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Momma, You are Called to Greatness!

May 6, 2013 By Kristin • 19 Comments

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I remember telling my mom, in the the shyest of ways, that I felt like there was greatness in me. I knew that God had a calling on my life and I knew that it was significant. That greatness is in all of us who have surrendered to Jesus. His calling on each of us is a call to live with His extraordinary greatness flowing out of us.

For too long I have felt desperate, overwhelmed and have moaned about how hard mothering is. I somehow lost sight of that greatness.

I hear God calling me to wake up. I sense He’s calling us all to wake up to greatness.

Yes, being a momma IS hard but we have a choice to quit moaning and being overwhelmed and saturate ourselves in the presence of God where He calls us to greatness in our homes.

We can lead our children not only to the cross to avoid hell but to God’s face so that they are changed, and the greatness in them is stirred up. So that they hear Him and see Him and KNOW Him. So that He stirs up callings and giftings in their lives while they are but babes and they take their generation for Him because they had a mom who led them to Jesus. A mom who sacrificed her own moaning for an easier life for crying out to God with her children for change. A mom who didn’t just bandage the hurts and wounds of her children but asked God to speak to them and waited on Him with her children in effort to teach them that this is what you do when you are hurt… you run to Him.

You have greatness inside of you. Now let it out! Stir up that greatness in your children by living a life knowing who you are and the using the tools & weapons that you have.

Be overwhelmed with Jesus and not with your circumstances.

Quit fretting about all of your mistakes and how to do it ALL and simply press in, with your children, to see the heart changes you long for, to see God’s power rise up in your home and in their lives.

Pray for their friends as if your children’s lives depended on it (they do). Pray for their schools as if revival is possible (it is). Pray for healing as if it’s yours (it is). Ask for the things you need and watch God move in power and overwhelm what overwhelms you. His greatness is ready – waiting – to rise up in you and do great things.

You are the key momma. You! Yes, all the little things matter and God sees you serving. It’s true. But don’t fall asleep thinking that you can just go about your day and there isn’t an enemy out there waiting and watching for a way to devour you and yours.

Rise up, oh woman of God. Rise up mighty warrior. You are called to greatness. You are called to be a GREAT leader in your home. You are a lioness who has cubs in her care. It’s time to get tough and dirty on your knees before God and even in front of your children. They need to see how you fight. They need you to show them How God fights for them, how He sees them. Quit waiting for something magical to happen in you. You already have everything you need.

Do you feel it rising? It’s called greatness. Now let’s walk in it!

In this with you, Kristin of The Beautiful Deep

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19 Comments • Filed Under: Motherhood

Feeding Your Creativity, Exploring Your Dreams

May 3, 2013 By Tricia Goyer • 15 Comments

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I’m an author of a lot of books and a lot of blogs—thirty-five and 3,000+ respectfully! I write a lot. I plot a lot, but one of my biggest weaknesses is in taking time to consider how to fuel my soul. There’s a lot going out, and if I’m not careful I get drained.

Ways I fuel my writing day:

Reading God’s Word
Writing a prayer in my journal
Reading a devotional book
Reading inspiring blogs
Chasing my kids around
Feeding my visual senses at Pinterest
Listening to my favorite songs via Spotify
Reading People.com (okay, mostly looking at the new babies)
Doing a craft with my kids
Reading a chapter of a novel
Chatting with a friend
Looking through stock photos and playing with PicMonkey

I used to think of these things as procrastination or obstacles, but I’ve found that when I give myself time to listen to words, to see lovely images, and to laugh and play, I’m filling up the creative fuel that allows the words to flow.

I’ve also discovered it’s important to brainstorm big ideas. Yes, writing a shopping list is planning, but at least every few weeks I like to jot down notes about “big-picture dreams.”

A few things that made it from ideas to reality:

Taking our teens on a mission trip (turned into three trips in three years)
Adopting a baby (we’ve since adopted one, with two more adoptions in the works)
Write a book with a business guru (Ken Blanchard and I have one that just released: Lead Your Family Like Jesus)
Do a book-signing tour (my friend joined me)
Go on a cruise (we’ve been on two)
Be on the Focus on the Family Radio Program (I’ve been on twice.)
Visit the Holocaust Museum in DC

Things I’m still dreaming about …

Have one of my novels made into a movie
Taking all my kids (including the new ones) to Disneyland
Being invited to be on the Today Show
Living in the Czech Republic with my family for a year
Taking a Mediterranean cruise
Visit New York City

How about you? Do you take time to feed your creativity? Do you take time to feed your dreams?

