I receive emails all the time from women of all ages who want to write and speak but have no clue how to get started. While I’m happy to help women of any age, I have a special place in my heart for the 20-something woman who feels this tug and desire.

At the age of nineteen I sat down at my laptop, alone in my dorm room, and tapped out the following words thinking I was just writing a journal entry:

In a busy, noisy world, a little girl walks onto a dark stage and begins to perform. She wears her pink princess costume with pride.

Will you love me? her actions ask. Will you hold me; will you keep me close to your heart forever?

The pain in her eyes screams at you. And with graceful pirouettes across the stage, she beckons you to choose her, to set her apart from the other performers, and to call her beloved.

She has wounds buried so deeply beneath her costume that she has almost forgotten they are there. But the laughter of her audiences echoes through her mind as she thinks of all the times she has tried and failed.

All she has ever wanted is acceptance, but she has never found it—at least not for long…

She has been missing the Divine Dance because she has been too busy dancing for men and princes to notice the king.

When I finished that night I had no idea God was beginning the process of calling me to write and speak for His glory. Over the course of the next year He took me on a journey that led me (butterflies in my stomach and all) to a writer’s conference where I sat before editors and agents and tried to figure out if the dream God placed in my heart was just my imagination. 

Turns out, it wasn’t. At the age of twenty, a real-life publisher offered me my very first book contract and God and I were off on an exciting adventure I could have never imagined. It’s been a whirlwind ever since.

In all of the conferences I‘ve been to since, one of my absolute favorites is the Proverbs 31 Ministries She Speaks Conference in Concord, NC. If you sense God beginning to tug on your heart and lead you in the direction of writing or speaking for Him, then you MUST attend this conference.

And, as a special treat, I want to let you know that the She Seeks division of Proverbs 31 is giving away a scholarship to one lucky 20-something woman who is willing to step out in faith and enter their contest. You can learn more about that here.

For those of you of any age who want to attend She Speaks you can head over to She Reads and read about they contest they are hosting here.

My story attests to the fact that God doesn’t look at us and see age. Instead, He looks for willingness, faithfulness and availability. Be willing to follow God down the path He is leading you on no matter how crazy it seems.

Tags: Proverbs 31, She Seeks, She Speaks, speaking, Writing

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2011 at 10:22 am and is filed under Contests, Shannon Recommends, She Seeks, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.