Author: Shirley Forsen
Located in: Raymore, MO
Submitted: March 24, 2014
Tell us a little about yourself. I am an eighty-one year-old retired language-arts teacher who taught for over twenty-five years. I accepted Jesus Christ when I was ten years old and have been a member of a Southern Baptist Church ever since.
As a kid I loved to read. Written words became very important to me, especially Gods Word. In my heart came the idea that maybe one day I would write a book.
What was your motivation behind this project? In 2005 during a womens Bible study, we were asked to consider the purpose of our lives. About the same time I was reading The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. In 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 KJV it reads:
9 And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
A question came into my mind: What could the Lord do through me to bless the whole world? This was a rather startling question, especially since I was in my seventies. But as I kept thinking and praying about it, I realized that the Lord had prepared me to write a book on sentence diagramming, using His Word for the contents.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? Students will benefit in two ways from using the book. They will gain a greater knowledge of the structure of the English language for good writing and speaking and gain a greater knowledge of the life-giving words of God about Himself and His Son.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? By writing the book and reading Scripture, I realized that this work was foreordained for me to do.
