By Dawn Stephens
As a girl growing up in the 1970s during the Women’s Liberation Movement, I was told I could be anything.
The pressure of that statement and the perceptions surrounding a woman’s place in society weighed heavily on me as I struggled with my identity.
One day I would hold a career that defined me. What I would become seemed everyone’s focus. In my quest to discover this, I talked to God. However, God filled me with roles I felt unable to hold. As a child, I enjoyed drawing pictures and telling stories.
Since these talents often got me into trouble at school, I never wanted to be a teacher. All the same, God led me down that very path.
Balancing Dreams and Realities
As a teacher, I drew pictures and wrote lesson plans like stories. I fell in love with teaching.
This was what I was meant to be. But I also became a mother, and despite what the Women’s Lib Movement taught me, being a schoolteacher and mother simultaneously had challenges for me. My three young daughters needed me home.
Therefore, I left my teaching career and tried being content as a stay-at-home mom. However, I felt empty inside.
Embracing Unlikely Paths
Knowing this, my husband gave me a dot-com business.
I knew nothing about running a business, but I began to draw pictures for my website and write business plans that were much like stories. Was this what God created me to be? I grew to love all aspects of the business except selling. Without sales, my business struggled, and since my daughters were older, I needed a job to help support my family.
The problem was I still needed to figure out what I was to be. I told God I would take a new job if it did not involve selling things. I knew I could not be a salesperson.
Becoming What I Was Meant to Be
Then, two men who worked for a Christian publisher were impressed with my abilities as a teacher and business owner and wanted to offer me a job.
I was excited; this was an opportunity to draw pictures and write stories as an author and illustrator. However, when the job offer came, it was in sales. I was asked to sell their books to schools. I accepted the position and began drawing pictures and writing lesson plans to support their books.
I gave these materials to schools, sold many books, and was promoted to be the division’s national sales manager. All my talents and experiences led me there. This was what God created me to be!
A few years later, the publishing company underwent administrative changes and cut my division. My job ended. What was I supposed to be now?
The Little Pot
I sat alone with God, reflecting on the jobs I’d held. He lovingly explained that I was not defined by things He gave me to hold.
My purpose was found in what grew through those experiences. From there, God and I wrote a story called The Little Pot.
The Little Pot wonders why it was made and dreams of what it will be.
The Potter fills and empties it and makes it into a smart paper pot, a rich coin pot, and a beautiful flowerpot.
Eventually, Little Pot’s flowers turn to fruit. Like us, it was designed to be a vessel that bears fruit.
After writing and illustrating the story, I became an award-winning author. However, I knew better than to make that my identity. As God continues to empty and refill me with various jobs and roles, I remember what God created me to be —I am a fruit pot!
As a fruit pot, Dawn allows the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit through her. Her children’s books help children and adults better understand our Creator’s love for us. To learn more about Little Pot and other vessels that share, shine and serve, visit DawnStephensBooks.com.
