As I look back on my life, I realize God was preparing me to be a preacher all along.

When I was in fifth grade, I wrote a speech on oceanography and the wonders of the sea. After I presented it to my class, my teacher told me that it was so good that she wanted other classes to hear it. One by one, I went around my elementary school trying to give the same speech to each class, including the older sixth-grade students.

In High School, my favorite teacher was our speech teacher. Mrs. Price was a child of the sixties and held strong opinions about much going on in the world. She also liked me as a student. She helped me with projects and molded my thinking on how to make an impact through public speaking.

In college, while I was still deciding on what God wanted me to do with my life, God opened the door for my first sermon through a girlfriend’s music group. They were singing, and they wanted me to preach after their performance. The sermon did not go well, but a young woman stayed after worship to tell me how touched she was by my words.

Looking back over the landscape of my past, I can see God’s waypoints that moved me from location to location on the trail of becoming a public speaker for the kingdom of God.

Here is my question for you: What has God been preparing you to do? What experiences have you walked through that has uniquely shaped you to serve him? What skills and habits have you developed that God could use?

I do not believe I became a preacher overnight. God spent years molding me, shaping me, and preparing me for what I am doing now. I also believe the same thing is true for you.