About Nick Shelton, Author of The Devotional Tales
How I became a Christian
I had lived my whole life growing up in a Christian school being raised by a Christian family. I had heard the Bible stories, and my dad and I would occasionally go to church - but I had yet to learn what being a Christian is all about. At thirteen years of age (which seems not that long ago for me), I took my first steps into becoming a Christian.
My dad was usually out of town because of work or busy with something else to do on Sunday, and my mom almost always stayed at home with my little baby brother; so it was rare that I went to church at least every other week. However it only took one visit to allow God to come into my life: It was a Sunday in the spring, and we were having a pastor from another church come down and speak at our church. I usually did not listen to the sermons, but it was something about this one that caught my attention. The speaker talked about how there is too many people who go to Church, but not enough Christians sitting in the pews. I remember exactly what he said: he asked us if we could lead a stranger to know God. "Could you tell him where the ten commandments are in the Bible; could you tell him what the "John 3:16" signs that the football fans hold up at games mean; could you sit him down and tell him how to be a Christian," asked the pastor. I answered no to all the questions, and I realized that I really did not know the God of the Universe or how He wanted me to live my life. That next week I read a good deal of the Bible- it was as if I could not get enough. The following year, I got into different youth activities and went to Bible Studies where I learned more about being a Christian.
For that next year everything was going great - I had learned a lot about God, but what I had failed to do is to depend on Him. That all changed one day. On April 1, 2000, my dad committed suicide. I took the death really hard - I was so much like my dad, and I had a really close relationship with him. I did not understand why this had to happen. I questioned why God would let something like this happen. At first, I blamed Him for what all happened. However, after a few days, I found God as the only true comfort that I had, and I needed Him to go on with my life. It was hard talking about my father's death - I did not like talking about it to anyone because I felt a little embarrassed by the way he died. And all my friends knew that it was an uncomfortable subject. So even though I was going through the roughest time of my life, I had no one to talk to, and no one that I could turn to that I felt comfortable with (this is why I allow for anyone to contact me in several ways on this website - I want you to know that you can come to me with anything, and I will try to be there for you in the best way I can). The only comfort I found while grieving for my dad was when I went to God. I spent many nights alone in my bedroom just reading God's word. He became the thing that I turned to when I was sad, depressed, or hurt; and through these times, I learned that I must depend on God.
From there, I have continued to grow in the Lord. The next four years, I went through high school trying to be very involved in schoolwork, athletics, and growing in faith. Many of the "tales" in The Devotional Tales are based on what I have gone through personally in my life.
How I got into Writing (↑Back to Top)
I started writing devotionals when I was sixteen years old. It is kind of strange as to why I started writing. I just remember a certain idea on grace that hit me, and I started to write it down. I wrote it out, and since I learn better from when I hear a story, I made up a story that went along with what I was trying to convey (that story is now the tale of the devotion "A Childlike Heart"). Then I had other ideas and other stories to come to mind, and I also began to write them. Now that I look back on it, I guess it seems a little nerdy that I wrote devotionals in my free time when I could have been hanging our with friends- but at the same time I now feel good because I feel that it shows that God was working in me (although I did not know it at the time).
I had written about 10 or so down, and one night someone at my school called and asked if I could do the devotional on the school intercom the next morning (I went to a private school and every morning we had a short devotion and prayer before we started the school day). I had told nobody that I had written out my own devotions (probably for the fact that such activity would have caused me to be branded as a geek by my peers), but it was if God seemed to work this out to happen this way. Even though I was a little nervous, fearing that I would mess up or nobody would like my devotions, I gave a short version of the devotion over the intercom, and everything went fine. Everyone encouraged me to do the devotion in the mornings more often, and I ended up doing it every Wednesday. I always made up my own devotional because I felt like I knew my audience the best, and I knew what my fellow students were struggling with at the time. I would always find some time somewhere in the week to write a devotional, even though I was tempted to do what most other students did and read a devotional from an already published devotional book. I prayed to God saying that the time I spent writing each devotional would be worth it, if I could only change at least one heart. So every morning before I gave the devotional, I would pray that what I said would be what God wanted me to say and that it would change my friends' lives.
After I graduated this May, I had several people come up to me and say that they enjoyed the devotionals I gave every Wednesday morning, and they wanted a copy. All I had was what I had handwritten on notebook paper. I had scratched through and added so much in the margin, that I doubt anyone besides me could read it. So this summer, I sat down in front of my computer to type everyone of my devotions out, and as I started typing each out, I started adding more and more of my own reflections about the issue (I could not do this before because I was forced to limit each devotional to 5 or 6 minutes). The more I began writing, the more I felt that this is what God wanted me to do. I ended up creating more stories, and polishing up the devotionals I had already written. I then went back and looked up scripture to correspond to each devotional, and then I ended up editing all my typos and grammatical mistakes (this part was the only part that I did not particularly enjoy doing). The people that I gave my book to really seemed to love what they read. From there I decided to go with AuthorHouse Publishing to make my book, and now it is available to you.
Future Works (↑Back to Top)
1. The Devotional Tales: Book II
Status: I have just finished my rough draft, and all I need to do is edit it for mistakes (if you or someone you know would like proofread the manuscript and get your name in the 2nd book as being an editor, please contact me at DevotionalTell@aol.com)
The devotions are in the same format, just 50 new tales and discussions. Although I still discuss a good deal about the Christian's love in Book II, most of the discussions are on a more specific topic of the Christian's life. Before I take any measure into getting Book II published, I am first going to wait and see how my first book goes, and I will spend most of all my free time trying to get it into the hands of others.
2. The Devotional Tales for Teens
Status: Complete
I plan to come out with a devotional just for teens - I am not planning to come out with a series of devotional like some of the popular devotional have done (... for the graduate, ... for the mother, ...for the prisoner). It seems as though some of these writers did this so that they could sell more copies and make more money, and I do not want this to be the case for The Devotional Tales.
I wanted to make a devotional especially for teens because it was for high school teens that I originally started writing devotionals, and this is the group that I feel that I could teach best to.
The tales will be basically the same, but in the discussions I will use a lot more examples and issues that deal specifically as to what teens struggle with.
3. Christian Novels
Status: A work in progress, probably will be a year or so until I have the time to commit to these projects.
I have had ideas for two separate Christian novels. One I would use the characters from one of the devotions in The Devotional Tales and have them go on an epic journey - it would probably resemble a lot like The Lord of The Rings. The other is a remake of a somewhat popular story that I would change into a Christian perspective.
4. The Devotional Tales: Book III
Status: I have three left over that I did not use in Book II.
I will try to write out a devotion as new ideas or tales come to me. Hopefully, I can find time to type them up. I am not going to try to make any deadlines, but I am just going to write a devotional whenever I feel like writing.
