A Step in the Write Direction--May 18, 2015--You Know You're Called to Write When...Also, callout for submissions

A Step in the Write Direction

May 18, 2015

Update: And now, just as a football player from the winning Super Team replies when asked what he’s going to do next, “I’m going to Disneyland!” Right! On Sunday, my two daughters, son, son-in-law, and two granddaughters are going to enjoy the “happiest place on earth” (really?). It’ll be good to get away for a few days.

Callout for Submissions:

·        I now have all my material for the caregiver book divided into chapters and am looking for devotionals (200-250 words), poems, prayers, and practical hints. Some humor would be appreciated too. Email me for the chapter titles. I do have a publisher who wants to see the first three chapters, but no guarantee of a contract, so right now I can just offer you a copy of the book when published.

·        I’m going to begin work on a new book for women who find themselves living alone either through death or divorce. It will be called “Yesterday I Was a Wife…Today I Am a …” and each chapter will be something different: a tax preparer, a plumber, a carpenter, a…” Whatever it is you’ve learned how to do that your husband used to do. I’d like it to be a practical book to help other women who find themselves alone. (Yes, I know, sometimes it is the women who already do these things, but not always!) Humor would be good in this one too.

Thought for Today: “God will never unfriend you” (Jimmy Fallon, on “The Tonight Show”).

Laugh for Today:

A little late for Mother’s Day, but thought you’d enjoy these things mothers might have said:

Mona Lisa's mother: "After all that money your father and I spent on braces, Mona, that's the biggest smile you can give us?"

Humpty Dumpty's mother: "Humpty, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times not to sit on that wall. But would you listen to me? Noooo!"

Christopher Columbus' mother: "I don't care what you've discovered, Christopher. You still could have written!"

Michelangelo's mother: "Mike, can't you paint on walls like other children? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get that stuff off the ceiling?"

Jonah's mother: "That's a nice story, but now tell me where you've really been for the last three days" (Sermons@clergy.net May 10, 2015).

Song for Today:

Thou canst fill me, gracious Spirit,

Though I cannot tell Thee how;

But I need Thee, greatly need Thee;

Come, O come and fill me now.

            “Fill Me Now,” Elwood H. Stokes

Writer’s Tips:

I, therefore…beseech you to walk worthy of the calling to which you were called

—Ephesians 4:1 (nkjv).

You know you’re called to write when:

• You’re tired and want to go to bed but something inside must be put down on

paper.

• Unexpected bills arise and you’re offered a good or better job, but you feel God

wants you to devote more time to writing.

• You’re asked to be the neighborhood chauffeur or babysitter (because you’re

home all day), or the PTA public relations chairman (because you’re a writer),

and you have to say no because of your ache to write.

• None of your family understands why you skip a favorite TV show and sit at

your computer for so long, sometimes with tears in your eyes.

• Money is tight, but you feel led to take a writing course or attend a conference.

• Your favorite “inspired” article or book proposal is sent out twelve times and

returned twelve times with only a form letter, or no letter at all, but you send it

out again because you believe in it.

Then you must know that your writing is not just a hobby but a calling. You’ll know it’s

not the writing that’s important, but the message you have to share. And you’ll know that

it’s not you, but Christ who lives in you (Galatians 2:20).

Sherwood Wirt, the late editor of Decision magazine, spoke the following words many

years ago, but they still hold true for us today: “Either we Christian writers mean business about winning souls for God, or we should go out of business.…If you have been ordained to write, woe to you if you put everything else first. Woe to you if you do not give to God the best part of the day when you are most alert, when…the juices are flowing and the mind is creative.…

“We have the greatest subject in all history, the Man from Nazareth…the greatest

commodity, the gospel; the greatest book, the Bible; the greatest gift to offer, eternal

salvation. If that doesn’t motivate us…we’re in trouble.”

 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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