5 Minute Friday ~ Tell Me a Story

My Grandma & Me in 1978

That familiar twinkle always showed up after five simple words, "Grandma, tell me a story!"

"A story?" she'd ask, like she didn't have any up her sleeve. Then, of course, she'd clasp her weathered hands together, tilt her head and say, "Hmm... Let me think."

And the magic would begin.

She would transport me back to the days of her childhood, to the family-owned bakery in a small Midwest town. And somehow, I always felt like I was right there with her.

I never knew which story she was going to tell. It really didn't matter. Even if I had heard it a hundred times, I still hung on every word.

There was the infamous tar bucket story that all of the grandchildren loved to hear. It was the day of family pictures, when Grandma was just three years old. Just before the photo session, she fell into a bucket of tar, which completely coated her arm, with no time to clean it up. She was strategically placed in the photo so the blackened arm was hidden behind her sister.

Another favorite was the chicken story. She had seen her mother kill chickens for dinner, so one day, she decided to help. Much to her mother's horror, she caught a baby chick and promptly lopped off its feet with a butcher knife. Oh my goodness! Grandma must have been an early 1900s version of Junie B. Jones!

After all these years, her stories still echo in my memory. But more importantly, her love and prayers  follow me, even though she has been gone for almost 15 years.

My grandma, the storyteller.

=======================================================

This is an entry for Five Minute Friday. Every Friday hundreds of writers join in this five minute writing exercise at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, Tales from a Gypsy Mama.

We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt that Lisa-Jo posts on her blog. And we connect on Twitter with the hashtag #fmfparty (Five Minute Friday Party).

No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.

Unscripted. Unedited. Real.

Have a blog? You can join in, too!

After the Writers Conference: 5 Ways to Get Moving!

Image © Julie Campbell, 2013

So, you just returned from a whirlwind trip to a writers conference, where you networked with agents and editors, made connections with other writers, and crammed your head with so much knowledge you could fill a football stadium. Now what?

Once the euphoria has worn off, here are five practical things you can do AFTER the conference:

1. Take a deep breath (and maybe even take a nap) – Most likely you have been waking up early (who decides to start these things at 8 a.m. anyway?) and staying up late, attending workshops and dinners and hobnobbing with (translation: kissing up to) agents, best-selling authors and editors. Don’t feel guilty about taking a day or two (or three) to chill, rest and process. As long as you get moving once your batteries are recharged, you’ll be fine.

2. Review and Write – Look over your notes, highlighter in hand, and mark valuable info that applies to you and your genre. If you really want to get fancy, you can even color-code your highlights – yellow for craft, pink for social media/website tips, green for marketing, etc. Then put all that good advice from the experts to good use and start writing and working on your trouble areas.

3. Follow Up – This is undoubtedly the single most important thing you can do after a conference. If an editor or agent has invited you to send a query, proposal, partial or full manuscript, get to work! Time is of the essence here, and as much as we writers like to procrastinate (heck, it’s a career for some of us!), now is NOT the time to mess around on Facebook or play Solitaire. Craft an amazing query letter (great advice on how to do that here), or get busy revising (or writing) your manuscript. At a recent conference I attended, one agent said if he requests a manuscript (and he knows the writer already has it written), he expects to see it within a week or two after the conference. Moral of the story: Don’t. Drag. Your. Feet.

4. Get Social – Remember all those business cards you collected at the conference? Now’s the time to follow your new found writer friends on Twitter and Facebook. It’s all about community, and there’s never been a better (or easier) time to network with your tribe and stay in touch.

5. Stay Productive and Be Patient – Don’t waste time hitting the refresh button on your e-mail every 30 seconds to see if your potential dream agent has contacted you. More than likely, it will take weeks, maybe even months, for anyone to get back with you. Publishing is one big waiting game, and the sooner you get to work on another project, the better. You need a distraction. So, if you haven’t already, start a blog or a website, get going on that new idea, or submit some magazine articles.

So, excuse me while I stop procrastinating by writing about what to do after a writers conference. Now, I actually need to follow my own advice and get to work. Happy writing!

Finding God from the Driver's Seat

In a million unique ways – as we change diapers, eat dinner, return e-mails, pay the bills – we are to be the evidence of God. Jesus factored in the mundane. We need to eat and sleep and shower and clean up and work on our marriages because of the way he made us – typical, inadequate, and human. Embrace the common: a Sunday afternoon watching sports, Starbucks with a friend, cooking dinner for a neighbor, taking the dog for a walk, heading to a job that is making you more humble and needy because it is so unfulfilling, or working through conflict with a friend you have offended. This and more is all part of it.

