An app called Wordscapes is a source of fun for our family.
The game is a high-tech crossword but instead of clues, you get a circle of letters to sort into the squares.
Lily and Jeff have played it for more than a year. It connected them during his deployment to Afghanistan. She liked to compete to see who could work each level most quickly.
Abby Kate likes to play, too. Now, she prefers Jeff to work the puzzle first then she copies his correct answers so she can score maximum points.
Cheater cheater pumpkin eater.
As they score points, they earn stars. When they earn enough stars, the app reveals mystery pictures, most often of animals the girls find adorable.
Lately, both girls only work the daily puzzle with Jeff’s “assistance.”
Strategy is involved. To score premiere points on the daily puzzle, you must fill the squares in sequence. A butterfly prompts players towards which word to complete next.
As I watched the game, I had a thought: wouldn’t it be nice if a cartoon butterfly also prompted us down our path in life? Directing the steps we should take next?
The idea reminded me of chapter 5 in the book “The Next Right Thing” written by Emily P. Freeman. The chapter is titled “Look for Arrows.”
She writes:
“God often gives a faint vision of things before they ever come to be. It’s not a full form, more of a shadow, not focused or clear. It doesn’t come with steps or money or sure things, but it does come with hope. And hope is what keeps you going in the fog. Instead of those black-and-white answers we tend to love so much, what if we began to look for arrows instead?
Arrows.
My daddy said to me something similar when I was in college. I had returned from a fulfilling summer as a student missionary in Kentucky and, channeling energy and adrenaline, wondered if I should switch my career pursuit from broadcast journalism to children’s ministry.
Daddy cautioned me.
“Julie doll,” he said. “All you’ve ever talked about is being a journalist. Don’t close that door until God does.”
I graduated Troy State University in 1999. With my degree in Broadcast Journalism.
Daddy was right, though not in the ways you might expect.
I can tell you with confidence, 21 years later, that God never intended journalism to be my career. Broadcast journalism was only an arrow.
The snapshot of its trajectory is this:
My TSU-TV experience connected me in 1999 to a news manager at ABC 33/40 in Birmingham, Alabama who was a Troy State alumnus. Working there, I met a news reporter who tagged me in 2001 to apply for a news producer job at WAFF 48 in Huntsville, Alabama. And working there, I met a news anchor who, operating her own non-profit, hired me to work for her Kids to Love Foundation in 2007.
Oh, and she and her husband introduced me to my husband.
Insert emoji heart.
It turns out the arrow I followed – broadcast journalism – was never pointing me to a profession. It was pointing me to people.
If my daddy hadn’t counseled me against an emotional-and-adrenaline charged career change, I might have missed a life I love and the love of my life.
Jeff and I have been married for 13 years. We have two delightful daughters whose worst current character flaw is that they are lazy at online word games.
Following an arrow, and my daddy’s advice, put me on target for the life God intended for me.
So, when your life feels like a crossword with scant clues, I encourage you to look for an arrow instead of longing for an answer.
My daddy encouraged me in this letter (two years after that career conversation) postmarked September 15, 1998:
“Pray a lots. Worry over nothing. Be thank(ful) for everything. (Especially me.)
Prayer is a good place to begin. And, when in doubt, maybe ask a dad.
They’re good at answers, both online and in life.
“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
(Psalm 119:105)
