This Devoted Life

36. Special Episode: Determination Over Inspiration/Our 12-Year-Old's Conversation with S.D. Smith

• James and Shanda

Share episode

A 12-year-old boy's conversation with his favorite author becomes a masterclass in creative purpose and vocational calling. When young Dawson sits down with children's writer S.D. Smith, their exchange transcends typical author interviews, revealing profound truths about how faith shapes our creative pursuits.

Smith captivates us by comparing writing to the athletic "flow state" – that magical zone where challenges stretch us without overwhelming us, creating a sanctuary where time slows and creativity thrives. He reveals how his storytelling began organically through bedtime stories with his children, establishing a foundation of hospitality and genuine love that extends to his thousands of readers today. This authenticity offers a refreshing alternative to the performance-driven approach so many creatives feel pressured to adopt.

Most powerfully, Smith articulates a distinctly Christian understanding of creative vocation. Rather than waiting for inspiration to strike, he emphasizes determination. Instead of seeking fame or self-expression, he approaches writing as service. "All vocations are about love and service," he explains, whether farming, pastoring, parenting, or storytelling. This perspective invites us to reconsider our own work – whatever it may be – as an opportunity to participate in God's ongoing creation and care for others. For any listener navigating today's self-focused culture, Smith's wisdom reminds us that true fulfillment comes through aligning our gifts with eternal purposes, living devoted to truth rather than merely pursuing personal passion.

Ready to discover how your unique calling can become an expression of faith? Listen now, then share your thoughts or questions with us.

Links:
Green Ember Book

Connect with SD Smith:
Website: SDSmith
Helmer in the Dragon Tomb: Kickstarter Campaign

Let's connect!
Website: This Devoted Life
Instagram: Devoted Motherhood & This Devoted Life Podcast
Email: podcast@thisdevotedlife.com

Speaker 1:

What started as a Saturday morning coffee date turned into a podcast where we chat about things like faith, family finances and so much more.

Speaker 2:

In a world that is encouraging you to live your truth and to follow your heart. We want to encourage you to live devoted to the truth.

Speaker 1:

The Bible has a lot to say about how to live a victorious Christian life, and we want to share practical insight in how to apply those truths to your life, as we endeavor to apply them to our own lives as well.

Speaker 2:

If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a review and share these episodes with your friends so that you can help them live this devoted life too.

Speaker 1:

Hey Dawson.

Speaker 3:

Hello, Mr Smith.

Speaker 4:

Hey man, so nice to meet you. I like your shirt.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, Mr Smith. Hey, man, so nice to meet you.

Speaker 1:

I like your shirt yeah thanks the special wardrobe for today's podcast. I like it. That's cool, man, you're 12?.

Speaker 4:

Is that right? Did you say 12?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm 12.

Speaker 4:

Awesome man.

Speaker 1:

So cool to meet you.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Would you like to tell them what are some of your hobbies actually?

Speaker 4:

Rubik's Cubes archery. Rc cars and baseball. That sounds like a real American kid A lot. That is very cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you throw some reading in there every once in a while. Right, every once in a while.

Speaker 4:

You don't want to chew much of that. That could ruin the whole thing, right?

Speaker 1:

yeah, that's not good crazy. Yeah, so awesome. So did you have a few questions for mr smith?

Speaker 3:

um. Do you like uh writing books?

Speaker 4:

I do. I really love it. That's that's my favorite part of the whole thing is is the storytelling. I really you know when you're talking about some of your hobbies like archery and RC cars and stuff I think about when I was a kid, in baseball and I played, like every sport, and it's really related. It's relatable to sports in a way for me, partly because you know, when you I don't know if you get older I was a little bit of a anxious kid.

Speaker 4:

In some ways I would tend to worry a little bit, but when I played sports I didn't worry. I, I I would be really self-forgetful and and thinking about what's going on in the moment, that kind of thing, and that's what it's like to write a good story, I think, or to just get lost in it in a real, I don't know like. You're there and you know an hour or two go by and I sort of just in a flash and it's so much like play, it's like playing as a kid, and so so I, I love it. I love that part of it. The, the release from sort of like thinking about the worries of the day or or different anxieties, is just, is similar to what I experienced with sports.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's fun to go into daydreaming and thinking about the future and stuff and about the past.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of cool. There's a, there's a principle about flow state. I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but where, where something is difficult, it's difficult enough that it brings out, you know, makes you sort of rise to the occasion but it's not so difficult that it completely like stymies you or stop to you. You kind of get in this state. You see it with athletes sometimes or, and you see it in probably every vocation.

Speaker 4:

But I I when, when you're in that, that's a real fun place to be. You know, it's maybe like when you're real hot at the plate or something. You know you're, you're, just, you're the ball miss. Yeah, the ball looks big or you know what I mean, that that sort of feeling of just like, oh, it's slowing down for me, everything's kind of that state, that's a, that when I get in that place with writing it, just it's really special yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it. That's a great analogy.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, how do you, how, how, how long does it take to, like, write a book and publish it and stuff?

Speaker 4:

Wow, it's. I think I get asked this a lot, so I kind of have an answer it's, but the truth is, it's been it's. It's different every time, it's really different.

Speaker 4:

Sometimes it's a really compressed time and sometimes that's because of the needs of like when it's going to come out and that kind of a thing of you know dead sort of artificial deadlines or real deadlines that we've imposed. But and there's longer books and shorter books. I'd say the average is probably it probably takes me six months maybe to write a book and and maybe probably more like a year to publish. That might be maybe a faithful way to represent it. Sometimes it's much quicker and sometimes it's a little longer, but so that's probably um three to six months probably to write and and maybe six to 12 months to publish.

Speaker 3:

And it's kind of what I was like, kind of expecting you would say is like I like writing and reading a lot too, and I might write some things like when I get older, but I'm kind of wanting to do what this guy does, yeah.

