Being Grateful for Where I am - Ruth L. Snyder

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (NIV)

This month we are asked to share an experience in our writing life when we found that to give thanks in everything was especially difficult.

Last year I had many wonderful opportunities in my writing life. I had several novelettes and a devotional book published and was able to grow my network of writing friends, learn new skills, and try new challenges. Through this process, I received an invitation from an editor to submit a novel I was working on. She told me she really liked what she saw in the first twenty thousand words and she would offer me a contract once I submitted the whole manuscript to her. I was ecstatic about this opportunity and worked hard. However, when I was at sixty thousand words, I knew I needed to put the project on the shelf, at least for the time being, so that I could spend more time with my children.

I found this very difficult, because I was being asked to put aside something I enjoyed doing and knew I could do well. Every time someone asked me how my writing was going, I felt those pangs of embarrassment, defeat, and even anger. Why did God give me the ability and opportunity to write this novel, only to yank it away from me?

Often I find myself focusing on my problems instead of seeing the big picture. If I allow myself to continue doing this, my problems seem to grow and multiply. One thing that has helped me immensely is choosing gratitude. Giving thanks - writing or speaking what I am grateful for - takes the focus off the problem and restores my perspective. So, in my writing life, I am choosing to be thankful for the writing projects I AM able to pursue while my children are still young and at home. I may not be able to write a novel right now, but I can write blog posts and devotionals incorporating lessons God is teaching me through my children. They will sprout up and fly off soon enough. In the meantime, I can use my time to enjoy making memories with them and also share what I'm learning on the journey. This focus keeps me encouraged and also helps other parents who may be struggling.

As I focus on gratefulness, I'm reminded that:

• God is faithful
• God is loving
• God is all-powerful
• God created me and knows me better than I know myself
• God granted me the ability to write

If I truly want to glorify God with my writing, then I need to trust Him to open and close the doors of opportunity.

How have you found gratitude helps you?

We Writers by Janet Martin

We are delighted to welcome InScribe member Janet Martin as our Guest Blogger today.

Brenda invited me to share this poem in a guest-post, as an example of what I am working on; a poetry blog.

We Writers...

We writers write and bear alike the suffering of it
To breathe in ink those things we think while others simply sit
Without the quest of un-penned best, besot by phrase or form
Or restless heart where hope imparts a sweet and soundless storm

We writers scan the lowing span of new or ancient crypt  
Craving the rush of thoughts that brush, not in pigment but script
The carefree soul saunters and strolls, his thought easy to bear 
While writers thirst, both blessed and cursed by noon's word-laden air

We writers know the high and low unleashed across a page
How want and will perplex the quill and midnight is a stage
To anywhere a pen may dare to revel in the vaunt
Of oceans stirred within a word; of musing's endless taunt

We writers dream and nothing seems to be what it appears
Who knew the color blue could move a writer's smile to tears?
And who are we that poetry breathed by a blithesome breeze
can smite our hand by its command and draw us to our knees?

We writers share the glorious care of searching Heaven's Face
Where we beseech and humbly reach to touch His hem of grace
then; here and there the writer's prayer though inarticulate
enjoys the thrill of words that spill in torrents through thought's gate

When someone asks me what writing project I am working on or what my goals are, I hardly know what to say. The goal for God-fearing writers is much more than an accumulation of words to tell a story or spin a poem. We ponder, pray and pursue a passion only other writers can relate to; a passion purposed to hopefully, ultimately glorify God.

My passion is poetry and my struggle is finding its practical purpose and place in a fast-paced world. That place for now is a blog as I wait for further Instruction … to quote Peter Marshall,* ‘the Lord only knows and He hasn’t told me yet’.

However, the Lord did impress on my heart as a child, a love for poetry. I began writing poetry when I was eight or nine when, being smitten with inspiration while sitting on the barn steps, I repeated the lines until I got back to the house, then sacredly committed them to paper. Thus began a private passion, save for card-acrostics to my friends for birthdays and such.

Then, after being questioned by my son four years ago as to what my purpose for writing is when all I do is keep it in a drawer, conviction over-rode fear and I began posting on a Christian poetry-site. There a reader encouraged me to start a blog. After four years I can say I have learned there is still much I need to learn, but what a joyful, exciting journey it is.

Inscribe is a perfect example of this joy; writers encouraging writers because we need other writers as much as we need words. I thank the Lord for connections made through blogging long before I became an Inscribe member; voices such as Violet Nesdoly, Brenda Leyland and Glynis Belec.

Thus, for the time being, I am content to climb the ladder of learning to see where it will lead. And most recently it has brought me here where, as I read over and over the heart-blood spilled at Inscribe I see so much more than words from writers. I see love. Love poured from the desire to touch people, not with words but God. God is love. That is my prayer as I write and who knows where God will let the ‘seeds’ drift. It would be enough to know that, although ninety-nine didn’t care, one was helped and encouraged through Love shaped into word.

