Impact

Tonight I spent a bunch of time reading reviews of My First Hands-On Bible on amazon.com and on various blogs. Which was super fun and encouraging, because I was the lead editor on this Bible.

As I worked on it, I prayed often for the writers. I usually pray about what I work on, but I used Scripture as the basis of my prayers for this project. After all, we were working on the Bible. God's Word! And I wanted to make sure the authors I was working with knew I was praying for them, so I sent out my prayers each week by e-mail, which I don't normally do. It was a humbling and honoring task for all involved. Several authors commented to me about that, too.

And so tonight, as I read and watched how this Bible is impacting real kids lives, I felt a whole range of great emotions. I felt proud when one blogger wrote that the people who developed the Bible know how to engage kids. Yay! I felt encouraged that so many people liked something I had worked hard on. I felt validated that my time had been well spent making something people spoke so highly of.

And the more I read, the more joy I felt. By the end I just had the hugest grin on my face.

Because by that point, I had moved from pride or even encouragement. It had finally clicked that these reviews showed me first hand how what I do touches kids' lives in ways I'll never fully know. I thought about the big picture of all that God is doing and was just honored that he let me be a part of it in the development of this Bible. I thought about how some people were saying their kids are falling in love with the Bible, and how this early impression can give them a lifelong thirst for God's Word. I thought about what they might grow up to be and do with the love of God's Word in their heart.

It's not about me or what I did. It's not about the whole team of people that worked on this or what we did. It's about being a small part of God's amazing work in kids' lives. It's about making an impact on this world without my name being attached to it. (I mean, who really reads the credits page?) And I realized that although there are a lot more reviews to read about this particular Bible than most of the things I work on, everything I do is a part of touching lives for Jesus. What an amazing job I have!

So how do I feel now? Honored. Privileged. Wowed that God can use a mess like me.