We’ll all get burnt out if we don’t create, explore, enjoy, hug, laugh, and dream. I guarantee you’ll be more efficient with your writing work when you feed these parts of your soul!

Tricia Goyer

15 Comments • Filed Under: Encouragement

Bread and Crumbs

May 1, 2013 By Kristen • 22 Comments

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I should be networking, I know. That’s what people do at writing conferences. They network. They do not slink away to their cars when no one is looking.

I stare at my reflection in the window and chastise myself for not being a better faux extrovert.

That’s when I see her, a middle-aged woman hiding out in a red minivan some spaces away. I peer at her because it’s okay to spy on people if you’re a writer.

She does not see me, but I notice the anxious wrinkles that spread across the bridge of her nose and grip her blue eyes in their hold. She clutches a stack of papers in her ringed hands. They are the hands of a woman who has held a lover and bathed children and coaxed shadow-thoughts into words in the dark of the night while the children were sleeping and the dishes were growing crusty in the sink.

Everything she has ever written has come down to this: a book proposal and a fifteen-minute time slot with a literary agent carved into an afternoon of sessions on how to be a better writer. It’s an opportunity she plunked down fifteen dollars for and then cried about, as if this dream of hers wasn’t worth fifteen dollars and a trip to Portland to go to a writer’s conference where she might learn she’s not even a real writer.

Uncertainty wears so heavy on her face, I can feel it from three cars over. Her eyes stumble over every double-spaced word, even though it is too late to change anything. It is printed. It is done. But she can’t stop chewing on the words, churning them over in her brain to quell the gnawing in her stomach.

She is hungry for this.

The realization startles me because I am hungry too, and I see on her face everything I see in my reflection. Just three cars over is another sword-slinger, another wordsmith, another hopeful. Just three cars over is a woman who wants this just as much as I do and possibly deserves it even more.

I feel a certain seizing in my heart, the kind I felt when I stumbled across a very successful blog and realized the author was someone I vaguely remembered from college, someone who didn’t even major in writing, someone who had the audacity to say she never intended to be a successful blogger. It just sort of happened. Accidentally.

How nice.

I read through her words and searched her blog, first looking for errors to feed my jealousy and then searching for crumbs to satisfy my longing. Maybe she would remember me and read my blog and share it with her ample readers and then, then…

…then maybe I would get a piece of that bread that seems to be in short supply.

It hit me then, when the gritty crumb melted into my tongue and I groveled around in the dirt with the dogs, waiting for something to drop, that there is nothing under the table that is not more readily available around it.

He whispered to me, “I broke my body to feed you, Child. I will not let you go hungry.”

I glance back at the woman. We are a part of a community of those who can get so busy talking about bread that we forget there is plenty to eat. We are hungry.

And in our minds, God is limited to five loaves and two fishes, and there is a multitude that needs to eat.

But our God is not limited by loaves and fishes. In His hands, there is bread in abundance, bread so plentiful, I cannot stretch my belly big enough to contain it all. There is bread for her and there is bread for me, and more than enough room at the table for us all.

We need not want for the crumbs.

I hear a car door open and the woman steps out. She sees me then, and I smile. She is hungry. I am hungry.

And I know just where we both can find the bread.

22 Comments • Filed Under: Encouragement Tagged With: bloggers, competition, encouragement, writing

A Modern Proverbs 31 Story

April 29, 2013 By Crystal • 15 Comments

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Hands groggily find phones and slide alarms into the snooze position to steal a few more precious minutes of sleep. Eyes bleary, feet hit a chilly floor to find coffee and solitude in the early morning hours, before toddler wakes and demands are made. Padding down the hallway to find community on the other side of the screen, women and mothers and wives and friends who travel these same early morning hours to work, plan, pray, and cheer together. Silent feet slide over and around and avoid spots known for creaking and cracking, ninja-like mama skills on display.

