We were lucky to catch up with Tamia Henderson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tamia, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

Today I will share with you my story of how I came up with the idea for writing and publishing my first book. To be completely honest it wasn’t my idea writing a book is something that I had never intended to do. So how did I end up here with a written and published book? Well, to tell you that I must give you an inside to my personal life concerning my beliefs and religion.

In this world, we are free to believe and have faith in what/who we decide to do. So with that freedom, I believe in the Christian faith. I Choose to believe in the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. Now if you are someone who believes in a different religion, faith, or spirituality, give me a minute to make this connection, don’t be quick to skip past this due to us not having the same faith or belief system.

As stated I am a Christian, and as a Christian, I do have a lifestyle of prayer. What is a prayer for some who may not know? Prayer is just the act of communicating with God. So with that being kept in mind, about two years ago I was in my time of prayer and I was taking a moment to be silent before the Lord, and all I heard him say was: “The Called Child”. I kept hearing that title over and over again so as a few moments went by, I asked: “God what is this name for” and He replied back with: “It’s the title for your book”. At the moment all I could do was laugh when I took the time to think of it. I didn’t see myself publishing a book and becoming an author. Why didn’t I believe in that? I blamed it on my young age of only being 17 at the time. I blamed it on my knowledge and understanding. I thought to myself “ I’m still in high school, a junior to be exact. What much do I know to the point where I could write an entire book about”. I blamed it on what appeared to be my lack of resources at the time because I did not have a job. I had all of these doubts in my mind instead of believing that anything was possible with God.

Time went by and I still blew past the idea of writing a book. Through that phase of doubt I was not excited to be completely honest I felt inadequate to write the book. I felt that this book was too big of an assignment for me to complete. I felt that someone else should write the book but not me. So as you can see, starting off I didn’t see this as a Good idea, I was not too excited about writing a book. If it was indeed up to me, this book would have not been written.

Later on down the line I had still been praying and thinking about the book but I had never put it into action. I never once grabbed a pencil or pen to write the vision down and make it plain. I just didn’t have the faith to do it.

So you may be wondering, what Happened” What happened in my life that made me go forward with writing this book? To first start off, I will say that God sent confirmation to me. A Lady I had never met was going on a social media platform and she was taking prayer requests and she started to pray for me in the area of confidence in who I was and called to be. And what seems like out of nowhere all she said was “ They need your writing Tamia”. At That moment there were no questions about what she was referring to, I knew right away that God was speaking through her and to me that I needed to start writing this book.

After this event occurred I had to take moments of reflection and I had to ask myself: “Why not me? Why couldn’t I write a book? And the only reason I came up with this is because I was limiting myself. That’s it right there, during this process no one said anything about me not being able to write a book. It was all me who spoke about negativity in my life.

As I promised earlier I will make a connection with my story to those who may not be able to connect due to the faith or religion part. In life no matter what it is there are many of us who have great ideas. These ideas could solve a problem. These ideas could save someone’s life, but the issue is that we go through life by putting ourselves in a small box. We go throughout life putting all sorts of restrictions on our own selves. No matter what the idea is, you need faith. You need to have faith that your idea is something big. That your idea is something that could change the course of someone’s life for the better, no matter what that idea or profession is.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Who am I? My name is Tamia Henderson, but I prefer to be called Mia. I am one who grew up in Akron, Ohio. As a believer, my relationship with Christ is at the core of everything that I do. From an early age, I knew I had a love for writing, and as I have gotten older, my love for writing has become entwined with my faith.

When it comes to “perfecting” my craft of writing the best solution for this has been patience and practice. No matter what craft/profession/ business someone has, the two main things that are required for all of these are patience and practice. I didn’t just wake up one day and write a book. To get where I’m at now, I had to go through seasons of writing pages just to turn around and delete every single one of them. I had to go through times where I had to step away and learn new things. This was not an easy process at all but it was all worth it. I had times when I wanted to give up there were moments when I did throw in the towel for a moment. I had plenty of sleepless nights. Nights where I cried due to frustration. But as time went on I learned the importance of patience and practice. These two words had to become the foundation of my creative work. My creative work required a strong foundation, and outside of God being that foundation, My producing this creative work required patience and practice.

