Words

Words. Lots of words. I have them. And I love them. I love spellings and meanings and sounds. I love books and dictionaries and the backs of cereal boxes. Anything with words.

I remember learning to type… sitting in a classroom with no air conditioning, the second story windows open and fans blowing. Trying my best to stare straight ahead watching the chalkboard, not cheating and looking and my fingers. Twenty-five or so type writers clicking and clacking on the new, electric typewriters. With slight taps on the keys we tried to make the words fly across the paper and then one more tap made the cylinder fly back to start a new line.

Little did I know that those days spent in Mr. Hauser’s classroom would equip me to do what I love to do. Because you can have all the words in your head and your heart but you gotta get them on the paper to be effective.  But for me, there’s more to the writing than that.

As writers, we share our stories because we have to, getting the words on paper or screen because holding them inside is just too hard. I’m often asked by those who don’t blog how I do it.  The thinking, the writing, the sharing. I struggle with my answer because it just seems so ~ normal ~ to me. I write imperfectly and without an editor. I write regardless of others think.  I do it because I love it, and I do it because I would write it out even if I no longer had a blog.

We all get stuck, sometimes. Writer’s block, or the WALL, or whatever you want to call it.  It gets the best of us and we end up with no words to write. We stammer and stutter and wonder where our inspiration went.

It’s one of the reasons I love the Internet. There’s so many words and so much to read, I sometimes don't even know where to start!  Unfortunately a lot of those words are empty. Many of them are rude and disrespectful. Some are hateful or dirty. Others are silly and inconsequential.

However, reading God’s Word has profoundly changed mine. As God puts the chapters of my life together, I share them. I write to remember, to honour, to inform, to encourage. I am not perfect at this by any stretch. But I’m grateful to look back and see the progress I’ve made.

God’s words are anything but empty. And as we allow Him to speak through us, it changes our words.

The words we think

The words we write.

The words we speak.

The words we pray.

The words we act.

Do you want your words to be meaningful? And brave? And loving? And kind? And any other adjective we could choose {and believe me there are a lot!}? 

Those are the moments when we have to lay down all of our own words and turn to the words that God would have us say.  Focusing on the true and noble and right, so that my words become pure and lovely and admirable.

“May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”   Psalm 19:14 {New International Version {NIV}}

Take Care