By Melissa Perner
The joy of knowing and doing God’s will
What do you want to be when you grow up?
This is a simple question, often asked of us when we are children.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
It was a question often asked of me when I was a child.
Growing up, I came from a family where education was very important. My father started out as a coach and teacher. My mother is a teacher, her sister was a teacher. My other aunt was a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher. My grandfather was an administrator for several school districts. At one time, my husband was even a teacher.
With all these teachers in my family, the answer to what I want to be when I grow up was simple: I want to be a newspaper reporter.
During my junior high years, a teacher told me about being a journalist, specifically in newspapers. I started learning more about this profession.
I quickly discovered two things: 1. You get to write, which I loved and still love. 2. You get to talk to people. Perfect! In case you all didn’t know it, I love to talk.
My first year of high school, I was the only one in my class on our high school newspaper.
A lot of my friends thought that I was weird for doing this. I didn’t care. I wanted to be a newspaper reporter.
That was it. That was the direction I set for my life.
Some might call this determination. Others might call it stubbornness. I think my parents called it both at times.
Throughout high school and college, I knew this is the career path I should take. Everything kept leading me into this direction.
I had visions of becoming this big reporter. Covering major events in our country’s or world’s history.
However, God has a sense of humor.
On a hot day in July of 2003, I entered the newsroom at the San Angelo Standard-Times after completing an assignment in Fort Stockton.
Checking my messages, I received one from Scotty Moore of Ozona. I called him back. He made an offer for Paul and I to buy The Ozona Stockman newspaper.
I nearly fell out of my desk chair. Quickly, I call Paul. My husband tells me that his parents have called and that they really need his help at the ranch.
Have you ever been driving down the road of life and then this great, big billboard hits you? This was it!
Truly, God wants Paul and I here in Ozona.
The Joy of knowing what God wants you to do is a complete joy, and believe me to be in the newspaper business you have to enjoy it.
Rick Warren, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” proposes the question “What on Earth am I here for?”
In the newspaper business, there are days, sometimes weeks, that I do ask myself that very question.
Then I get to spend the day with people like my friend Ben English. I get to sit at a ballgame with my dad and cheer on the Lions.
I get the joy each week as I print a newspaper and then see people anxious to come read it.
God has a purpose for all of us. Some of you may not know what it is yet.
No matter how old you are, you will find it, and once you do you will get that gushing, overwhelming feeling of God’s joyous purpose for your life.
Each one of us is different, which means God has a different purpose for us all. This also means everyone’s path is different.
My path wasn’t easy. However, the rewards I have experienced, and hope to experience in the future, have been worth every sacrifice down this path on which God continues to lead me.
In closing, I quote former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman who also had her own purpose in life:
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”