A Step in the Write Direction
June 2, 2014
Update: (You can see the update on this
on the June 9, 2014 blog.)
Song for Today:
Earthly
pleasures vainly call me;
I
would be like Jesus.
Nothing
worldly shall enthrall me
I
would be like Jesus.
“I Would Be Like Jesus,” James Rowe, 1865–1933
Laugh for Today: "Why are you so sad?" a friend asked a man whose aunt had just
died. "You never appeared to care
much for the poor old lady." "I didn't," admitted the man,
"but I was responsible for keeping her in the mental hospital the last
five years. Now she's left me all her
money and I have to prove she was of sound mind."
Writers’ Tip: (3rd week of unpublished Writers’ Devotional Book):
Why
Do We Write?
I
have a message from God for you (Judges 3:20).
Booker T. Washington says,
concerning public speaking, “I believe that one always does himself and his
audience an injustice when he speaks merely for the sake of speaking. I do not
believe that one should speak unless, deep down in his heart, he feels
convinced that he has a message to deliver. When one feels, from the bottom of
his feet to the top of his head, that he has something to say that is going to
help some individual or some cause, then let him say it.
It’s the same with writing. Wightman
Weese, former Tyndale editor, said at a writer’s conference, “Too often we
write merely because the screen is blank and we feel we should put something on
it.”
Do we write because someone has
told us we should? One girl stood up at the end of a conference and shared, “I
learned this week I’m not called to write.” We all laughed, then she continued.
“Many well-meaning Christian friends told me I should write, but I never felt
called. I’ve always wanted to be an artist. I’m going home now to do what God
has called me to do.”
We may be writing because a
speaker impressed upon our minds that we should “write two hours a day” and we
took that as gospel truth.
Perhaps some of us write for
money. A would-be writer wrote me a letter, asking how to get started. “I want
to make enough to be able to quit my job and stay home with my four children,”
she told me. I advised her to keep her job for a while.
We may write because of the pride
we feel seeing our name in a magazine or on the cover of a book. If that’s the
only reason, watch out. Pride often leads to a fall.
We may write to taste
success. Emily Barnes writes, “Success
is really not your responsibility. You’re called to do what God asks….Leave the
outcome to Him!...Your job and mine is to be faithful and obedient—to God’s
Word. He’ll do the rest.”
But how often do we write
because, like Booker T. Washington, we are convinced we have a message to
share? When we feel—from the bottom of our feet to the top of our head—that we
have something to say that can help someone, that is the best reason to write.
I
write because:
Have
a good week spreading the
gospel through the
printed page.
Donna Clark Goodrich
dgood648@aol.com
www.thewritersfriend.net
http://donna-goodrich.blogspot.com
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