22 Jun Quarantine Leads to Cedarville Education Major To Write, Publish Book
The coronavirus quarantine sparked many to use their newfound time to pursue a passion. For Abigail Blain, a Cedarville University junior majoring in early childhood education with a fourth- and fifth-grade endorsement and a women’s ministry minor, she decided to write and publish her first book, “Daily Abiding: Starting a Quiet Time Journey.” It is now available as an eBook on Amazon.
Blain, of Tampa, Florida, describes her book as a tool to encourage and equip teenagers in their personal quiet times with the Lord. The devotional explains the Bible and how to study it, talks about why quiet time is important and offers tips on how to establish a daily quiet time routine.
“Ministry wise, I love middle school and high school girls,” said Blain. “I think it’s such a vulnerable age that needs older people to speak into their lives and to point them back to Christ.”
Blain first decided she wanted to write some kind of book in June 2019 when she helped at the Student Leadership University conference in San Antonio, Texas. The conference, which was dedicated to teaching middle and high school students to dream, think and lead through biblical values, motivated Blain, and she anticipated writing a book about abstinence before marriage and set a goal of publishing before she turned 20 on June 1, 2020.
But as the spring arrived, little to no progress had been made, and the date was getting closer and closer. With the sudden unexpected shift to online learning and quarantine because of COVID-19, Blain suddenly had a lot more time on her hands.
“If I hadn’t written my book by my birthday, I would have looked back on all the time I wasted watching Netflix and been disappointed in myself,” she explained.
When online classes at Cedarville ended in May, Blain began writing her book. However, the topic shifted from waiting for marriage to making and sustaining a quiet time with the Lord.
“Coming home for quarantine, I realized one of the ways I have grown the most at Cedarville was through my quiet time,” Blain said. ”The Lord put it on my heart to write about that instead.”
In a month’s time, the book was finished, sent to Amazon and scheduled for release on her 20th birthday.
“Middle school and high school are such crazy times,” said Blain. “I want to see girls in a quiet time with sticky notes and color pens, pouring over the Bible and growing in their walk with the Lord.”