Crying Over Wants by Pamela Mytroen

There is a scene near the opening of Love Comes Softly (based on the best-selling novel by Janette Oke) where Marty can’t face marrying a man she has just met. She says, “I can’t do this. I just wanna go home.” Ben’s wife holds her shoulders and says, “Now listen to me. There is no place in this part of the country to waste your time crying over wants. Your life is about needs now.” Marty needed a roof over her head and safety throughout the winter. She was desperate. Now was not the time to give in to her wants.

As writers we also have dire needs. If we don’t write, we may not have a roof over our heads, either! Or perhaps there are other, less tangible, but vitally important needs. If we don’t write our Lord’s nurturing words, how will our hungry world be fed? If we give in to our wants instead of our needs, what kind of characters will we become?

I want to relax, I want to read a book, or call my daughters, or bake a pie! Really, I want to do anything but write. However, our world is in a season of deep need more than ever before. As a privileged Canadian I feel that my thankfulness demands a response, and that would be to practice self-control. To obey need rather than desire.

And so I must plant myself in the office chair and do what I need to do, not what I want to do. It is difficult at first and the words don’t come. A pathetic drivel of words starts to trickle, but I persevere. Little by little the routine turns into joy, and the love for writing steals over me again, softly.

Murray Pura had wise words for me when he signed this in the copy of his book: “It’s time to write now. Bake pies later.”

by Pamela Mytroen