Georgia Tanner

I am coming to you from a place of love, support, and encouragement. I am a child of the 60’s and a daughter of the South. God placed me on a firm foundation when he birthed me into a large family in Greenville, South Carolina.

It wasn’t just my older sisters and my younger sister to come, but it was also an extended family of aunts and uncles and cousins that lived all around us on the remnants of my momma’s father’s dairy farm. And then every Sunday after church we spent the afternoon with my daddy’s side of the family.

Are you starting to see the picture here? Family is way important to me. And my momma seemed to act like everyone around us was family, so the circle continued to grow wider.

I grew up loving pretty. My older sisters were fascinating to me with their fashion magazines and eyeliner. My mother could sew anything I dreamed up and we spent hours in fabric stores poring over pattern books. I loved clothes. Still do. Pretty much a girly-girl, I still have my Barbie dolls, and the clothes my momma made for them.

In elementary school I became friends with two girls whose families would change my life forever. Hara’s family was sophisticated and cultured. Think Frank Lloyd Wright inspired architecture and black and white photography. Pam’s family was outrageously flamboyant and exciting. Think white convertibles, poodles, and slalom water skiing off the dock of the lake house.

I was ruined. I would no longer be content to live a normal life. I wanted something more. Not sure what it was – but I wanted it!

High school and college was mainly a time to explore my fascination with boys. A problem, I think, from growing up in a house full of females. God showed great kindness in connecting me with my husband,  Jeff, in my 20’s. And that has worked out well for me. Left to my own devices, who knows where I would have ended up?

We have two incredible children who are busy living out life as adults. We still live in our ‘first house’ that we have remade into an explosion of color and interesting things… but I have gotten ahead of myself. Unfortunately, I have always defined myself by what I do. So, let’s go back to that ‘fill in the blank space’ of career.

What in the world was I going to do for a living after college? I loved reading and writing sappy poetry, but I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher, so what would I possibly do with a degree in English? I loved art – but I wasn’t very good at it. Fashion was out; I had no great skill in designing or sewing, as well as no desire to work in retail. I know! I’ll dress mannequins. That’s it! Okay, I am serious here. I went from dressing mannequins to dressing models and actors, to buying props to designing simple sets. Remember, I like pretty.

The Executive Producer for a talented Director I worked with called me into her office one day and suggested that I consider directing. She insisted that I would be a great director. And I was a woman – pretty unique in that male world of film at that time. It took me a year to figure out she was right. Thank you, Vivian.

My career as a Director focused on portraying pretty pictures and telling endearing stories. I concentrated on fashion, home furnishings, retail, tourism, and healthcare. For over 20 years, I helped create advertising campaigns, developed webisodes, directed a faith-based movie, and ventured into the scary world of true crime for episodic television. It was a great adventure.

About the same time, I started directing, God insisted that I had been wandering around too deeply in the ways of the world, and it was time for me to come back to Him. He dropped me into a beautiful bible teaching church where my family and I were loved and nurtured. I graduated from teaching Sunday School to 7-year-olds to becoming the Teaching Director of a nondenominational bible class for women, men, and children: Community Bible Study. I found out quickly the best way to learn is to teach! Fearful I wouldn’t be able to complete my initial two-year commitment, God was faithful, leading me through the bible from Genesis to Revelation and every book in-between during my 17 years of teaching. 

Realizing not everyone could commit to a 30-week in-depth Bible study, I wanted to write a book that was easily assessable – even for folks who had never opened a bible before. I decided I may as well start at the beginning. In 2019, I published Genesis: Small Stories of a Big God. Chapter by chapter, you can easily walk through the very personal stories of the people God called to be His family. And you may be surprised at the broken people He pursues.

As I worked through the process of publishing I discovered blog writing – putting online something short that God has taught me that week. It is a way to share what God whispers in my ear as I wander through my days – without the precision and postponement of book writing. I am currently writing a book about Jesus from the four gospels – but that story is unfolding for me in slow motion. Another adventure!

What I have discovered along the way of this life journey is the best story is not my own story– but God’s. God is Awesome (truly!) and amazing. My joy each day is reading His stories… and seeing how they always connect with mine.

I hope you will join me in getting to know God better. He is so much more than we can imagine. He is bigger than we are. And so, He tells us small stories. Our bible has lots and lots of them, so I think this will be a long journey!

One last little note. I have told you my story, but you also need to know my testimony. My parents taught me about God. But one day I met God’s Holy Spirit and could not help but say “Yes!” to Jesus as my Lord and my Savior. This is that story: