By Suzanne Woods Fisher A few weeks before my first novel was due to release, I received an advance review from Publisher’s Weekly. That moment is seared in my mind: I remember the time of day it was when I received the email, where I stood in my house, how it felt as I read it. Because it was terrible. …
Are you Courageous?
By Molly Jebber Are you courageous? Are you struggling to find the courage to do something Jesus Christ is asking you to do? I can empathize. Courage is hard sometimes. I was a Director for Pharmaceutical Research, and I needed a change. Jesus Christ had been pricking my conscience to seek a new job for many reasons. But I was …
Write Where You Are
By Kathryn Haueisen “I lift up my eyes to the hills—from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 I live in one of the flatter regions of the country, and prefer to lift my eyes to the horizon across a lake or ocean, yet I gravitate to these verses …
“Check Your Battery!”
by Kristi Holl Remember the scene from Sister Act when Whoopi Goldberg is training her nuns to sing on key? The oldest (nearly deaf) nun is joyfully pounding away on the piano, oblivious to how far she is out of sync. Whoopi stops the rehearsal, stomps her foot to gain the nun’s attention, and yells, “Alma! Check your battery!” Clearly …
Writing Over Speaking
By Cindy Patterson This summer I took the trip of a lifetime … a mission’s trip to Israel. Before the trip, our team of twenty met on several occasions to prepare and discuss what to expect. At our last meeting, the leader asked if anyone would be willing to give a devotion. Speaking in front of people is not my …
A New Year’s Prayer
By Elizabeth Musser Dear Lord, As 2020 opens like a blank manuscript before me, please hear my heart. May the words I write this year be well-chosen and crafted to the best of my ability. Oh, I know the first draft won’t be a thing of beauty. But please renew my desire, my zeal, to spend the time thinking about, …
When God Has Something Else in Mind
God has blessed me with a large, close family. Between my mom and dad’s brothers and sisters, I have a total of seventeen aunts and uncles. And that’s not including their husbands and wives. The number of cousins I have, that include second cousins who are actually my age, would take a while to count. If I see one of …
My Friend Writer’s Block
By Suzanne Bratcher WRITER’S BLOCK: Anything that stops our writing. My high school English teacher would hate that definition. I can almost hear her snap, “What do you mean by anything? For that matter, what do you mean by writing?” To appease her, let’s try a simile. Writer’s block is like a horse that stops dead in the road and …
Happy New Year!
By Shirley E. Gould It’s 2020! Happy New Year to you, my writing friends. With 2019 behind us, we are facing a clean slate. That should make us happy. We have another opportunity to succeed in relationships, in our spiritual journey and in our writing endeavors. To succeed, we must prepare. I’m a planner. I make diet and exercise changes …
A New Year, A New Attitude
By Cindy Patterson Today is the last day of the year. But not only is it the last day of the year, it’s the last day of this decade. As I’ve been thinking about what I wanted to post about, my mind has taken me in all different directions. That could be because 2020 and the beginning of a new …