Community of Encouragers by Carol Harrison

 

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25 (NIV)

We all need encouragement in our daily lives. I have been and am blessed with a community of encouragers. One of my greatest encouragers was my husband, Brian. He believed I could do more than I thought I could possibly accomplish. He continually encouraged me to go and write even when I didn’t feel like it. I miss his encouragement every day more that I can express.

Yet, I am not without others who have and do encourage me even as I walk with grief which seems to put a block on my writing. A number of my grandchildren have encouraged me to branch out and try other genres or have helped design book covers or format for KDP. All of these things are encouragement. I can also encourage the grandchildren in using their talents with book cover design and formatting which I enjoy doing.

For the last two years, I have faced a block with writing and crafting. I don’t know why this has to be a season of waiting for inspiration or the desire to continue on a writing journey. Yet in the midst of this time, I have others who encourage me to try like my oldest daughter, Lorilee. We often discuss writing or my lack thereof lately. She encourages me to take a step forward and then another one. What can I do to discover what is holding me back? Then work through it and try writing something or editing something I’ve written long ago.

Maybe, she suggests, it is because I haven’t begun a project my husband had challenged me to write before he passed away. It will be a difficult project to write about journeying with him through his cancer. But it might also be a healing journey. I have started an outline and a rough first chapter and then put it back away. Maybe she is right and it is time to face it once again.

I also have friends who pray for me and encourage me. These dear friends keep telling me I have the ability to write. I just need to take the time to rest and then step forward one step at a time with the writing and crafting until the excitement returns. They get excited when I write something new or publish a piece. The encouragement makes me feel like someone cares how I am doing.

I have also been encouraged by reading the Inscribe blog posts and the authors' writings. The conference encouraged me as well. There are so many avenues of encouragement opportunities within our organization and that is how it should be.

The saying, “It takes a village to raise a child,” flits through my mind, and yet in this case for this prompt, I believe it takes a community of encouragers to help us as writers and believers continue on in the path God has set for us.

May you find a community of encouragers surrounding you.

 

Carol Harrison appreciates each person who has encouraged her on her life and writing journey. They are blessings from God.

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

Spurred and Spurring by Sharon Espeseth

" . . . Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another . . ." (Hebrews 10:24 NIV)

Spurring and being spurred on, that is the connection I have with Women Word Weavers, which is our Barrhead writing group, and InScribe Christian Writer's Fellowship, which I have been a member of for several years. Both of these groups inspire me, teach me, encourage me, and try to keep me honest and accountable about my writing. Thankful for my writing colleagues, I try to give back in kind to my fellow writers in each of these groups.

I have previously written about my InScribe and WWW mentors/friends in my September 10, 2015
blog on Inscribe, "There's No Ship Like Mentorship" and also in my November blog, "Growing with InScribe Then and Now". I will try not to repeat myself.

In both groups, I find our friendships deepen with time, but often on meeting a new writing colleague there is an instant connection. We are a diverse, but like-minded group. We trust one another with our writing and with our personal struggles. We pray for one another and encourage one another in our writing and in our lives.

Since Women Word Weavers was formed before we became a Satellite group of InScribe, we do not require members to adhere to our faith, but we are free and open to write, share, and discuss Christian matters. Most of my writing, for example is faith-oriented or at least expresses my Christian worldview.

For either group, I get excited when our next meeting, workshop, or conference approaches. We regulars, in either group, don't like missing meetings or conferences. "Kindred spirits", we enjoy each other's company and savour the inspiration freely shared. Glynis Belec in her blog on the theme of writing partnerships mentions that her group sometimes becomes a therapy session when one of the members is experiencing struggles. " . . . (We've) got each other's writerly backs," Glynis says. Can anyone identify with that?

At our WWW's meeting on Feb. 8th, I asked the group to share their comments on what our Barrhead group does. Susan said, "The last meeting made me go home and get this long-time idea down on paper." She then shared this writing, a ready-for-critique and soon-to-be-submitted article on the topic that had been on her mind for ages. Susan plans to submit this piece to a denominational publication. Yahoo!

Other members talked about great writing prompts, stretching our writing, extending our boundaries, trying new genres, and getting used to reading our writings to others. We take turns chairing meetings with each chair doing her best effort to spur us on to fresh, open writing.

Women Word Weavers

We  also take turns bringing snacks, not to outdo one another, but to buoy ourselves to higher levels of writing. True! Our discussion momentarily turned to olives, bologna as a gift from Dorene who couldn't be at the meeting, chocolate, home-made bread, and apple crisp with whipped cream. Tears, hugs, and laughter also came to mind. As members, we help one another believe in our writing and aid one another to see writing dreams come to fruition.

We talked about our much-loved member, Mabel, who is presently in hospital dealing with cancer. We are missing this gentle, soft-spoken woman for her wisdom and serenity.

On our way to visit Mabel recently, Glenice and I had grabbed a grocery-store bunch of tulips and a card. When we removed the tulips from the cellophane sleeve and put them in a short vase the nurse provided, we were aghast to see the tulips flop horizontally. We laughed at the sight, but we brought them to our friend as something for her to care for. Mabel shared our laughter and said the tulips inspired her to write a poem.

I passed on Steph Beth Nickel's "12 Benefits of Belonging to a Writers' Group" to our satellite group members. After Marianne, a Word Weaver who spends much of the year in Switzerland, read Stephanie's blog, she replied, "A good writing group matters, because it sucks to write alone!!!"

Marianne has tried unsuccessfully to start a writing group over there, but it seemed writers there aren't as open about their writing. On her trips back to Alberta, she tries to fit a WWW meeting into her schedule.

We are blessed to have our writing group(s). May we continue to spur one another on to love, good works, and good writing. "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us." (2 Corinthians 5:20a ESV)