I meet God in the darkness, in the weary “before” time of my day. He meets me there, over cups of coffee, laptop clicking, living Word on touchscreens and the Holy Spirit alive and present in my closet office. I embrace my role as a Proverbs 31 woman:

“First thing in the morning, she dresses for work, rolls up her sleeves, eager to get started. She senses the worth of her work, is in no hurry to call it quits for the day.” (Proverbs 31, MSG)

It’s a modern day version, early rising to connect on Twitter and start my day with Jesus loving accountability sisters, rolling up sleeves to work a corporate job, no hurry to call it quits for the day because the late night hours are when the joy-work happens.

Then there are days when those feet make it out of bed with just enough time to head out the door. There are days when the “to do” list grows and the dishes aren’t cleaned and the toddler won’t listen (and all she says is “no”…all…the…time…). There are days when the countdown to bedtime means mama is SO in a hurry to call it quits for the day.

And I am thankful for grace.

The heart-work is done in the spare hours, the ones leading up to brushing teeth, finding baby doll, and waiting the eight years it takes a toddler to slide down 14 stairs when her hands are full of all. the. things. that are essential for a ten minute car ride. There is weariness in those hours, but an exhausted joy that comes from knowing that this work? The reason my sleeves are rolled up before the sun has peaked over the horizon? This is what God had in mind me for me from the very beginning. I am created for this work.

My cup runs over in the late hours, typing words that make souls stronger, planning and encouraging and writing and saying yes to my dreams. In the hours after lights are off, dinner is away, the bathtime bubbles have been stomped and little girl is snuggled asleep for the night. I’m in no hurry to call it quits for the day when I know the pouring into I receive when I pour out what God has put on my heart. The dream-work doesn’t get done during the mundane hours of 9-5. It happens in the sacrifice, the bleary, weary eyes of one who can no longer strive on her own but goes on purely by the saving grace of a Father who holds doors open just enough to let hope shine through.

And so a cup of coffee is poured as sleeves are rolled up. It’s a new day, friends. Let’s get to work.

15 Comments • Filed Under: Motherhood

How to Grow Your Blog & Your Home, Your Blogging Business, Simple Blogging and MORE!

April 29, 2013 By Sarah Mae • Leave a Comment

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The Benefit of a Blogging Mentor

April 24, 2013 By Mandy Scarr • 19 Comments

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Do you have a life mentor? Do you have someone who pours their heart, wisdom, prayers, and love into your life?

Mentors have played a tremendous role in my life as a Christian. Over the course of my new life in Christ I’ve had a couple of different mentors. Each of these mentors has breathed life into my soul, showered me with their wisdom and loved me in a way I never could have expected.

After I began blogging I began to see that, just as in life, I had a lot to learn. I not only needed a deeper understanding of the technical aspects of blogs, but my writing required greater depth and insight. I wanted feedback and I craved constructive criticism that would help me progress toward my writing goals.

At first I started to “stalk” some of my favorite bloggers. I would look at the format of their blogs, watch how they hosted guests, ran giveaways, and shared their heart. Closely following these amazing bloggers taught me a lot, but I was unable to receive the personal one-on-one help I was craving.

And that’s when I decided to step out.

I am blessed that I have an in-real-life friend who is already several steps ahead of me in the blogging world. I admire her writing, her passion, and her professionalism. I wanted to learn everything I could from her, and so I took a chance and asked her to be my blogging mentor. Although she is a close friend, I was nervous about asking her. She has numerous kiddos, multiple writing projects on her plate, and many professional business projects in the works. I was worried she would see me as another addition to her already highly committed schedule.

But after a few days of praying about it, she agreed to be my mentor.

This new phase of our relationship has been a huge support to me. Although we don’t talk about blogging on a weekly or sometimes even monthly schedule, I am grateful to her for the time and feedback she gives me. I have learned a tremendous amount from my seasoned blogging mentor, and I know I wouldn’t have grown as much as I have over the last year without her.

It was easy in the begining to “stalk” different bloggers, trying to learn what they were doing and why they were making the writing/blogging decisions that they were. As my blog grew, and as my dreams came into greater focus, I realized the importance of running my blogging/professional world just as I run my life – with intentionality.

Having a mentor who is willing to pour their wisdom and insight into me has allowed for me to become more intentional in all aspects of my life, and so I am grateful to have found a blogging mentor to help me find that same focus and intentionality in my writing and professional pursuits.

And so I wonder, sweet blogging friend, do you have a blogging mentor?

Sure, maybe you “stalk” other blogs like so many of us do, but do you have someone who you can boldly ask for their guidance? Maybe this person doesn’t yet know you exist, and that’s ok. Take some time to pray about whether or not this person is worth pursuing as a blogging mentor, and if the Lord is fine with it, I encourage you to humbly reach out to them about it.

