The Gift To Write

Recently, one of my writer friends and I had a nice little chat on the phone. She is one of the most amazing friends and encouragers.

 If you know me at all, you know that I am not shy to tell you how I feel. I might not be very eloquent in expressing my concerns, but I don't usually hold back.

Miss Transparent to a T.

Sometimes it is a good thing, and sometime it is a bad thing. During my conversation with Miss Encourager, it was a very good thing.
Because of my transparency, she was able to pour out wisdom that especially pertained to Miss T, me.

How refreshing it is to receive handcrafted advice specifically for you! It's like cool water on a hot day. It fills your insides, and gives you renewed energy to tackle the heat. And yes, this writing journey sure holds lots of fires along the way. The flame of self-doubt, the burn of rejection, the scorch of writer's block.

Miss Encourager reminded me that my ability (no matter how little or how much I feel I have on any given day) is a gift from God (period)

A gift.

He delights in giving us presents that give us joy. That's right! The reason I started writing in the first place was because it gave me joy!

I had gone years without giving away my little secret hobby. And I was content with it being just that, a hobby. But once it went "public", the pressure began to mold it into something more, to take my focus off of the little gift God bestowed upon me, and see what kind of rewards it could bring in the world (publishing, contest wins etc.)

So, as usual, after my conversation with Miss. Encourager, God found me and gave me some Scripture that I could apply (side note: He always does that!! I praise Him for strengthening my faith by His timeliness.)

⁷ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. ⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, ” says the Lord. ⁹ “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. ¹¹ I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands. ”

This is from Haggai 1:7-11 --The people had built themselves houses while God's house was in ruins. See, they took their focus off of pleasing God first, to please themselves with the blessings God gave them. Oh my heart is tingly right now! What a prompting by the Spirit to refocus!  

My friend helped me pinpoint my problem, that I forgot God had blessed me with a gift, and Scripture gave me a way to fix it, a way to sift the sin that was weighing me down.

  

When you begin to worship the gift and not the GIVER, then your heart will only suffer in drought like the people in Haggai. But when you worship the GIVER and find His joy in your gift, then you are blessed beyond measure!