The Threads I Followed in the Wilderness

Thread of Obedience: When the Last Thing Became the First

I didn’t know the last thing I would do before my life as I knew it unraveled was send my devotional manuscript to the printer.

I had no idea that moments later, I would walk into a situation that would alter the trajectory of my life so deeply that I would not touch that phone again for over a year.

And I certainly didn’t know that the Fruits of the Spirit devotional I had spent four years writing would become one of the very things that carried me through the wilderness that followed.

But perhaps that is how God works sometimes.

Quietly preparing us long before we realize survival will be required.

I think sometimes we wait too long to tell our stories. We wait until healing is complete, until the ending is clean and until the testimony sounds polished enough to inspire someone else.

But some stories are still trembling while they’re being told. I know this storyteller (me!) is trembling inside with each key stroke.

My name is Brittany Miles. I am a mother, educator, storyteller, and someone learning that testimony does not always arrive wrapped in clarity or clean and polished. Sometimes it arrives in whispered prayers through heartbreak, and in the fragile decision to keep walking when life no longer resembles the picture you once painted in your mind.

These writings will make up a series I’ve called…The Threads I Followed Through the Wilderness.

Threads of obedience.

Of surrender.

Of transition.

Of continuity.

Of redemption.

And woven through each of them: faith, prayer, motherhood, scripture, memory, hope, identity, and the slow, sacred work of becoming.

They aren’t abstract theological ideas packaged safely after survival, but the actual things I clung to while walking through the wilderness itself.

Just before leaving behind the life I had built for what would become over a year, I was finishing Growth Plan, a Fruits of the Spirit devotional I had worked on for nearly four years.

Side note before I continue: yes, I know this passage of scripture is traditionally referred to as the Fruit of the Spirit, singular, not Fruits, plural. The choice to intentionally frame it as Fruits was symbolic for me. A metaphorical depiction of how we would slowly break down and “ingest” each attribute one at a time, allowing every fruit to be individually explored, digested, practiced, and cultivated within our lives.

Okay… back to it.

Four years of writing. Four years of dreaming. Four years of curating and investing in graphics long before Canva was even a thing. Four years of slowly gathering the threads God had been weaving through my life to create the finished work:

The Growth Plan: A 9-Week Journey Through the Fruits of the Spirit.

And then suddenly, everything around me began to unravel.

What I did not realize at the time was that God was preparing me before the wilderness fully arrived.

At the beginning of that transition and heartbreak, while driving through my town with tear-streaked cheeks, I was listening to a woman on a podcast share her story of walking through heartbreak and rebuilding. In the middle of describing her unraveling, she explained that she had asked God what she should do next.

And His response was this:

“Make the last thing I had you doing in that season the first thing you do in this one.”

Hearing those words emotionally and spiritually stopped me in my tracks. I felt them deep inside, almost as if they were an instruction meant specifically for me.

And the last thing He had me doing… was completing that devotional.

That realization felt like marching orders.

No matter how tumultuous my external circumstances felt, I knew I needed to dig in and get a tangible draft completed. I even joined a mini online masterclass about getting your “thing” printed because something inside me knew I needed to move quickly and obediently.

When that instruction settled into my spirit, mixed with the deep knowing that a shift was coming, I spent the next two days preparing a sample draft to send to the printer. I edited. I formatted. I prepared pages I had poured years of my heart into.

And then, quite literally, the VERY last thing I did before standing up, walking out of my room, and stepping into a moment that would completely pivot the trajectory of my life… was send a message to the printing company.

I set my phone down.

Little did I know, I would not touch that phone again for over a year.

At the time, I did not fully understand the weight of God’s instruction. But I knew I needed to hold tightly to it. Looking back now, I can see that God was telling me not to abandon the very thing He had been cultivating in me before everything broke apart.

Almost as if the devotional itself had not been interrupted by the devastation… but had instead been preparation for surviving it.

What I thought was ending was, in many ways, training.

The pages I had written about peace suddenly had to become the peace I practiced.

The words I wrote about joy had to survive sorrow.

The lessons on patience, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control were no longer devotional concepts sitting safely on paper. They became the thread I followed through the wilderness itself.

And perhaps that is the beauty of the fruits of the Spirit.

Love.

Joy.

Peace.

Patience.

Kindness.

Gentleness.

Self-control.

These are not just devotional concepts meant for easy seasons of life. They are steadying things to become familiar with no matter what we find ourselves walking through.

And so, over the coming weeks, I would love for us to walk through this journey together. We will attune our hearts and minds to the attributes of the Spirit one thread at a time.

If you would like to begin the Growth Plan journey alongside me, you can visit The Fruits in Bloom Collective Facebook page below to learn how to get started and follow along through the accompanying video reflections and community discussions.

Link: Fruits in Bloom Collective Facebook page

Because this was only the first thread… if obedience was the thread that carried me into the wilderness… Then surrender along with patience (sometimes stated as longsuffering) was the thread that met me once I arrived there.

Thread Two: Surrender… coming soon!

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