You may not be able to find someone who can commit to mentoring you right away, but don’t get discouraged! Just continue to pray that the Lord may reveal someone who would fill that role. If you’re anything like me, this relationship is sure to help you grow.

By, Mandy Scarr

19 Comments • Filed Under: Bloom in Blogging, Encouragement, Smaller Bloggers, Uncategorized

Be More Beautiful Than A Silver Tongue

April 22, 2013 By September • Leave a Comment

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(photo credit)

Motherhood resonates beauty in this part of the writing on-line world on Mondays. Allume living happens in your every day walk and talk, and radiates the light when we come together in our words. The overflow.

There are not many areas of our lives that we can gloss over with a pretty coat of white wash and hope they look good for everyone to see. In this house, if I am having a bad day, then everyone here knows it. If I am rash, and impatient, you might not know that with the words that I pen.

When you write in many places, your pen and your words might be like a silver tongue - expressing yourself readily, clearly, effectively; “able to dazzle with a facile tongue”; “silver speech”….

It is a beautiful thing when the lessons of life and motherhood prepare you for the writing world.

Consider the Three Graces of Motherhood and Life that lead us – to Be More Beautiful Than a Silver Tongue:

- Be Your Children’s Advocate

( This means they trust you enough to come to you) How often do you read another post and don’t feel comfortable leaving a comment? When you write, are you trustworthy to handle the hearts of others?

Although I fall weary many nights from the exhausting effects of what I call “counseling sessions” with my children after what seems like taffy-pulls of the heart, I go to bed with peace knowing that they can see my life is an open book and a learning curve of God’s forgiveness and that my reaction to their hurts, poor choices and actions will not bring a wrath or judgement, but a trusted heart. Listening and Grace. My words would not be savvy or eloquent – but heart wrenching and seasoned with God’s word.

-Don’t Take “It” So Personally

(This means that the attitudes and words that hurt – are not “meant” for you) This is hard to wrap the brain around. How often do you receive comments on your sites and writing, that seem to sting and cause your heart to stop in its tracks? When you write, do you seek to edify or to encourage?

One thing I have learned in my mom walk, is that there is always a “deeper issue” going on in the heart of the child that aims a hurtful comment or an attitude that seems mis-directed. I have learned not to take everything so personally.

-Learn From The Hardest Mom Moments

( Motherhood stretches me. Stretches me in areas I never thought I could move, bend or get past) Writing is like that. We may feel void of words, unsure of where our writing is taking us, and sometimes, the not too comfortable places. Our words may be hard to write, hard to live, and may never reach the paper.

The most valuable lessons in my life I have learned from the hardest moments in motherhood. Growing me and stretching me to become a better mom ( writer), focusing on what is really important, and allowing the overflow of my hardest moments to write the words that will change and influence the hearts of my children. ( my readers).

It is my prayer to be more beautiful than a silver tongue.

How is motherhood/life preparing you to be like gold in your words and actions in the writing world?

September @ OneSeptemberDay

Leave a Comment • Filed Under: Encouragement, Motherhood, Writing

God Has All the Momentum You Need

April 19, 2013 By Guest • 12 Comments

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God has all the momentum you need. That holds true for new bloggers as well as those who have been writing for years. If you are a new writer… write. If you are a seasoned writer… write. Move into your vision, because God has all the momentum you will need.

It’s hard. I know. Worthwhile things usually are the hardest to tackle for many reasons. However, life is worth sharing. Your life is worth sharing.

Practically since the day I made an entrance into this world, I have had a desire to write. My mom told me that I started carrying a pen and paper {and I think a calculator which explains my frugality!} at a very young age. Yes, I wrote. Poems. Doodles. Letters. Then as I grew older that progressed. Articles. Newsletters. Cards. The stuff I enjoyed creating visually. That turned into a career in media. Woo Hoo! I made it!

Or so I thought.

What I didn’t get right away after starting my first blog was this: I had not made it.

God had made it for me!

Oh, I was thanking Him all along, because I knew it was not MY talent, but HIS gift. But I didn’t really “get it”. That He had done it all ahead of time. I listened intently as He began to show me that all those years – since toddlerhood – He had been preparing me for THIS.

Encouragement and Love.

