At the beginning of the year, I began a study of the book of Ephesians. A verse has caught and held my attention for some weeks:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

Love of reading and writing was built into my being. I didn’t just pop up one day and choose it. God put into me all the traits I needed as a writer. Impractical I was called. A dreamer and time-waster. And the biggest scold, “You are just too emotional!” I see it now–what perfect traits for a novelist!

When I look back, I remember a compulsion for reading and words and books from early girlhood. I wrote and dreamed up stories. I acted them out. I was always, and I mean always, reading a novel. When not reading, I gazed into nothingness and dreamed up stories. I was created to write, and in my unique way.

How much easier my writing path would have been all those years ago when I started, if I had known the truth that I am formed by God in my unique way and for a good reason. I don’t mean I would have attained more success, but I likely would have believed more in my writing ideas, would not have had to hack my way through the jungles of self-doubt and uncertainty. I would have persevered at the times I threw in the towel. I would have known that my desire to write was enough to have me do it, and not some sort of foolishness that needed to be stamped out in the name of what others consider common sense and responsibility.

Thankfully the years have taught me, and I do allow myself to write today. Often I remind myself to let the dishes sit in the sink and the phone go unanswered and the television remain off, in order to put writing first. I choose to honor the writer inside me.

And I want to share this truth with any of you out there, who might have a niggling of desire to write. I want to encourage you to give it a go. Or if you want to paint, or design cakes, or grow a garden, or create a beautiful RV. God puts the desire, the inclination and abilities within us so we will follow them and create good things. There’s a plan bigger than our plan. And I’m not talking about achieving big success of fame and money. That’s great, if it happens, but what I’m talking about is the process of following one’s creative dreams. There is enormous value and joy in finding and doing what we are designed to do and how we are designed to do it.

The process of writing a book is infinitely more important than the book that is completed as a result of the writing, let alone the success or failure that book may have after it is written . . . the book is merely a symbol of the writing. In writing the book, I am living. I am growing. I am tapping myself. I am changing. The process is the product. ~Theodore Isaac Rubin

I’ve been reading my Writer’s Life Quotes page for inspiration. You can find it here.

Grace and peace,