Also, my hope is that if someone out there is held back by fear, yet driven to write, maybe they will feel the love and be drawn to the possibilities that God alone will reveal as we trust Him.

  

 *From the book: A Man Called Peter written by Catherine Marshall, his wife

About Janet: I am a stay-at-home mom/day-care provider who loves to draw inspiration from family, faith and God's handiwork. I enjoy gardening, photography, cooking and anything else that involves my family. My husband James and I have been married for almost 26 years and we have four children; one married daughter who lives close by, two daughters and a son still at home. My husband is a long-haul transport truck-driver and this leaves a lot of quiet evenings which I fill with reading and writing. I blog at anotherporch.blogspot.com

A Journey through Grief, by Natasha Erskine

 (Photo taken August 2012)

For the last 20 months, I have been blogging through a season of grief. After my husband died suddenly in the Fall of 2012, I found that writing was a tremendous emotional release and catalyst for processing the hard truths, questions, doubts, and fears… Posting these writings in an online blog seemed to provide an opportunity for me to bring many loved ones along for the journey. In so doing, I discovered that everyone grieves. Grief is something that every human being experiences in one form or another, but few recognize or acknowledge it. In allowing others to see into my private ponderings, raw agony, and wrestlings with the deep questions of life, I discovered that I was giving expression to the same thoughts and struggles others were having but didn't feel the freedom to express… As much as my writing was focused on my own journey and process through grief and by faith, an unexpected blessing that occurred was the community of brokenness* that bound grieving hearts together as one, from different places around the globe.

*community of brokenness is a phrase Jerry Sittser uses in his book, A Grace Disguised, How the Soul Grows Through Loss.

Grief is not something I see myself writing about long term, though it will most certainly impact all of my writings as it has forever altered my human experience, my perspective, my approach to life and faith… But for now, compiling these blogs and finding a way to tell my story seems to be about my own journey toward healing. Through writing, I process through the up and down emotions of grief. I process through all that has happened, what it means, and where that leaves my faith, values, relationships, and trust in God. Through writing, I accomplish some of what John W. James and Russell Friedman in The Grief Recovery Handbook call a journey to completeness, where everything left "undone" in the wake of death, every emotion, relational tension, every thought, etc. must be carried forth to a place of completion before a person can truly move on into a life of wholeness and completeness. This does not suggest that the loss will not still be present or felt on some level, but it suggests a healing that leaves the bereaved in a healthy state both mentally and emotionally, and able to look back and recognize the good and the bad, the things we miss and the things we don't miss, the things we long to have again and the things we rejoice in having or experiencing in a new life or new normal…

Compiling these writings and fitting them together as a whole has been quite a challenge for me. I question what to include and what not to include, what is too intimate and what is not intimate enough?? I question the order, how I organize the writings to form a coherent or thematic pattern… As one fellow writer advised, It is not the story you have to decide on, you already have your story. Now you must choose HOW to tell it. And I question how to be honest in representing the great, though human, man my husband was on the earth. I believe that it is most honouring to my husband to tell the honest truth about our life and marriage together, but then I think, How would this make his family feel? How would other loved ones feel if I wrote about something not so positive in representing the man they knew and loved??

Ultimately, I wonder, how do I continue to honour God with my life story? Can my story of grief and healing and faith in God impact the world around me for good? Donald Miller talks about Redemptive Suffering, when we see suffering as the evil that it is, but also discover goodness where it can be found. He tells the story of Viktor Frankl and how he transcended suffering in the concentration camps, leading others to do the same, in a sense, overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21).

In the next few months, I intend to have the first rough draft complete and ready for further editing. I am excited to complete this work, ready to move on in some respects out of the depths of journeying through grief. But also richly blessed to discover the goodness that God might do in and though my life as time keeps pushing me forward…

I am happy and anxious to hear any comments, nuggets of wisdom, guiding words of experience from other writer's or fellow readers. Please do share :).


My blog can be found at Lead Me in the Way Everlasting (Psalm 139:24)

How To Live in Breathless Expectation by Janis Cox

Spiritual life is the life of a child ~ Oswald Chambers.

 

Where am I in my writing? 

I am mid-month of a blogging Sabbath rest. I realized or should I say, God pointed out, that I spent too much of my time blogging. Since I started seven years ago, it is fitting that in this seventh year I take a break. I have had projects on the back burner for far too long because each blog post requires thinking, typing, formatting, picture, Tweetable and then social media shout outs.

What have I learned?

1. Listen to the Holy Spirit
2. Slow down to feel His Presence
3. Follow Jesus by making Him my priority.

Last year I wrote on Sunday Stillness about living a leisurely pace.  Then I forgot to do what I wrote.

When we are rightly related to God, life is full of

 spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.

Where do I go from here?

Since I am only 1/2 way through this process of seeking His Presence I can only say that Jesus IS leading me.

What is my progress so far?

1. I moved my blog #UTCOP - Under the Cover of Prayer, to my website - He Cares for You - streamlining my life.
2. I am having my new children's story edited.
3. I am working on the illustrations for that story.
4. I am learning to control social media so it doesn't control me.
5. Whatever I "plan" for the day I leave open to the Holy Spirit changing that plan.