He laid those two words on my heart and a bell went off so loud that I nearly jumped off my chair. Yes, God! YOU prepared me. YOU gave me the vision. YOU gave me momentum!

As I pray over these very words, and the words I write every time I pick up a pen or lay my hands to rest on a keyboard {which is often wet with my tears from joy and sometimes from the memories}, I am reminded by His gentle loving tug – “I am loving others through you, Heather.”

{Here come those tears. Just from that sentence alone.}

I urge you, dear ones, who feel a tug to write or speak what God has done for you and through you, pray and ask Him to show your unique way of doing it. Jump out there. He will bless it.

Wherever you look is where you will follow. Look to Him and you will follow His perfect lead in His perfect timing. I used to be hard on myself for waiting so long to really pour out my heart and soul on my blog and in my books. But then I listened. It was His timing. It was His momentum.

I followed His momentum.

He is waiting for you to follow. Go, dear ones. Fly!

Live Blessed ~ Heather

Heather has spent 40+ years wandering through life – at first aimlessly and now at last with drive, passion, and commitment to Christ who called her out of the darkness. Her life has brought depression and healing, death and life, destruction and repair, sadness and victory – and above all else … LOVE. Her prayer is that as you read through her life in an intimate way your eyes and hearts will land upon words that make you long for God even more. “When a life is touched, a life is changed. Sometimes that life is changed so drastically that it must speak.”

Heather writes at: 40 Year Wanderer
You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.

12 Comments • Filed Under: Encouragement, Writing

What a Christian Writer Does with Self-doubt

April 18, 2013 By Michele-Lyn • 27 Comments

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I’m an Allume contributor, in the company of brilliant, beautiful writers. And perhaps that sets me apart in your mind, somehow better than you because I’m here. Maybe?

I have thought it before, and still do at times. I see a fellow blogger and friend get chosen for an opportunity that I would have liked, and the first thought that triggers an avalanche of negative others is, “What’s wrong with me that I wasn’t chosen? Am I not good enough?”

But what if I told you I’ve written my post 3 times? As in, I have 3 distinctly different drafts written for the one that was due today. None of them made it here. This one did.

The reason there are 3 drafts is not because I’m a terrific writer, but more like a terrified one. And it’s failure I’m afraid of. And the problem with fear is that it’s not from God.

What if I told you I feel like a tidal wave of self-doubt has overwhelmed me, and rather than be writing right now, I want to run and hide my words? Would you still think being an Allume blogger makes me better than you? Oh, I hope not, friend. I hope that you find I’m just a person like you. I’m a women who still struggles with self-doubt, comparison, distraction, and competition.

I confessed it to a friend, though it scared me to, “I have a love-hate relationship with being a contributor or guest posting because I feel pressure to please and perform. The numbers, the Facebook likes and shares, tweets and pins, they show everyone, and boast my success or shout my failure.”

It’s not because anyone else has imposed that pressure, but because I have. It’s debilitating and draining, and I know it’s prideful, wayward thinking, self-doubt and fear talking. And I can’t be passive about it.

What do I do when there are moments and months when self-doubt hovers like a heavy dark, brooding cloud over head? There are lies that incessantly seek to penetrate my mind, and beckon to be believed and acted upon to lead me to an end. To end this race I’m running. And to end writing about it.

I must look at my fear, not only as a weakness on my part, but an attack, and a very real temptation to be overthrown. <– Tweet

While I’d like to tell you the battle is over, I cannot. But I’m going forward — courageously afraid. And this is part of what a Christian writer can do with self-doubt. I’m practicing.

Speak Truth: God’s word is our only offensive weapon listed in our Armor, so wield the sword of the Spirit. (Eph 6:17) Speak aloud His word because faith comes by hearing it. (Rom 10:17) And it renews our mind, as we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor 10:5) “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37)

Go Low: Surrender it all daily, hourly if necessary. Sometimes we really are in the midst of a spiritual attack and the devil prowls like a lion seeking whom he may devour. (1Pet 5:8) After we submit to God resist the devil because he must flee. And “…don’t try to impress others. Be humble.” (Phil 2:3) For God gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6)

Obey God: If God has called us to do something than our success is as sure as our obedience, though He measures success differently than us. I’m almost certain He’s not counting our Facebook likes, but rather lost souls that have found Him because of our courage to write His message.

