Grace Fox is an author and international speaker whose passion is to connect the dots between faith and real life for her audiences.
Grace has written eight books including Moving From Fear to Freedom: A Woman’s Guide to Peace in Every Situation and its accompanying DVD-based Bible study for small groups. She’s a contributor to Guidepost’s annual devotional Mornings With Jesus, and a regular columnist for “Just 18 Summers.” Media including “100 Huntley Street” and “The Leon Fontaine Show” consider her a trusted guest.
Grace is also founder of the all-new “RADIANT: Creating a Deeper Life” one-day women’s conferences and national co-director of International Messengers Canada, a non-profit building God’s kingdom in 20 countries. Together with her husband Gene, she trains and leads short-term missions teams to Eastern Europe annually. She also teaches missionaries-in-training in the Middle East.
Aspiring Woman magazine recently named her one of Canada’s top 10 female Christian entrepreneurs.
Grace lives in Abbotsford, BC. She and Gene were married in 1982 and have three married children and six grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys babysitting, boating, and motorbiking.
Learn more about her and subscribe to her devotional blog at www.gracefox.com.
Grace Fox – Writing Journey
When I was a senior in Bible College, someone asked me what I’d like to do with my life. I journaled a list: “Be a missionary. Get married and have a family. Be a writer.”
Be a writer? I wasn’t even sure what that meant or where that thought originated, but it sounded exciting. I smiled at those three words on the page and promised to keep them a secret lest people laugh at me.
I married, became a missionary, and birthed three children. Life as a young mom consumed me, especially because my second child was born with special needs. My kids were elementary-school aged when my desire to write for publication began to sprout, so I enrolled in a correspondence course with the Children’s Institute of Literature. Then my family relocated, and I homeschooled my children for three years. Again, life consumed me, and the thought of pursuing writing was put on hold. During that time I prayed daily, “God, is this desire from You? If so, show me when it’s time to start and what You want me to write.”
God answered my prayer when I turned 40. At first I tried designing greeting cards. Not knowing what to do with them, I googled the words “Christian greeting card publishers.” The result led me to a site for the Florida Christian Writers Conference. That was the first I’d heard of such a conference, and I sensed a divine nudge to go.
The very thought scared me—partly because of the distance, time, and cost involved, but also because doing so meant telling others about my desire to write for publication. Surprisingly, no one laughed. On the contrary, two friends affirmed me by contributing money towards my airline ticket. God provided all the needed finances in a miraculous way, and I made the trip assured that I was doing the right thing.
My greeting cards received polite rejections, but the workshops about writing magazine articles gripped me with excitement. I soaked up the teachers’ words and committed to exploring this process more thoroughly.
My first article was a profile of a female Christian politician who I’d come to know personally. An online women’s magazine published it and paid me a whopping $50. By then my husband was the program director at a year-round Christian camp in Canada. I wanted to honor God with the “first fruits” of my writing labors, so I donated the money to a scholarship fund to help kids attend summer camp. I believe He’s honored me many times over for acknowledging Him in that way.
Completing my first assignment lit a fire within my soul. I studied several favorite magazines and their writing guidelines and then began submitting queries and articles. Most were profiles of men and women who were either Christian celebrities or who had discovered spiritual gems amidst traumatic events.
To my shock and delight, nearly everything I submitted for the next two years was published. Further, I won first prize for a writing contest sponsored by Christian Reader magazine. I attended several more writers’ conferences and a five-day course on marketing. One of my homework assignments there was to write a book proposal.
That homework assignment proved to be a natural progression to the next step: writing my first book. Thirty years of life lessons shaped the devotional 10-Minute Time Outs for Moms. Harvest House Publishers issued me a contract and released it in 2005. 10-Minute Time Outs for Busy Women followed a year later. Then came 10-Minute Time Outs for You and Your Kids, Moving From Fear to Freedom: A Woman’s Guide to Peace in Every Situation, and Morning Moments with God: Devotions for Busy Women.
The ride hasn’t been all easy. One stretch felt particularly bleak after someone (mistakenly) told my agent that Moving From Fear to Freedom was going to be discontinued due to low sales, and she then released me from our contract saying she felt she couldn’t further my career. Discouragement hit me like a brick wall, and I questioned whether or not I should continue writing. One morning I cried and prayed, “God, if You want me to keep going, then I’m okay with that. But if not, tell me. I want to be a good steward of time and talent, so please let me know today.”
My phone rang five hours later. A woman’s voice said, “Is this Grace Fox?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Please don’t think I’m a whacko or a groupie,” she said. “I’ve never phoned an author before now. The only reason I’ve called you today is to say that I read your book Moving From Fear to Freedom and it changed my life. And for some reason, I feel compelled to say, ‘Please keep writing.’”
Oh my goodness. I sat there and bawled. She bawled, too, when I told her about my prayer five hours prior. “I actually heard God,” she said between sobs. “I heard Him correctly!”
God clearly told me when to begin writing for publication, and He’s clearly told me to continue. No doubt He’ll let me know when it’s time to stop. In the meantime, my responsibility is to write what He asks me to write. My constant prayer is, “Father, like the little boy who gave his loaves and fishes to Jesus, so I offer You my words. Take them, and bless them, and use them to feed hungry souls searching for peace and hope.”
God’s changing lives by using the words—words He’s ultimately given me to transcribe—in my books, my devotional blog, my contributions to Mornings With Jesus (Guideposts’ annual 365-day devotional), my monthly parenting column with the “Just 18 Summers” blog, and my brand-new devotional column for the women’s magazine MICI (http://micimagazine.com).
Who could have imagined how those three little words—“Be a writer”—would take shape and change not only my life but countless others?
Other Posts From This Series.
If you are interested in writing a post about your journey as a writer please check out the following post. Writing Opportunity
Mom Inspired Adventures 
Thank-you, Grace Fox, for sharing your journey. There were so many relatable statements, it gives me hope and encouragement. xoxo
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