She started writing devotions on Facebook. Now she hopes to inspire more with new book

It can be something very ordinary that inspires Michelle Hanna Fuller.

Once, it was kudzu.

The resident of Waverly Hall, Ga., writes in her new book, “Reflections of God’s Grace,” about how she received an idea for one of the devotional messages in it from the plant introduced to this country in the 19th century as something ornamental, but now considered by most as maddening.

Fuller noticed a vine of kudzu growing across her driveway. She searched the Internet on ways to get rid of it and discovered if she did not act, the plant would continue growing and possibly smother other plants.

She learned one can’t trim the vine but must destroy the root crown where the vine receives its sustenance.

Fuller took notice of fences and a house covered with kudzu as she drove into work.

“The thought struck me: this is how sin is in our lives,” she said. “Satan paints a pretty picture at first and makes whatever sin he entices us with look ornamental, but he doesn’t show us the end where sin will take us to the place where it becomes invasive in our lives.

“We can’t just trim a little of it because if we don’t get to the root of the sin, it encourages sin to grow and spread to other areas of our lives,” she added.

And the only way to get to the root of the sin is to “accept the gift of salvation, by claiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and allowing him to dig up the root crown of sin in our lives.”

Fuller is a 44-year-old worker at TSYS. She attended Manchester High School in Manchester, Ga., and has a degree in business administration from West Georgia College and another in applied computer science from Columbus College.

She has a fondness for tennis and serves on the board of the Columbus Regional Tennis Association.

A member of Evangel Temple in Columbus, she sings in the choir. Formerly, she performed as a member of the Abundant Life Trio and still receives many singing requests.

Fuller grew up in a religious home. Her grandfather was a pastor, and both parents taught Sunday school.

“If the church door was open, we were there,” she said.

In January 2015, she was inspired to write devotions and place them on Facebook.

Fuller began to get positive reactions to the short piece, with people telling her how the writing had made a change in their lives.

Most of the inspirations come from songs she hears, but other thoughts come to her from just looking in a mirror, driving in the fog or biting into a bitter cherry.

When her grandmother, Janette Colquitt, now deceased, was in the hospital, Fuller sat for hours reading to her the devotions she had composed.

“I have been around a long time, seen a lot of things, read a lot of books and am amazed at the messages you have,“ Fuller recalled her grandmother telling her.

Her grandmother encouraged her to write the book, which is now available online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Fuller is always pleased when she hears she has made a difference in someone’s life.

Fuller’s mother, Sandra Bennett, lives in Harris County. A friend asked Fuller’s mother to “please tell Michelle her book is like Christ walked into my room to speak directly to me, my spirit and my life.”

“There are many life lessons in the book all backed by scripture,” Fuller said. “This is just something God wants me to do.”

The book has a forward written by Fuller’s aunt, former Muscogee County School District Superintendent Susan Andrews, who writes that the devotional messages are filled with hope and reflect her niece’s love for people.

Andrews thanks her niece for sharing her heart and for “helping us live life and making sense of many emotions and issues we must face.”

Fuller said the book was a challenge but was fun to put together.

And what is the goal of the book?

“I want people to realize how much God loves them,” Fuller said. “I want them to know how much you can trust him in everyday life.”

This story was originally published October 7, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "She started writing devotions on Facebook. Now she hopes to inspire more with new book."