By Rebecca Gernon

One is the loneliest number per the old Three Dog Night song, but I think ONE is the answer.

This revelation came to me while pulling weeds in my garden, a chore I dislike because I fear reaching into a flower bed and being bitten by a snake or spider, startled by a toad, or worse yet attacked by fire ants.

Residents of the Southeastern U.S. are cursed with fire ants, nasty critters that not only bite, they sting.

These photos show one of the little demons attacking and a human leg that suffered an  attack. These stings burn and itch for days. I could go on and on about how horrible these critters are (designed by Satan I am sure) but that is not the purpose of this blog.

This week I noticed that a landscape timber surrounding my garden, had been moved. This  log  is 4 inches in diameter, 8 feet long, and quite heavy. I installed these logs several years ago by drilling a one inch hole at both ends of the logs, then inserting a long piece of rebar which connected them and was driven into the ground to keep them in place. Now I could see daylight between my once tight-fitting edging. How was this accomplished? By a colony of fire ants. They have no fancy tools, only a mouth that bites out soil, and drags that mini-mouthful up and out of the ground. One bite, over and over by thousands of ants.

Rome was not built in a day and neither did this log moving happen instantly. It was done One bite at a time. Writing is a solitary profession, One that is often discouraging. To keep from being discouraged, consider the fire ant.

Like the fire ants we must keep plugging along.  One word at a time. One sentence. One paragraph. One page. One chapter or article. One book or play. Whether we write One minute a day or One hour, gradually our work progresses. Then begins the odious task of contacting agents and publishers. Again this is a One at a time process. It only takes One agent or publisher to like our work for us to be on the road to publication, but like the tiny fire ant, our achievement does not happen instantly. Our job is not to be published instantly, but to write One day and One word at a time.

As Christian writers we need to remember The One we are writing to please. God is patient. We must learn to accept his timing One day at a time.

Encouraging verses:
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.