The Beauty of Jesus by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

I attended Pioneer Girls from Grade Two to Grade Nine and then became a leader for the next thirteen years.

The aim of this club program was “to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in every phase of my life, based on Colossians 1:9-10, New Living Translation, NLT, “So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”

Songfest was a big part of our club evening, and we often sang the song, “The Beauty of Jesus.” When I consider how the concept of beauty has influenced my life, I know that some of its roots began in that clubroom as we vocalized these words:

“Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me,

All His wonderful passion and purity;

O Thou Spirit divine may I truly be Thine

Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”

@Albert W. T. Thomas, Author,

Public Domain, hymnary.org

As I consider what the creation of beauty in my writing means, I ask myself:

Do my words give honor and glory to Jesus as the Lord of my life?

Do my words for Jesus allow me to feel His pleasure as I focus on my people and the impact they may feel as they read them?

Do my words stir up word pictures of the beauty of creation, of my life of faith and family, or how I choose to portray beauty even in hard and difficult times?

I try to remember to ask the Holy Spirit to fill me and to give me God’s words as I begin to write. Sometimes I realize I forgot and stop right where I am to say I am sorry and then to ask to be

filled.

I believe the Spirit does fill me because I am His child. However, I had an experience recently where it seemed even though my hands were on the computer keys typing, the words were flowing out on their own. It was an amazing sensation, and is the only time this has happened.

That particular article was published in a magazine, and I have had people respond to me, giving thanks for my words as they embraced my meaning. I felt God’s pleasure at that point.

I am thankful God has taught me to appreciate the beauty all around me, the beauty in the words of other writers, and the practice of deepening my own way of walking in beauty as I share my words with you and with my people.

Colleen van Nieuwkerk is GG to three sons plus 3; twelve grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. She loves to read and enjoys reading to the littles in the family as well as gifting books to them. Colleen writes curriculum for women as well as teaches and is currently writing the story in book form of how this all came about. She lives in northern Alberta and can be found online @colleenvannieuwkerk.com

My Best Writing Advice by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

 

My writing life has grown in these past eighteen months. I have become a writer and an author who is published. All of this is amazing to me!

Previous to this time, as I served in full-time ministry in our church, I mostly wrote devotionals for team meetings and some curriculum.

After retirement I led our ministry to women as a volunteer for a short time, and then God asked me to take a rest period. He basically put me “on the shelf” for about two years as I processed life and considered the future.

The curriculum I have been presently writing and teaching came out of that period of rest. It is now fifteen years since God asked me to carry a burden for women who long to follow him but don’t know where to begin, or how to establish life-long rhythms that invite deeper spiritual relationship.

All of the writing and teaching for those past years has led, in more recent months, to writing my memoir and also other short, non-fiction pieces for publication.

There are two main pieces of writing advice I have received over many years that have been most helpful, no matter my perspective.

Hook. Book. Look. Took.

This advice came from one of our Christian Education Directors in our church. It can apply to both writing or speaking, and I have used it in both ways.

1. Hook - Draw my reader in with a personal story or interest point.

2. Book - Share the biblical foundation that supports my topic.

3. Look - Weave together my topic with the biblical foundation that can be applied to the current topic.

4. Took – Share and encourage how this topic applies personally to whomever I am writing. Ask good and tough questions to help the reader make their own life application.

As I began to write and teach the current curriculum for women, my pilot class encompassed many ages and stages of life. I wrote generally and the content was embraced. However, as I moved further into my outline and we completed the first year, I realized that I was writing mostly to one particular group of women. This thought brought me to my other best writing advice.

Who is My Person?

I recently realized that I came to this advice backwards. Any coaching I have received since delving into better writing tells me I need to know who I am writing for—my person—before I begin sharing my words.

I wrote for many years with a broader perspective than I should have, and yet God still honored those words. They may be applicable to any age or stage, but I believe our influence will be even deeper if we write to a specific person struggling with a problem or situation they face and offer a solution to consider that comes from our personal experience.

I am enjoying my writing life and have learned so much. This is all part of our life-long learning process.

My life verse says this so well, as our words are first meditated and then expressed, whether in our writing or in our speaking, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 ESV)

Colleen van Nieuwkerk is GG to three sons plus 3; twelve grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. Colleen writes curriculum for women as well as teaches and is currently writing the story in book form of how this all came about. She lives in northern Alberta and can be found online @colleenvannieuwkerk.com

New Beginnings by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

My New Year has almost always begun with my birthday in August, instead of in January.

I love new beginnings, the fall season and fall colors. You would notice that if you ever came to my house for coffee. I also always loved school and still love to learn. One of my life values is to be a life-long learner.

New beginnings that start in the fall season are often stirred up for me when spring arrives. I will be winding down the previous year and suddenly my mind and heart will turn towards fall and what is next. I served as a Director of Children’s Ministries in our church for fourteen years and this thought process was necessary every year. It has continued into retirement.

One of the aspects of a new focus was that I would listen for one word or phrase that God would put repeatedly before me and eventually I would choose that word for my next year. This year, my one word is “Capacity”, and my personal definition of that word is, “God-given ability to live beyond my natural potential.” My current health situation seems to affect energy and output, and that can be a hindrance to sitting at my desk.

I have now been walking in life as a widow for almost six years. Life turned inside out and upside down for me when my husband died unexpectedly. We had a strong marriage for forty-six years and I have deeply missed him. However, there have been new mercies every morning, and as the grief has become softer, God has graciously begun to restore my vision and my capacity for “laughing at the future” (Proverbs 31:26). This summer as I reviewed my previous year and set my plans, God willing, for this next year, I have asked for more capacity to complete some assignments.

Last October I was blessed to be offered a book contract from hope*books. I am writing a memoir, “An Unfolding Life” and have just completed six out of nine chapters. This offer took me completely by surprise and, although there have been some hard processes of working through good memories, I have enjoyed the writing.

My ministry within our church and online is currently continuing to write a curriculum for women that began ten years ago. It has expanded year by year and right now I am writing the current module as a pilot class and will teach it to a group of ten women.

Blogging is a goal I have had for several years, but I have not made much progress towards working the writing into my everyday schedule. My goal is that it would complement this course I have written and reach more women.

I have enjoyed writing a couple of guest blog posts here recently, and I also just submitted one devotional for a Year of Hope Devotional Book to be published in December.

I never planned to be a writer. I always loved English and Literature classes and am an avid reader. Wonder often overwhelms me as I see how God has unfolded this opportunity and set it before me as his assignment for this time. Thank you for reading and for the encouragement found in all your writing. We are blessed to experience God’s new mercies every morning as we follow his leading.

Habakkuk 3:19 (AMPC), “The Lord God is my strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror, but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering, or responsibility)!”

Colleen van Nieuwkerk is GG to three sons plus 3; twelve grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. Colleen writes curriculum for women as well as teaches and is currently writing the story in book form of how this all came about. She lives in northern Alberta and can be found online @colleenvannieuwkerk.com