much a monthly free-for-all where I provide you updates about my books, what I’m up to, and end it with a little encouraging story. I also link my books (for easy gift giving hint-hint) and some of my most favorite or popular posts from the previous month. It’s a bit different than my weekly posts, so grab a cup of coffee, get cozy, and thank you for being here!
UPDATES!Give this a listen first…
(Link HERE to my top post from October if you missed it. Thank you for reading and sharing my writing work this past month!)
(Link HERE 🌺 and HERE ✨ and HERE 🌊 to my books (hello gift giving season right around the corner) and HERE 👋🏼 to my website for exclusives not available anywhere else!)
🎁🎁🎁 NOTE: I will be announcing a BLACK FRIDAY sale soon! 🎁🎁🎁
(Link HERE to Feeding America)
I’ve been keeping a little secret. 😉😉
Earlier this year, I teamed up with Hope*Books to be a contributing writer in “A Year of Hope” devotional!
I have four entries in this 365 devotional, and it will be available in the coming weeks (stay tuned!)
We all need hope. This year is no different. Join me and my fellow authors as we take you through a year of hope with Hope*Books. ♡ A perfect way to start your 2026.
How One Billboard Changed Everything
Billboards are marketing tools. They are meant to inform your journey, point you towards something to fill a need, assist in direction, or call you to action. It could be a Chick-fil-A at the next exit, a real estate agent ready to sell your house, or remind you of the painful price of gas as you drive by. No matter the subject, they are meant to catch your attention.
Have you ever wished that God would simply stop using His still small “inside voice” and instead use His big, loud “outside voice”? I know He’s always speaking, but sometimes I just want Him to use a megaphone. Maybe in your search for answers, you’ve even said, “I wish God would just paint it on a billboard for me so I’d know what to do.” I know I have, and a number of years ago, I’m pretty convinced He did this for me.
It was March 18th of 2014. I remember it clearly because it was a day when something in my understanding shifted. I was driving down Highway 17 in Charleston on the way home from Hilton Head, and I saw a Feeding America billboard that simply said, “1 in 6 children is hungry.” That was it. White words on a black billboard with a Feeding America logo. Simple marketing.
1 in 6? Really? Surely that can’t be right. I kept driving, but it bothered me.
I got home that afternoon and couldn’t stop thinking about that stat, so I started doing some Googling. Indeed, according to Feeding America, the statistic stated that one in six children is hungry. Really? 1 in 6? That can’t be right. That’s got to be some obscure stat based on some obscure metric.
Later that week, I was doing some online shopping, and an ad popped up on the sidebar (as commonly happens when you Google things these days). Again, I saw it. Feeding America - 1 in 6 children is hungry. Really? 1 in 6?
At this point, I was more than curious; I was frustrated and indignant that such misinformation would be spread with the intention of tugging at people’s hearts, especially when it related to children. So I stopped what I was doing and dug a little deeper, desperate to clear this up and ready to fight back with facts. For two hours, I read articles, food insecurity reports, and bipartisan legislation, and found out... it was true.
I sat back in my chair with 15 tabs open on my computer and blinked. I shook my head as if it would erase the words I’d read like an old-school Etch A Sketch.
This is America. This is not some far-off nation that would be known for needing food assistance. So how can this be real? 1 in 6 children...in America.
As the gravity of what I’d read began to set in, I started doing the mental math. OK. If 1 in 6 children in America is considered food insecure, meaning they are unsure where their next meal is coming from, what does that look like in my state?
According to the stats available at that time and some quick Googling, the results said 1 in 4 children in South Carolina. 1 in 4? Really? Then, I filtered that information down to my own county. A number appeared in less than four seconds, and that number changed my life.
16,880 food-insecure children in my county.
1 in 4 became more than just a stat to me that day. I now had 16,880 reasons to do something about it.
As I read, I learned that for the most part, hunger doesn’t look like what you think it does. It isn’t just the poorest of the poor or those who are homeless, or where the parents are out of work or are neglectful. Childhood food insecurity is usually found in families with two working parents, where there is simply more month than money.
That’s why there are so many food-insecure children—it’s because life is hard and throws curveballs at us, like having to choose between dinner and a doctor’s visit, a few groceries and a tank of gas to get to work, healthy foods that cost more and cheaper ones with less nutritional value, or heaven forbid, a global pandemic or a government shutdown. Childhood hunger is happening all around us, silently.
Armed with this knowledge, I came to the realization that if all of this was real, if the information was accurate and the stats weren’t just numbers, and the 1 in 4 had real faces, it absolutely meant there were children in my neighborhood, at my church, in the shop I just walked out of, at my kids’ schools—all around me—who were not entirely sure where their next meal was coming from. It had been all around me all the time, and I had no idea. My heart broke into 1,000 pieces.
As the reality of this new information began to set in, so did the sound of His voice in that quiet pause at my computer.
“You’ve seen it. Now you know. I’ve been more than clear in my Word about feeding the hungry. So now I’m asking you to do something about it.”
For the next several weeks, I began scouring His Word to hear His voice and discover His heart in His mandate to feed the hungry. I didn’t have to look far. It wasn’t a figurative “feed the hungry” based on a metaphor or parable or play on words. It meant real food for real people. It was that billboard and those numbers and that idea that shifted something in me, and fast-forward a decade, and I am still continuing to learn and be challenged by this reality.
Those early days in my journey to fight hunger catalyzed a desire in my heart to see what it would look like to make a dent in that unimaginable number. I began to look for practical ways to help, get our family involved, and make a difference. I aligned with several local and national organizations, food banks, and food drives, and learned the power of petitioning local and national leaders when legislation was pending regarding feeding children. In late 2020, while pandemic numbers were climbing and food insecurity was at an all-time high, I came on board with HALF UNITED, a lifestyle brand committed to fighting hunger and empowering those in need in the USA and around the globe, where I served as their COO. These days, my hunger-fighting efforts look a little different, and I combat it by participating in food drives and donating to food banks and organizations that I know are doing the boots-on-the-ground work.
This week, I checked in on the numbers to see what kind of progress had been made. The latest stats are several years old, unfortunately, but that 1 in 6 number that jarred me in 2014 is now 1 in 5.
Yes, 1 in 5. We are certainly not trending in the right direction.
I can’t do it all, and none of it hinges on me alone, but I’ve seen it, and now I know, and you do too, and together we are responsible as God’s people for doing something about it.
All because of a billboard.
So, as far as I’m concerned, I still have 16,880 reasons (and likely now more) to do my part and shine the light on what is happening all around us. The need is very real right now, right here in America. Right here in my state. Right here in my tiny county. Until that number is 0.
You never know what will happen when you’re just driving down the road, minding your own business, and God shows up with a billboard, changing everything. He’s always speaking. Be listening and see how he wants you to grow in the fruit of the Spirit as you do.
“Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.” Isaiah 58:10 (NLT)
I hope this little story reminds you that He always wants to teach you and point your heart toward His (even through stories about hunger and food insecurity) and that His presence and the fruit of a Spirit-filled life are available to you if you’re willing to raise your awareness to them. While “wonder” is not a fruit of the Spirit, we can enjoy the benefit of being in awe of how the Lord works in our lives and speaks to us if we listen. This is what the “Fruit of Wonder” is all about.
Where are you finding the fruit of His Spirit today? What everyday moment will you allow Him to use to share the wonder of His presence?
Much love,
-TLB
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