As I do these things I know that I work better, and calmer but with the spontaneity that Oswald Chambers talks about.

To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness. It should be rather an expression of breathless expectation ~ Oswald Chambers (emphasis mine).

I can only answer a few questions about my work in progress.

I can tell you that the story is more involved than Tadeo Turtle. It is still a picture book with watercolour illustrations but it is not written in rhyme.

Here is a short excerpt from the middle of the story:

So the years went by and the news of his tremendous gift spread outside the kingdom of Thrim. One day a man named Duff entered his shop. He admired the dolls that Yoj had created. He told him that he could make him the most famous doll maker in the world. He filled Yoj’s head with plans of expansion and lots of money.

Yoj was intrigued. Could life be even better than this? He listened intently to all that Duff told him. He didn’t take the time to ask his friends. He didn’t even ask God what He thought of his plan.

Before anyone knew what had happened, Yoj had closed his shop in Hearts Delight and moved out of the Kingdom of Thrim.

Yoj and Duff traveled for many months through different lands before they arrived in the city of Grimness in Shadow Land. The city was full of people, houses and businesses. Smokestacks dotted the sky. A light grey haze covered the sun.

Immediately after their arrival, Duff took Yoj to a large, grey, four-storey building. He put him into a small office that had a tiny window overlooking another larger grey building. There were no trees or plants anywhere. No one had the time to plant or care for them. ...

Sharing one of the watercolours I might use.

You can find me on Twitter @authorjaniscox ; on Facebook AuthorJanisCox; and Pinterest AuthorJanisCox

Tweetables:

Are you uncertain in all your ways - and happy about it? (tweet this)

Do you live in breathless expectation to see what God will do today? (tweet this)

Janis Cox

Janis, a former school teacher and small business owner, found a new passion in writing in her retirement. A writer since 2003, Janis co-ordinates a group blog called Under the Cover of Prayer. She is also a contributor to a group blog called Family and Faith Matters.

Janis is the author of the award winning children's book, Tadeo Turtle, published by Word Alive Press. She is the author and watercolour illustrator. For more information visit Janis on her website He Cares for You. She is a member of The Word Guild and Inscribe Writers Fellowship.

Showcase Your Current Project by Sandi Somers

This month we are challenged to write about our current project (or projects­). Is it a new project or something you’ve been working on? How did you get the idea? What are you discovering as your writing is unfolding? When do you plan to have this work finished?

Then showcase a few paragraphs of your writing. On the other hand, perhaps you don’t have any works in progress. You’re in between, wondering what to do next. Or your life has turned upside down and you’re unable to write. Either way, tell us about what’s happening for you. Here’s my “work in progress”.

Focus on Finishing

Summer is approaching, a busier time for me: I connect more with my family, I travel more, and I work in my garden and flower beds. Knowing my writing time often gets interrupted during summer, last month I asked God, “What writing shall I do this summer?”

Into those questions God’s words of peace breathed like a summer breeze. Then the Spirit gently said to “focus on finishing” some of those personal essays, vignettes and devotionals filling up my computer folders.

And so I have begun. Working on individual drafts may seem disjointed as I work first on a devotional, then on a memoir piece, then on an article on writing, but this process is giving me freedom to think one item at a time.

As I shape with more sensory details, deeper meanings, and more insights into God’s ways, I see how my writing is improving. And as I print out hard copies and place them in my binder, I experience an endorphin lift; the pieces are beginning to accumulate. One day they will fit into longer projects I have in mind, but for now, I’m content to let the work unfold gradually.

My Writing Sample

 

This month we were also invited to showcase our work. The following excerpt comes from my visit to Jerusalem where at the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus healed the invalid from thirty-eight years of suffering.

In my story, Joash, the name I gave the invalid (meaning “God has given”), had been resting, eyes closed, absorbing the warmth of the sun.

Suddenly an unexpected coolness like a cloud crossed his face. Opening his eyes, he saw a stranger with intense brown eyes crouching down near him. “How long have you been coming to the pool?” the stranger asked. “How did you become lame?”

“Those eyes,” Joash thought. “So compassionate, so penetrating!”

Immediately the frustration of his thirty-eight years burst like an old wine skin. “Sir,” Joash said, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to crawl down to the edge, someone else gets ahead of me.” All the while the stranger’s eyes looked deep into his own.

As Joash finished his story, he became calm. It had been good to speak to someone who had paid attention to him. Really listened. He felt whole.

(I proceed through the story of Jesus’ healing, and then ask reflective questions, which include the following:)

1. Psychologists know that people often need to speak their frustration before they can see the issue clearly. Have you released your feelings to someone or to God? What happened?

2. Visualize Jesus standing near you. See the compassion in his eyes as he asks, “I have something new for you. Do you want my healing?” What is the new thing you want him to do for you? How do you respond to him?

Now over to you. Tell us about your works in progress.