Quake Not (BUT be prepared) ~ by Brenda J. Wood

 Some of the worst presentations I’ve ever endured were by authors reading their own work aloud!

First of all, the writers probably haven’t read their own words since they wrote them and they almost certainly have not read them aloud.

They choose a passage meaningful to their own hearts but not the least bit interesting to the listeners. Thus, the audience is unmoved and uninterested, maybe even bored.

I once saw a woman trying to hold her book, the microphone (and maybe her skirt?) all at the same time and she even refused help when offered. It was awful and we were all in agony. Worse, the author didn’t get it. She announced that the place needed a better microphone. (No, they needed a speaker who was prepared.)

So then, how do we prepare to speak? And the question is when we speak. Because we write, people think we have something worthwhile to say and they ask.

Our words should be useful and enduring and edifying. We definitely do not want to come across as unprepared or even worse, foolish.

At one author event, I simply took five or six of my books to the podium and used my two minutes to say this. “Two things you will find in my books, is Jesus and humour. And I sat down.

Note: I never read directly from my books, but photocopy the pages I want to read and hold the book up for all to see.

Speaking is a learning curve and I’m grateful that I’ve had several opportunities as a 4-H leader, Weight Watchers coach, Stonecroft and more.

President John F. Kennedy always marked his speeches with breathing spaces, highlighted words and pauses for audience reaction.

I decided if it was good enough for the president, it was good enough for me! All of my notes are laid out exactly that way.

I print my message in 14 font, double spaced, because once on a four-day speaking tour, I broke my glasses and I couldn’t see the words.

I used to practice in front of my three- and six-year-old children. They always approved of course, but I got practice reading aloud.

Record your message. Listen in. Play it fast forward and slow it down. Find your errors. If you video it and fast forward, you find your often repeated hand movements, like touching your hair, your necklace or some such. Stop it. Those multitudinous gestures deflect people’s attention.

Number your pages. Crumple each page completely and then straighten it out. This prevents them from sticking together. Deliver the message on one page and then slide it over so the next page is ready to ‘read.’  (No shuffling of papers.)

Did you know that the fear of death is number five and the fear of speaking in public is number one?

Whatever happens when you give a message, you are braver than your audience!

Again, I say, practice, read out loud, repeat and do that until you actually mean and believe what you are saying. Then you can give any presentation with ease.

Brenda J. Wood has authored more than fifty books. She is a seasoned motivational speaker, who declares the Word of God with wisdom, humour, and common sense.

Q is for Quit (Five Reasons Not to Quit Writing) ~ by Wendy L. Macdonald

 

One: Self-publishing is always an open door

Two: No one writes the way we do. Only we can reach certain readers with the encouragement God has given us.

Three: Even if we choose not to publish our writing, it’s a cathartic exercise that helps us make sense of the world.

Four: God doesn’t want us to bury our talents under fear of failure.

Five: If we sense from God we’re supposed to keep writing, then write we must. Obedience brings us the blessing of His peace. Writing to please God is the best place to start. And it’s a compelling reason not to quit.

I made this post short because right after I started the first draft of it, I decided to record it as a podcast on my YouTube channel. If you need encouragement, follow this link. Otherwise, please add your reasons in the comments for not quitting writing. As always, I’m nosy to know.

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and he helps me.

My heart leaps for joy,

and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 28:7 NIV

P.S. December is the letter X. Since it’s InScribe’s 25th year, Let’s end our ABC’s of Writing Inspirational Poetry and Prose with the XYZ’s of how InScribe has been a blessing to writers. 

Wendy L. Macdonald is an inspirational blogger and YouTuber who loves photographing nature on Vancouver Island. Her happy place is making junk journals to sell in her Etsy shop. Her byline is: “My faith is not shallow because I’ve been rescued from the deep.”

A Preponderance of Ps by Bob Jones

This piece is presented on April 29th as a result of a profound amount of procrastination. I’m 21 days late because I put off pressing the publish button. That was a product of being a perfectionist. 

Preponderance

 

When I failed at crafting the perfect post, I postponed long enough that I completely failed to perform. I could proffer excusing my faux pas because I was preoccupied with preparation for a prolonged trip to Ukraine but I’ll pass on that proposition. 

 

On April 9th I was a guest professor in a seminary class in Lviv, Ukraine, teaching Pentecostal History. Surprise! I received a polite reminder from Wendy MacDonald about my missing post for April 8th. 

 

There was utter pandemonium in my thinking as my perfectionist personality wanted to throttle the procrastinator in me.

 

PhD kind of experts offer a perspicacious perspective: procrastination is really an avoidance of perceived future pain. There is a high probability that this quality is proliferate among creative perfectionists like those who populate this blog. If that’s your position, start before you're ready. 

 

As a plus, plan something pleasant as a panacea to persist in completing your project.

 

And one more “p”. 

 

Palindromes are numbers or words that read the same backwards and forwards like racecar, madam, 2020 or… Bob.