Speaker 4:

Well if you do end up writing, you know, or or or doing sort of a so-called creative vocation. If you do that, like the, the, the skills that your, your dad, has in entrepreneurship and business and understanding, it will be such an advantage for you, like what they, you know, in business terms is called they call it unfair advantage, which is often a place of strength for you, really, and something to lean into. And so I mean so many authors like myself included. You know, when I was your age, I didn't have any idea about how to run a business or anything like that, and I didn't see it as connected to creative work. So, and it's so much, so, very much is so. So you, you, you're already sort of have a really good head start just by having your dad in your life and living in the home you're in. It's just, it's a big leg up in that opportunity.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he's taught me a lot of stuff about tools and lots of working and stuff.

Speaker 4:

That's awesome dude.

Speaker 1:

No, I appreciate you saying that because it is so true. I kind of use the phrase cheat mode, you know um in in a gaming sense, not that I'm a gamer per se, but it a lot of times you, just because of some experience that I have and you know some background and uh interests, you know it is uh kind of like almost like a cheat mode. That flow stayed and there's the whole, all of what you've said so far. I'm feeling it.

Speaker 3:

That's great, that's awesome cool what inspires you to write books?

Speaker 4:

the original thing for my first book that came out was the remember, and that was entirely an organic, authentic sort of relationship-based work in my with my kids. So as I was told the stories to my kids, uh, you know, bedtime and on walks, just different times throughout the day when they were little, and they just kind of carried on for many, many years and so it was really. It's really rooted. My all of my work because of that is really rooted in hospitality and generosity, like to my kids, and so it's a pretty neat to have a, a job where I don't have to, I don't have to fake like affection or enthusiasm for my audience, because it started with my kids. But then since then I've, you know, I've done book tours and and, uh, you know, book signings and things all across the country and I've met, you know, tens of thousands of kids, you know, sort of readers, fans, and I love, love them like with all my heart.

Speaker 4:

So it's it, and as a christian, you know, my vocation is, is not is more about love and service than you know about fame or or um, self-expression or that kind of thing. So I, I think about this as a, so I it's really connected. So that's inspiring to me. I you know, I think a lot of people I try to. I think writing is not so much about like waiting for inspiration to strike. I think if you do that, you're not going to be productive. I try to think in work terms of determination instead of inspiration or passion. Even I have those things, but they're not always constant.

Speaker 4:

They go up and down the inspiration and the passion.

Speaker 4:

But determination is pretty a big word for me and I think of, because I think of my vocation as a writer as being very, very Christian, because God made the world and God calls different people the farmer, the pastor, the mom, the plumber, the construction worker all these are good things, gifts from God, and of course we're all fallen in every area. But I take that calling very seriously as an opportunity to love and serve and all those vocations are about love and service. So I feel I'm determined to do my job. Well, I want to do a good job, but it is a real blessing that I don't feel detached or I'm not frustrated. In that um I it's easy for me to get connected to the love part because it's it's so genuine I get, I mean really I love, love, love the kids, you guys, you know that's, that's my heart and it's so I don't have to fake that and that's just so. That's a real, that's a really fun, it's a that's a sweet sort of component, especially like when days are tough or things are difficult.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, what a great answer, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate you writing your books and stuff. It's been like it's been really fun to read your books and like see what's like you're thinking about and stuff.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, thank you, dawson, that means the world to me.

Speaker 3:

man, I appreciate that so much.

Speaker 4:

Thank you for your time oh, thanks for hanging out with me. Those are great questions, brother yeah, you're welcome maybe we'll get together in person. You guys live in michigan we do okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, when you come by west virginia, you know just holler I was gonna say if you want to come up in the pleasant peninsula, I mean you have to look us up are you in the the?

Speaker 1:

UP. So we're not, but the whole state of Michigan is a peninsula, so yeah, so, yeah, we the UP, you got to get out both hands. Yeah, I don't know if you are aware of that. So I actually went to school, I went to college up in the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, tech, and but yeah, we, we live kind of by the Saginaw Bay. So, anytime you run up 75, you'll be pretty close to us.

Speaker 4:

Well, I set you up for that. I guess I didn't mean to, but I'll be in Michigan twice in the next little bit. I'll be Michigan in March, I think, or I'm sorry. May 13th I'm going to the homeschool conference in in um Lansing. Oh, okay, week or two, and then I'm going to go to a Realm Makers which is in Grand Rapids. So I'm actually going to. I've never done an event in Michigan before, but I'm excited yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yep, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, um, we uh. Yeah, I think Is that the one that you spoke at last year. So we're unfortunately not going to be at that one this year, or else we would absolutely. You're dodging me, you're dodging me I know right, yeah, but all you have to do is you have to go an hour northeast of Lansing and we'll hook up and have dinner, whatever you want there we go All right, cool.

Speaker 4:

Are you guys a state or Wolverine fans?

Speaker 3:

Wolverine.

Speaker 4:

Wolverine, good answer.

Speaker 1:

Go blue.

Speaker 4:

Okay, I like that, all right.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Was there anything else, bud, that you wanted to ask him? Yeah?

Speaker 3:

Thank you for your time.

Speaker 4:

Hey, thank you, dawson, that was cool.

Speaker 3:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for tuning in to this Devoted Life podcast with James and Shanda. We appreciate your support in sharing biblical, uplifting truths with the world. If you found value in this episode, please leave us a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us to improve the show and we'd love to hear from you. Be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. To learn more about how to live a life devoted to God and family, head over to thisdevotedlifecom. You can also follow me, Shanda, on Instagram at devoted underscore motherhood. Thank you again for listening and we look forward to seeing you next time on this Devoted Life Podcast.