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Hi,
I'm Jerri Phillips, and I want to welcome
you to Jerri's Munchies web site. I'm
very excited you dropped by, and I pray
you are blessed by your time here.
I thought I would take a minute to let
you know a little about  me. You'll learn a lot
about me in the Munchies you read, but
some stuff just doesn't make it into
those, and that is the sort of thing I
thought I'd fill in here. Please
understand that I do not hope to impress
you and thereby bring glory to myself,
neither do I wish to bore you. However, I
have learned that during life, some
people tend to wander around a bit.
Sometimes we feel that those wanderings
are wasted time, but I hope to show you
that even strange detours can be redeemed
for God's purposes. Even things that
occurred prior to salvation can be
redeemed for the purposes of God and for
His glory. I know because I have lived
through such times, and I share them with
you to encourage you and glorify God who
salvaged and blessed my less than direct
paths.
I started college with plans to teach
high school math and coach basketball,
and that lasted until I got to Calculus
1. To be quite frank, I felt like I had
hit a brick wall, and then I found out my
professor who had basically hand-fed me
through that class was not returning to
help me through Cal 2, and I decided
there had to be something else I could do
well. Due to the cost of private
colleges, I changed schools...and majors.
I really considered going into
journalism, but I didn't want to do news
reporting. I wanted to write editorials
and columns, fictional work. I explained
all this to my counselor, who then
promptly said, "You need to go into
sociology." Okay. And I did.
In 1991, I graduated with a Bachelor of
Science in Sociology and a minor in
English. A few weeks later, I married the
man of my dreams, and promptly found out
that "happily ever after" had
not kicked in yet.
Because a degree in sociology offers few
employment opportunities, I took a job as
a secretary and another one as an
accountant. Rob was still in school, and
the extra money was really good in
helping us pay bills. However, I hated
both jobs, and when I could, I stayed
home to be a full-time wife. It didn't
take long to realize that I was no June
Cleaver, and so off I went to get a real
degree that was of some use.
Through a serious of abrupt twists, I
received my teaching degree in math. At
first, I truly thought I had just wasted
a bunch of time with my first degree.
After all, wasn't this where I started?
Now, years later, I was back where I had
begun. What good was the interim time? It
didn't take long in the classroom to
realize that my sociology classes served
me better than any of my education
classes. Much of the counseling
preparation and basic theory helped me
greatly as I tried to deal with
unmotivated children, members of gangs,
and children from abusive homes. I was
blessed to see how my "useless
degree" was so helpful, and
hopefully, there will be positive
long-term effects on the children because
of the knowledge I gained on my first
trip through college.
I was in my second year of teaching when
we found out we had a baby on the way.
Because the baby was due in May, we
thought I would come close to finishing
the end of the year with my students.
Instead, March 1 found me in bed trying
to keep our little one from coming more
than two months early. That is a story in
and of itself, and I will save it for
another spot. To make a long story short,
Anna came on her due date. She is a
perfectly healthy, happy little girl, and
God has given her a beautiful spirit.
Truly, she is a great blessing and a
treasured joy to us.
Once Anna was born, working outside the
home was no longer an option to me.
Thankfully, we have been blessed so that
I have not needed to work outside the
home.
During my time at home, I have served in
various positions at church. To be quite
honest, I learned a lot of humility doing
that. Thankfully, I have a very loving
and merciful pastor who let me learn
humility quietly and without public
exposure. The time I spent serving on
staff taught me a great deal about people
and about myself.
During all of this time, I was doing
things I did well. The Lord worked
through me to tutor and teach people who
struggled with math, and I had a very
high success rate. I was successful at
church and in my positions there. All of
my success served only to prove that
success does not bring joy. I wasn't
joyful at all really, and it was pretty
obvious to the people who were close to
me.
Not knowing what else to do, I began
praying for guidance. I was frustrated at
the ongoing search for where I was
supposed to be, and I was pretty angry at
God for not making things a little
clearer. And once again, I prayed and
prayed, and He didn't answer again. I
don't know if you have ever been there,
but it's a tenuous spot at best.
In my frustration, I started asking Rob
what he thought I would be good at.