 

I am off to have a piece of pecan pie as a prize for persevering.

 

It was my pleasure to have you read this pithy post. Please point out "p" words I could have put in.

 

Read more of Bob's pieces at REVwords.
 

Puddle of pain by Mary Folkerts

 

Don’t play in the water, 

reminds the voice of caution. 

You’re not prepared 

in your silken slippers.

The mud will ruin 

your clothes.

Stay away from the puddle,

no good can come

from sitting in the 

muddy pool

water up to your eyeballs.

You could 

die!

 

It may be deeper 

than you know,

back up,

gather your skirts and run!

You could drown 

in it.

But what if they’re 

wrong?

The puddle of pain

my schooling 

where the minnow

learns to swim,

the pollywog

finding its legs

straining

stretching 

becoming. 

I think I will sit here

with my pain

and learn what I need 

to know. 

A little water 

won’t kill 

me. 

It’s our inherent reaction to run from pain, to avoid it at all costs, but pain finds us, and we have no choice but to confront it. If life is a coin, pain and sorrow are on one side just as surely as joy and fulfillment are on the other.

Would we be better off accepting that pain is part of life? I’m not suggesting we wallow in the difficult things that come our way, but neither should we run from them our whole lives so we never truly live for fear of pain.

 

I wonder if we could learn to sit with the pain of our emotions longer and learn from them instead of trying to shed ourselves of them prematurely? It’s like the figurative hot potato we want to toss before it burns our hands. 

 Pain can be our teacher, even if it takes years to understand what the lesson was.  And sometimes, there may be no apparent lesson other than the fact that life on this side of heaven has pain attached to it. And maybe the nearest thing we can learn and be witness to is the presence of Jesus, who holds us afloat in the pain. That, too, is a lesson worth learning. 

Mary Folkerts is mom to four kids and wife to a farmer, living on the southern prairies of Alberta, where the skies are large and the sunsets stunning. She is a Proverbs 31 ministries COMPEL Writers Training member and is involved in church ministries and music. Mary’s personal blog aims to encourage and inspire women and advocate for those with Down Syndrome, as their youngest child introduced them to this extraordinary new world. For more inspiration, check out Joy in the small things https://maryfolkerts.com/  or connect on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/maryfolkerts/ 

 

P is for Passwords ~ by Michelle Strutzenberger

 

Would you rather your life be more like a password or poetry?

Passwords have become ubiquitous in this day, haven’t they?

We used to memorize poetry.

Now we burn up our brain power memorizing passwords. Or at least trying to remember where we wrote them down.

We’ve probably all experienced the “password checker.” Password checkers check the strength of our passwords. Of course, the longer and more nonsensical, the stronger they are.

Why do we need strong passwords? Well, to protect us from hackers. Hackers would like to get our money, identity, messages, and credit cards.

In our daily lives, there can be other types of hackers that steal something even more precious – our joy, our peace, our love.

I have found that the best protection against real life hackers is to put everything at Jesus’ feet.

I’ve found it especially helpful if I specifically name what is bothering me. I’ve come to adopt a practice of trying to understand what exactly it is that I’m facing and then giving it to Him. I’ll say, I put this burden at your feet. I give you this person that has hurt me. I lift up this anxiety I am struggling with.

Disorder and chaos have a way of making us feel powerless, don’t they?

I think that’s why I almost immediately start feeling better when I go to Jesus. First, I can trust He’s in control. Second, as I name my problems, they become less like a chaotic mess. They turn into order, something that can be dealt with, rather than a nameless, floating, whirling terror.

Maybe we need  to start taking back our lives from the chaotic power that passwords can be seen to represent.

Yes, I understand. They’re necessary. We can’t live without them.

But what if we intentionally find ways to fill our brains with more order and beauty than the nonsense of passwords?

For example, we could start learning poetry. (I know many of you already do that). I recently started memorizing some old poems with my teen daughter.

I know some of you already write poetry. That’s another way to say no to passwords.

We can name our struggles and put them at Jesus’ feet. Not just toss up a careless prayer. Show our deep trust in His very personalized, very loving interest in every one of our cares by naming them all, one by one, before Him.

I’d rather my life be more like poetry than a nonsensical password. What about you?

With Jesus’ presence and help, I know it can be – and will be fully so one day when we reach heaven’s gates.

And when we arrive at those gates, I’m quite sure we won’t be required to spout off some long, disordered selection of characters, numbers, and letters (including at least one capital) before the gates swing open for us.

No, I’m quite sure that on that day, it will be something much more like poetry, something close to, “Because He lives,” or “Jesus is my Saviour” that will be all it takes for eternity to open before us.

Michelle and her family enjoy hiking mountains and trails together. She is currently writing a series under her maiden Mennonite name, Michelle Teigrob. The series is called, What Growing Up in a Mennonite Family of 10 Taught Me About Survival. To receive the bi-weekly tips, visit this link and subscribe.