Currently reading: Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones

Quick note: Why does something tell me this post will end up as dissected as John-Boy’s post on The Waltons?

It took me several minutes just to make sure the title is right, and while I am writing this my husband, John, is talking to me about work concerns. My John was also called “John-Boy” by my Dad.

So in today’s episode of The Waltons. John-Boy is selected by the town preacher (beautifully played by John Ritter), to give the next week’s sermon. The preacher just got married and will be out of town that Sunday.

John-Boy does what any writer would do. He over prepares. John-Boy does not normally write church sermons, but rather novels, and articles for magazines. So this is a distinct challenge, in which all his writer’s insecurities creep in. Will the people like it? What if they hate it? How do I address everyone’s needs?

John-Boy’s grandmother, Esther, is over the moon with excitement. She is a solid reader of the Bible, knowing chapter and verse. And this sermon has sparked the writer in her also. Her childlike enthusiasm is obvious as she pores over verses, and writes sermons of her own. She even shows John-Boy what he should do during the sermon.

I almost thought the show’s writers would have Esther do the sermon rather than John-Boy. But Grandpa Zeb, after watching Esther instruct John-Boy, lovingly takes her hand and quotes from Proverbs 31, one of the most beautifully written pieces in the Bible. Those verses are about the beauty of a wonderful, good woman, “more precious than rubies…” John-Boy is meant to write it.

John-Boy checks out every religious library book he can get his hands on, and proceeds to talk to members of his family. Most important his Daddy and Grandpa, along with his Grandma Esther, and also observes the workings of his Mother and his younger brother, Jim-Bob.

His insecurities plague him throughout the week, and the folks in the town know he is nervous. Some decide to gossip, while others gently encourage him. After a week of writing and studying, along with a wonderful trip to the Walton mountaintop, he is able to write his sermon.

And, John-Boy being John-Boy he knocks it out of the ballpark. He artfully includes everyone he loves in his sermon. And he brings tears to the eyes of his Grandpa, and stuns his father, who just sits there like he can’t believe this is his son.

This is the lesson the world should see about the writer. How with so many of us, the work has to be thought about and carefully crafted. And how easy it is for us to shoot right pass the mark, talk to too many people, research too many books, and drown ourselves in information instead of forcing ourselves to swim to the surface.

But thankfully, with time and patience, most of us do learn to swim to the surface.

Onward…