"Anything you want to do." He
was being a supportive husband, but he
wasn't being helpful at all. Realizing
that I needed something more specific, he
asked, "Is there anything you have
always liked to do?" Without
hesitation, writing. I have always loved
writing. It calms me when nothing else
does. It is my means of dealing with
problems, sorting through the rubble and
finding the real issue, and then seeking
out a solution or maintaining peace when
no solution is available. The one
constant joy in my life has been writing.
"So do that."
Easy enough said. My mind considered his
suggestion. I had written profusely in
junior high and high school. I continued
my writing and journaling through
college, but shortly after we were
married, I quit. I put away my typewriter
and journals, and the writing stopped.
The reasons are too complex to explain,
and they don't matter anyway. All that
mattered at that point was that I had
only begun to write a few months earlier
for the first time in several years. At
that time, my writing included little
more than journaling the spiritual
journey I was enjoying. I had not dabbled
in fiction again at all. Still, it was
the one thing that had always given me a
sense of being whole. Maybe Rob was onto
something there.
I began to pray about the prospect of
writing inspirational articles. I had no
forum. I had no training, no resume. I
had no reason for anyone to publish my
work. That leaves very few options.
Not long after I had begun to pray, a
friend of mine began sending me daily
devotions that she received via e-mail. I
read them for a week or two and thought,
"Lord, this would be really fun. I
wonder what it would take to get into
something like this." At first, I
searched the internet for groups that
accepted articles, but that was
fruitless. I knew the daily devotionals
weren't an accident, but exactly where
was God taking me with this? What was I
missing?
I don't even remember how the two got put
together, but one day by God's grace, the
light bulb exploded with light. I sat
down and wrote an article I felt was
okay. In the "subject" line, I
simply put "Jerri's Weekly
Munchies" and then sent it to a few
friends and asked for their feedback.
If you don't mind, let me interject a
lesson I learned here. First, if you ask
yourself how to know what God desires for
you to do when you are good at several
things, just trust me, you'll know when
you are doing it. If you are still asking
the question, you most likely aren't
there yet. Second, there comes a point
when God expects you to walk in the
knowledge of your calling and gifting
without depending on others' compliments
and encouragement. He wants and needs you
to live based on what you know He desires
of you, not whether other people approve
of what you are doing.
And that is where I found myself. I could
wait for my friends' feedback, or I could
walk based on what I knew in my heart He
was calling me to do. I sat down and went
through my entire e-mail list. I sent
that first article to everyone I thought
might be remotely interested.
That was over two years ago. Since then,
I have written numerous Munchies. Since
the beginning of Jerri's Munchies, I've
won a writing contest for a Christmas
story, and I have had another baby. I am
still married to the man of my dreams,
and he still supports my habit by
graciously letting me stay home with my
children. In the evening, he keeps them
happy so I can write and have some
relaxation time. I'm blessed because I
got to marry my best friend and biggest
fan.
It's been sort of a strange road to go
down. Sometimes I really do feel like I
am walking in circles, but then the Lord
opens my eyes to see how the sociology
classes help me understand people more
and that helps me both in personal
ministry and in my writing. Teaching
helped me define my gifts better, and it
really helped me see my own heart more.
That has helped me tremendously. Looking
back, I find that there has been no
wasted time. Instead, I have been blessed
with the chance to define and refine my
goals, likes, and self with many
different "files", if you will.
All in all, it's been a good trip, and
"happily ever after"...all I
needed to do was quit looking back to see
it right in front of my face.
Again, I tell you all this, not for my
glory. Any success I have enjoyed is due
to God's favor and grace. He is the one
who has taken what appeared to be a
million miscellaneous puzzle pieces and
put them together to make one majestic
mosaic that has allowed me to enjoy who I
am and what my life holds today. And no
matter how many pieces your life seems to
be made of, He can do the same for you. I
know it because I have lived it and am
still living it!
Thank you for allowing me this time to
tell you a little about me. I pray that
it blesses you and encourages you. And no
matter what road you are on, I pray that
you have God as your traveling companion
because if you do, I guarantee that you
are on the right path.
God bless you!
Jerri
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