My Day 4 of 500 Words

2015 rocks on …

Take what makes your heart sing and scrap the rest.

This gold is not a loan.

Anything you glean of value from these words please feel free to claim them as your own.

And

pay forward anything you deem fit.

**I feel that it is necessary to add this disclaimer HERE, so that I don’t have to use anymore of my 500 words on future days;

THEREFORE, apply it to everything I write during this 31 day challenge.  This is what this disclaimer is HERE FOR:)

Disclaimer:

Most of the time I can’t tell where these golden nuggets come from, as they are written in my Jesus dialogue.  These conversations have input from countless sources: Prayer and the Holy Spirit, The Bible, books, podcasts, music, relationships, conversations, past experiences, sermons, concerns, to-do lists etc…  

I can not worry about plagiarism on this journey.  I am giving a huge shout-out right now to anyone who sees their idea or quote in my writing.  You clearly influenced me in a good way and I am paying it forward.

So on we go…

In January of this year I journaled about patterns that foster creativity.  They are spot on and so incredibly applicable today, as they were then.

Patterns that Foster creativity:

(see Ex. 31:1-6, Psalm 149:3-4, Prov. 31:13)

1-Make a new or renewed commitment to a God-given vision

2-Get out of you mundane routine.

My goal this year has been to post a “Word Picture” every day, that contains my take-away from my morning quiet time with the Lord.  I have kept that commitment thus far.

1- I made a renewed commitment to God’s writing vision for my life.

2-I learned how to create “Word Pictures” (by the way, check out my side bar widgets: WordSwag and InstaQuote- they are links to the amazing apps. that have helped me design the daily Word Pictures)and shared my daily sound bites, thrusting myself out of mundane routine.

Praying for the Holy Spirit to open my eyes to discern God’s truth in His Word and then logging HIS whispers has changed my life forever.  I have been doing this privately since 2007.  HE is incredibly present and sweetly personal.

I prayed :

“Lord how do you want me to add value to the world around me? ” 

I truly feel that these “Word pictures” were His answer to that question for 2015.

But how did God want me to define “adding value?”

I believe this is how HE answered that last question:

May these “Word Pictures” simply give readers hope and encourage them to seek God’s Presence and personal whispers for themselves, believing that if HE spoke personally and kindly to me, HE would speak personally and kindly to them.”

The reason we publicly share our encounters with God is to help build the faith of those around us by pointing them to HIM.  Our faith is built and encouraged, as we read personal encounters with God in His word, and

their testimonies say:

“Come, meet a man, who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Messiah?” 

The woman at the well gave her town this ONE-LINER, this “tweetable” , “quotable”,  and they busted a move to go see The Man for themselves. Upon meeting Him, they asked Him to come stay for a while. And He did.

I think that is the point.

Our personal encounters with God do the same:

“Come, meet Jesus!  HE notices me.  HE always stops to sit and chat with me.  HE speaks to me daily through His Word.  He knows my love language.  He knows all about me and HE still loves me like crazy.   HE is my Savior. I know from personal experience HE doesn’t play favorites or HE certainly would not have picked me.  BUT HE DID PICK ME! And if He picked out me, sat to talk to me, loved me, saved me, made me new and entrusted HIS message to me, then you better believe HE will do it for you!  Want to meet HIM?  He is ready when you are.”

I think that is the point.

One of my favorite preachers is Andy Stanley, because he shares a concise, powerful bottom- line at least 3 times in his messages.  The short, yet powerful, take-away and the repetition makes it memorable; therefore, I remember to apply it to my life, not just store it away in head-knowledge.

I think that is the point.

Mark Batterson is one of my favorite authors.  He writes in “quotables.”  (I made that word up I think.)  The cool thing about his “quotables” is that they are captivating calls to action.  It is hard to just read them, post them, talk about them and then SIT on them.  They kind of get you fired up, brave, believing anything is possible with God  and excited to see them in action.

I think that is the point.

God wants to renew our minds, which leads to transformed lives.  Tweet-size golden nuggets (God’s Word-not just good advice) are paving the yellow-brick road of this life-transforming journey, because I actually apply them, because I can actually remember them.

As my 2015 writing goal:

“the daily word picture containing my quiet time take-away”

comes to an end, I am giddy to embrace this new creative challenge, a new goal ushering in 2016:

“#my500word for 31 days”

 #my500words challenge is definitely fostering creativity.   It is an awesome opportunity to renew my commitment to a God-given vision and I am most certainly out of my routine and in uncharted territory, as I write longer daily take-aways.

Thank you Jeff Goins for this CHALLENGE,  which is kicking me outside my comfort zone and into the realm of the unknown.

See you tomorrow! #WriteOn