Currently, I have published my first book titled: “The Called Child: A Guide To Understanding and Living a Life Called by God.” Along with this I also have a youtube channel where I publish faith-based content that is meant to inform and encourage others from all different walks of life. As I will continue to produce my creative work whether in the form of books/ videos, or services my goal is to always inform and push. What do I mean by Inform and Push? What I mean is that I want to be able to inform others about information they may not be aware of that is hindering their lives whether that’s concerning faith-based information or just wisdom in other areas of life. When I say push I mean pushing someone further than they were before. I want to be able to push someone in the right direction for them to reach their goals in life. After someone has had an encounter with me or my work, I want them to be able to leave with a clearer sense of direction. I want them to leave feeling more encouraged than they were before they encountered me or my work.

As I have published my first book and have gone forward in publishing content on my youtube channel, I am proud of that start. I am proud that I started the youtube channel. I am proud of the fact that I started the journey of becoming an author. In a world where everyone is so quick to throw in the towel because something is too hard/difficult or because something takes too long to happen, I was able to start and produce work. That is what I’m proud of. I’m proud of my dedication and work ethic.

As I move forward in my creative work I want individuals to know that the work that I produce is meant to help someone. My work is not meant to judge or criticize one. My work is not meant to make some individuals feel left out. Even when it comes to the Faith-based work, this work is not only for believers in Christ to learn from, because no matter what I produce, someone somewhere can receive inspiration and information that could change the trajectory of their life. I don’t create my creative work for fame, money, or followers. None of that is important to me. What is important to me is that I can provide solutions to problems and needs that I continue to see arise within the world.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In my creative journey, my main goal is to produce change. If someone comes along and reads a book of mine or watches a video, I don’t want them to leave that experience the same way they went into it. What I want is there to be a change that occurred, but most importantly I want that change to start from within. When I say within, I mean I want there to be a change in their heart or mind. I want to be able to change how one thinks about life or a certain concept. The only way I will be able to produce this change is with wisdom and experience. Over the years, I have learned that there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. You can know something all day long but the question is: Do you know how to apply it in your daily life?”

I don’t plan on producing change by judging others or spreading lies or biased information. With the wisdom and experiences I have gained with my own life that’s how I aim to produce a change in others’ lives as long as they are willing to receive. Once individuals are willing to receive what I have to offer through my creative work then they will be able to gain and learn wisdom that they are able to spread to others. This is the change that will occur outwardly but in order for something to happen outwardly it must occur inwardly first. Think of a tree. Before a tree starts to sprout and become visible it takes time for the seeds to grow into the soil, the seed has to receive the needed vitamins and nutrients from underground first. Although no one can see a visible change and growth happening; It’s still taking place. And as time matures that seed has now become a full-grown tree that is now able to give life to us by producing oxygen. I want my creative work to act as seeds in others’ lives and as they continue to grow and mature by their learned experience they will be able to pour into others’ lives and help them move forward as well.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding part of being creative is seeing how my work has affected others in a positive way. If I’m going to produce work, the work I produce is meant to give and add value to someone’s life. And that value isn’t in the form of money or fame. It’s in the form of encouragement, direction, wisdom, etc. it would be a shame if I was to produce all of this work just for it to add no value to this world. Just as I have a purpose here in this world, so does my creative work. That’s why I create what I create. I create this work because I understand it has value and not only has value but is needed. No matter who you are in life you will come to a point where you need to be encouraged. You will come to a point where you will need wisdom on a certain topic. Affecting others in a positive way is the most rewarding aspect of being creative.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecalledchild.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/mialee.20/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamia.henderson.395

Image Credits
Bea Bogan