Power of Committment by Jo Wanmer

It's a long time ago. Fifty-four years today. Yet I still remember. More the emotions than the event, for it was an emotional day.

No longer a Miss. Now a Mrs. I was young though I thought I was old and mature. So young my understanding of marriage was simple. I would have a husband to help me live my life and our lives would be like Mum and Dad’s. He expected his life to be like his parents with me adding adventure. He was an introverted introvert. I was a loud extrovert. What were we thinking? Did we even think?

Within a few days several things became obvious. He was and still is an owl. Meanwhile my eyes opened before the sun, my body wanting to rush to the beach to watch the sunrise. He countered my idea with an offer of sunset.

He loved rest and reading. I craved action and adventure. Yes, we were and still are exact opposites. On day two he reached the conclusion that we’d made a mistake.  When he tentatively expressed that opinion, I turned on him, furious. ‘Don’t you ever say that again!’

You see in that era, marriage was forever. I guess fifty-four years later we can say we are well on the way to achieving that goal.

 Do I wish I’d done it differently? Yes. In lots of areas but to make mistakes isn’t a reason to quit. Do I wish we’d given up? Not for a moment.

 A partnership of opposites develops character, if we allow it, if  we are committed, and we were. Before God, we had promised each other. And so, adjustments began. Compromises, often painful, were necessary. Through them we developed an understanding of each other. And an understanding of ourselves.

He became less introverted. I quietened and learned to listen. In time we realised, we complemented each other. We learned to respect each other's differences. He stopped many of my hair-brained ideas. I pushed him to new adventures. He kept me steady. I stopped him always doing everything the same. After about twenty years we really started to appreciate each other. Now the privilege of a life-long partner is a deep richness that few experience.

I began writing because he gives me space and encourages me. He excels as a coach because I believe in him, even in the early days when there was very little income. And our lives are full of joint memories, some very good, some very bad and many very ordinary. But we share every memory.

Today we mark our fifty-fourth anniversary. We will celebrate in a low-key manner. That’s our way. And we will thank our Lord for His faithfulness, His leading, His presence and the amazing miracle of a long life together.

What does this have to do with writing? 

Commitment. 

About fifteen years ago my husband pushed me into making a dream chart. A series of pictures that represented my goals. One of those pictures had a mock-up of a shelf of books with my name as the author. It was crazy. My only writing at the time was recording feelings in a journal and two sixteeen page booklets written for my grandchildren. 

The visual setting of a goal fired something in me. Ten books became the aim.

The commitment I embarked upon with ‘Writing’ was not an easy journey. Sometimes years flew past when I didn’t communicate with ‘Writing’ even though my first book, Though the Bud be Bruised, was published. You see, we often disagreed. ‘Writing’ can be very legalistic, inflexible, demanding. I just want to tell a story, uninterested in grammar, structure, or position of the comma. Under the seemingly never-ending demands of correct/good writing, I would often quit.

But my commitment would stir me up again and I’d write a short story or blog or even a book. ‘Writing’ and I would then have another disagreement. Discouraged I’d close the creative stream again.

The problem is always the same. I want to just bang out a story. ‘Writing’ always pushes and pulls to fix errors, to enhance characters, to improve the story with better structure.

With a lot of help from a committed friend, fellow wordsmiths, and influence of Holy Spirit I began to appreciate the finer points of ‘Writing’.  My words need to be clear and follow good writing principles to enable my reader to become immersed in the story.

We respect each other now. Without my creative input helped by Holy Spirit
no manuscript would emerge. Without my partner, ‘Writing,’ the words would be too clumsy to read. Without a dream, a commitment, we wouldn’t have formed this relationship and there would be no books. I’m thankful for both ‘Writing’ and that initial push, because I love what we are producing together.

What about you? How has a dream, a commitment, or covenant empowered you?

Jo Wanmer's passion is Jesus and family. Her writing has emerged from her experiences in these areas. The bookshelf above holds books where her stories have been published. We are still pushing to have 'Jo Wanmer' on ten spines. There are three other mini books and El Roi will be published later this year. Two more in the editing phase, but she's itching to sit down with Holy Spirit and create another adventure. Her latest book El Shaddai is getting great responses from readers. It's a book about the character, El Shaddai, and He is unexpected and amazing. If you'd like to read it you can contact her throughFaceBook and get a copy in your hands.