Some Encouraging Words by Nina Faye Morey

God’s Word Spurs Me On

What’s in a word? Words have power. Words can tear down, or they can build up. Our faith is built on the Word of God (1 Corinthians 2:5). God created our world with His words (Genesis 1:3). God’s only Son, Jesus, is called “The Word” (John 1:1). Our hope is founded on The Word of Life: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Just as God begat the world with His words, He wants us Christian writers to create something with our words. It’s no wonder that we feel a deep desire to use our words to honour and glorify Him. It’s also not surprising that we feel spurred on to use our words to encourage and build each other up in our faith and writing. We write to celebrate God and His Word. We write to spread the Good News of His love and grace to others. We strive to be faithful to God’s Word with our own words. We are not motivated to write in order to profit ourselves, but we write to profit others by sharing His Word (2 Corinthians 2:17).

It wasn’t long after I recommitted my life to the Lord, that He led me to 1 Corinthians 12, which gives Paul’s descriptions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As I studied this passage, I felt inspired to use the gift of writing God had given me to bear witness to Him and glorify His name. As I prayed to the Lord for more guidance, I sensed Him spurring me on to write about my personal experiences to witness to and encourage others. So, I turned to Christ’s parables to learn how He used everyday experiences to illustrate the lessons He preached. As I studied these parables, I realized that I had stories to share that might encourage others as they travelled their own spiritual paths.

Through these stories, I endeavour to show my readers the power of God’s love, and I hope they’ll feel comforted, encouraged, and blessed by my words. But before I put my pen to paper or my fingers on the keyboard, I always ask the Lord to inspire, guide, and empower me to use the right words to reach reader’s hearts and encourage them in their life and faith.

Fellow InScribers Spur Me On

Belonging to InScribe is one of the best decisions I’ve made as a Christian writer. I love InScribe because it’s truly a “fellowship” of writers who are believers like me. It’s an organization that provides many opportunities for its members to openly share both their faith and their writing. Writers often tread a lonely path, but we needn’t feel alone. There are several ways we can spur one another on, no matter where each of us is on our spiritual journey or that bumpy path to publication.

Being a writer is not an easy career—our craft is a challenging one. InScribe is a fellowship in which we’re allowed to boast about our publishing triumphs and bewail our rejection slips. When we’re feeling down and discouraged, we encourage one another to keep the faith, to keep on writing, and to keep on submitting. When we begin to drown in doubt, there are always fellow InScribers ready to buoy us up. InScribers have the heart of Barnabas, the “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:26). We’re each other’s cheerleaders, always ready to encourage one another and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

What encouraging words have you spoken to spur someone on today?

Photo Credits: Pixabay

A Community of Writers by Sandi Somers

We writers spend long hours alone at our computers or with our pens and papers. Connecting with other writers helps us move forward, whether through critique groups, online networking, through writing with another—or more.

Prompt: What connecting points, what significant partnerships with other writers do you have? How have they helped you grow? What mutual benefits have you discovered?

A Point of Connection

This weekend I was reminded of how important a community is. I visited my niece, Jill, to give her little boys quilts that I had made. Jill herself has begun quilting, and so we spent the afternoon together sharing quilts and pictures. I loved a quilt Jill had made for her husband, and knew this was the design I wanted for a quilt I would make for another niece, Tammy. So I took pictures to help me remember how to make it. Then on the way home, I swung by a fabric store where I bought the fabric I needed.

Jill said it was so good to “talk quilting” with someone who understood her work.

It was such an invigorating afternoon for both of us.

This illustration encapsulated what a writing community means to me. We are connected to each other. We need each other. We can encourage each other.  

My primary writing community is InScribe. When I joined in 2011, I knew almost no one in the organization and I had few other connection with writers. But year by year, I’ve come to know other writers, through the Fall Conference, through our blogs and Facebook. (I’ll have more to write regarding Fall Conference in a future blog.)  I’ve received so much encouragement from those who critiqued my writing, (contests, and critique group), to commenting on my blog posts. InScribe has opened up an avenue for published writing, as I’ve contributed several FellowScript articles and contributed to our 2015 Anthology and supported other writers’ contributions.

For three years I was Secretary for InScribe. It was such a growing experience, as it gave me an insight into the inner workings of the organization. For me it was the best way to give back to the community in visioning, planning and coordinating reports and minutes. I recently resigned from this position but am continuing to pray for our executive and the needs of our organization.

Since my resignation, I haven’t been too involved with the “community” part of writing. God has pointed out my need to be quiet, to focus on my own works-in-progress. But I continue to regularly pray for InScribe and its writers, sometimes experiencing a burden for a particular person. At times I’ve awakened at night with an InScribe writer in mind, and I pray for him/her. This is one way I can encourage others.

I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s prayer for believers: “…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 NIV)  

I’m also reminded of these two verses:

“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed” (Ecclesiastes 4:9 NLT).

“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV).

Now over to you. Tell us about your writing community.