Be You: We don’t need to try and be anyone except who God created us to be. When we do, the world misses out on the facet of God that He’s chosen us to display. We are accountable to live the life He gave us, and no one else’s.

Be Vulnerable: Hiding our weaknesses can isolate us, because we are afraid God or others will see them and wound or judge us by it. But we need to know we are not the only ones struggling. “Our vulnerability draws God to us. Our helplessness reveals His Presence. Our weakness makes known His strength. Our confessions prompt His grace.” — Dr. Les Parrott

Write Afraid: Sometimes what we fear sharing most, is what’s most important to share. “We are more naked and needy before words that we write than perhaps anywhere else. We fear this, so we avoid it. But reality is where God shows up. Reality may be painful, but if we want to meet God we have to go there.” — Dan B. Allender

Do you ever struggle with fear or the temptation to quit writing? Will you tell us how you overcome?

I’m trusting Him,

Michele-Lyn at A Life Surrendered

27 Comments • Filed Under: Bloom in Blogging, Encouragement, Life in Christ

8 Tips For Beginning Writers

April 17, 2013 By Kris • 31 Comments

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As a homeschooling mom of 4, finding time to write can be a bit of a challenge. My children are all young enough to still need quite a bit of help and attention doing everything from loading the dishwasher, to using the potty. To say I don’t have a lot of free time is an understatement.

A question I am often asked is this: “How do you have time to write like you do?“ Or, people sometimes say it in a statement form, like this: “I don’t know how you found the time to write a book!”

8 Tips for beginning writers, (You Can do it) <–Tweet this!

I treat writing as a job. What I mean specifically is, I set aside specific time to work. I schedule it into my day, just as I would a doctors appointment or a girls night out. This helps me to plan our activities, and allow plenty of face time and class time with my kids, while still getting my projects done.
I set deadlines. I’m jumping headfirst into another project and in order to make that happen, I have set deadlines for myself to complete different phases of the project. This prevents me from ~~enjoying~~ wasting hours of time watching Duck Dynasty, when I need to have something ready for editing.
I guard my writing time fiercely. My children take a scheduled quiet time every day. This time is sacred to me. This is when I write most often (like right now) and I am very careful about things that would otherwise interrupt this time. It occurs at the same time everyday, and so I schedule our entire day around this 2 hour window. I’ve been known to turn down many activities that interrupt this hallowed time. Thankfully, my friends here know me well, and don’t often ask us to play or do anything during that time, and likewise, I avoid scheduling anything that will prevent me from being near my computer during this small window of time.
I (sometimes) write at night. Part of the reason I guard my quiet time with such ferocity, is that in the evenings, I’d like to hang out with my husband. Therefore, in order to write, I must try and work around his schedule, which means limited night writing. When I was in the throws of finishing my book, many nights were spent writing, and we made do, because we knew that pace would not last. I try to have a once a week “write night” (#writenight for you tweeps out there) because honestly, sometimes, night writing is where the magic happens. I should add here that my husband is an absolute saint and supports me fully in my writing, which makes all the difference in the world. Amen.
I write before the sun comes up. Early morning is an excellent time to get those first morning thoughts out on paper–and that’s specifically how I do my morning writing, on paper in my journal. I won’t speak too much to this because everybody has their method, but I will simply say this, if you write almost exclusively on the computer, I suggest you find a good legal pad or a journal and every now and then, write long hand. I am amazed sometimes at how different my writing can be when I take the time to draw out the letters.
I take scheduled breaks. I have found this to be a critical component in my efforts to hold on to ideas. The more tired I am, the more often I lose the words. Scheduling rest is a key component in holding on to my story and making my deadlines. ( If you need accountability and encouragement to take time off from being creative, try this.) This leads me to my last point.
I get offline. Sometimes I can be positively fed full by the online conversations I enjoy. But I can also easily waste a tremendous amount of time online, and get distracted from my own writing and work. If you want to write, get off line and do the work. Everybody knows this already, but yet, many of us still struggle with this one seemingly obvious point.
I pray. This perhaps should have been the first point, but the fact that I list it last does not speak to the significance of this tip. If you want to write, take that desire to the Lord and give it back to Him. Ask Him to show you how to fit it into your life, and for the words and wisdom to share. I believe that God is honored most by our willingness to use the gifts He has given us, for His purposes. Don’t know what that looks like for you? Ask Him. He will direct your steps.