✍️ What God Created Me to Be

✍️ What He planted deep down inside of me.

By Jennifer Greene-Sullivan

I’ve been a storyteller my entire life. From the moment I could talk, I’ve been stringing words together—making people laugh, cry, and roll their eyes. My “gift of gab” has gotten me into trouble more times than I can count… but now I see what I couldn’t see then: God knew what He was doing when He put all this imagination, all these words, deep down in my heart.

These days, when I get pictures from parents—like sweet Harper reading Dirt Road Rascals—I pause, I smile, and I breathe a sigh of gratefulness.

Not because it’s easy.
Not because it’s glamorous.
But because it’s exactly what God created me to do.

Writing stories for children and teenagers wasn’t how I pictured this dream unfolding. I thought I’d write fiction for adults, maybe poetry. I never imagined chicken farms and mischievous rascals and picture books about a dog named Festus. However, God imagined it. He had more for me than I could ever dream.

I’ll never forget the day that changed everything.

I was sitting in Senior Seminar Biology at Valdosta State University, staring at a petri dish of an unknown cyanobacteria I’d been growing for weeks. I was a few months away from graduating with a Biology degree, heading toward medical school—or so I thought. Then the Lord spoke, as clearly as I’ve ever heard Him:

“Get up and go change your major to English.”

Y’all… I got up. Mid-lab. Walked straight out. Dr. Goddard was not thrilled.

“You’re going to waste a scientific mind on English? You’re graduating this semester!”

It’s crazy I know, but I kept walking—straight to West Hall.
It took me two weeks and two departments full of opposition, but I finally did it. I traded my almost-finished Biology degree for another two years as a junior English major. I even asked them to throw in some philosophy for fun.

It didn’t make sense to anyone, but it made sense to the Lord. The English Dept. chair that year even cackled and scoffed at me saying that I would never make money in English and to walk back over to Bailey Science Center. I gave up my ticket to medical school without a clue of how it would ever work out.

I didn’t know who I’d teach. I didn’t know where I’d write. I didn’t know anything, really—except that God had spoken, and I said “Yes!”

That yes led to years of teaching high schoolers. It led to reading poems aloud and wiping other’s tears, to watching seniors walk across graduation stages as they stepped into grown-up lives. It led to raising five beautiful children—my biological daughters and son (Anya, Sophia, and Liam) as well as the ones (Bailey and Kasey) God gave me through love and through blessing. It led to losing things I thought I needed… and finding joy in places I didn’t expect.

And now, that yes leads me here—to writing books that make kids smile, that make parents cry, that plant seeds of truth in little hearts.

There are still teenagers who need to hear that God’s plan for them is perfect, even if the world doesn’t get it. There are still classrooms where a story read aloud becomes a sacred moment. There are still days—many of them—where I stop and say:

“Thank You, Jesus, for letting me do this.”

In 2014, my seniors at Wilcox asked me what my dream was. I replied: “To be an author… but I don’t know how I’ll ever afford it.” They encouraged me not to give up.
That very year, I wrote Purposeful Day in my Notes app, where it sat quietly until 2020.

God never forgot it, and He hasn’t forgotten yours, either.

I may not be the most polished author or the most famous, but I am exactly what God created me to be:
A woman who writes for His glory.
A woman who longs to be obedient.
A woman who loves Jesus more than life itself.

And that… that is the story I will keep telling.

🙏 A Prayer of Gratitude

Father God,

You knew the story You were writing in me long before I understood the first word.
Thank You for planting seeds of creativity, passion, and imagination deep in my soul. Thank You for the detours, the delays, the divine redirections that brought me to exactly where You wanted me to be. Thank You for giving me the courage to say yes when the world said no. For opening doors no man could shut. For letting me teach, nurture, and write for the ones You love so dearly—children, teenagers, and classrooms I once only dreamed of.

Forgive me for the times I doubted the path.
For the days I measured purpose by the world’s success instead of Your assignment. You have equipped me, sustained me, and surrounded me with grace.
Thank You, Jesus, for the gift of this calling.
May I keep using every word, every page, and every book to glorify Your name.

Amen.

📖 Scriptures for Reflection

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Psalm 37:4–5 (ESV)

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”

Romans 11:29 (ESV)

“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

✨ Reflection Prompt

Take a quiet moment this week and ask the Lord:

• What did You create me to be?
• Where am I holding back from Your calling because it doesn’t make sense to the world?
• What gifts have You placed in me that I’ve forgotten or overlooked?

Then write it down.
Speak it out loud.
And give Him thanks—for all He has done and all He is still preparing.

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