“Hey kids,” I said, “want to go to Barnes & Noble and see if my book is there?”

They excitedly said yes and we ran down the sidewalk to the store. When we walked inside, we slinked our way through the crowd of people perusing the store in search of last-minute gifts. Then we looked around for the Christian marriage section of the store.

“It’s over there!” I said to the kids.

We ran up to the shelf and started looking, looking, looking until we saw it: Confessions of a Happily Married Man: Finding God in the Messiness of Marriage. It was the real deal in a real book store.

“Oh my gosh, kids! It’s really here!”

We cheered, passed the book around to each other, and then got a woman to take a picture of us together. Even after she snapped the photo, we couldn’t stop smiling about it. The kids were like, You did it Dad, you really did it! 

I went to the customer service desk, introduced myself as the author, and asked if I could sign the book. The man behind the counter said, “Absolutely — welcome to the conversation.” Then he took my autographed book and put it on the display.

After all of the work it took to write the book and do as excellent of a job as I possibly could, it was so gratifying to see it there, to actually hold one of those copies in my hand and then sign it.

I know the Lord called me to write Confessions and let me assure you: He’s the only one who got me through all that it took to make it happen. But let there be no doubt, He used so many believers to push me forward, especially my wife and my editor. And when I think about cheering with the kids at Barnes & Noble, what I feel is, We did it, Lord, we really did it!

An author couldn’t hope for any greater gift to give to others.

“Confessions of a Happily Married Man,” is available for purchase today. Check it out and share your review online. Thanks for your support of the book!

https://joshuarogers.com/2020/01/05/what-made-my-kids-and-me-shamelessly-cheer-in-public/