So do your everyday and your ordinary. Godliness is found and formed in those places…. Jesus says the way we glorify God, the way we step into his story, is by accomplishing the work God gives us to do. Jesus glorified his father on earth by doing that very thing.

We play our part in his story, and the beauty is, it was what we were made for.

~ from Anything, by Jennie Allen

 

After the umpteenth hour in the car this week, I was starting to feel a wee bit sorry for myself.

“I feel like I spend half my life in the car,” I huffed to my husband one evening.

Of course, he assured me that he appreciated my constant shuttling around of our three needy teens and that someday, they would look back and realize the amazing sacrifice their mother had made on their behalf.

Really? Well, a girl can dream, right?

Maybe you’ve felt like me lately… that you’re nothing more than a maid, cook, babysitter, dishwasher, errand runner, or (my personal favorite) chauffeur. Yes? That’s you? Did you ever stop to consider that this is all part of God’s story for you? That God is shaping and molding you into His image through these seemingly mundane tasks? That this is exactly where you belong?

The above passage in the book Anything by Jennie Allen really rocked my world. Instead of complaining about the ordinary, I should be embracing it! This is the way I can glorify God right where I am, in the left hand turn lane, waiting for the slow poke in front of me to turn already! (Oh, yikes, guess I better work on my attitude toward pokey drivers while I’m at it!)

Wow! If I can really get this – that I can glorify God even from the driver’s seat in the turn lane – I can’t imagine how much easier, and more fulfilling, my life would become!

The mundane, the common, the ordinary, the hum-drum – this is where godliness is found. This is where I belong. By accomplishing the tasks God has set out for me to do before the foundations of the world (Eph. 2:10),  I am participating in His grand story for my life.

Don’t know about you, but the driver’s seat (or the dishes, or the dirty laundry, or [insert your mundane task here]) just started looking a lot better!

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV

========================================================

This is an entry for Five Minute Friday. Every Friday hundreds of writers join in this five minute writing exercise at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, Tales from a Gypsy Mama.

We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt that Lisa-Jo posts on her blog. And we connect on Twitter with the hashtag #FiveMinuteFriday

No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.

Unscripted. Unedited. Real.

Have a blog? You can join in, too!

 

Till the Storm Passes By

Image © 2013 by Julie Campbell

I have a secret. Shhhh… don’t tell anyone, OK? I’m afraid of storms.

Hey, are you laughing? Stop! I’m not a chicken! I wasn’t always afraid of storms (at least not as an adult). Not until last summer when lightning struck my house, zapped a bunch of wiring and appliances, and I thought my house was on fire for a terrifying 15 minutes or so (it wasn’t, but the zapping produced an electrical burning smell). See? I told you not to laugh!  

Well, last night we had a whopper of a storm. I mean, the big one. Flashes of lightning one after another, making my room flicker like an old-fashioned horror movie.

And just when I was about to freak out, God brought a song to my mind. A childhood hymn that I haven’t heard in what seems like forever. It’s called Till the Storm Passes By:

In the dark of the midnight have I oft’ hid my face

While the storm howls above me, and there’s no hiding place
Mid the crash of the thunder, precious Lord, hear my cry
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

Till the storm passes over, till the thunder sounds no more,

Till the clouds roll forever from the sky;
Hold me fast, let me stand in the hollow of Your hand
Keep me safe till the storm passes by.

This simple tune came seemingly out of nowhere, but it was actually a gift from God. And in the midst of my fear, He stilled my heart.

Maybe your storm isn’t a literal one, but that doesn’t make it any less scary. Maybe it’s a failing marriage, a wayward son, a financial crisis, an illness, a loss. Friend, let me encourage you today: God is there in the middle of your storm, smack dab in the center of the mess and disaster. Above the howling winds, He hears your cries for help.

If you are His child, you stand in the best place possible – in the hollow of His hand. He won’t let you go. He’s got you right where He wants you, holding you “till the storm passes by.”

“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Psalm 32:7 NIV

Five Minute Friday: What a Friend!

I have a friend who has stuck by me from the very beginning of my life. In fact, he was there even before I was born. (Psalm 139:13-16)

This friend is always for me, always on my side. He does constant battle with my biggest Enemy on my behalf. (James 4:7, 8, 10)

He prays for me fervently, each time I ask, and even when I don't. And he has direct access to God! (Hebrews 4:14-16)

He loves me in spite of my sins and failures. When I have a bad day, he's there gently encouraging me. When I have a good day, he's there cheering me on. (Romans 8:37)

I have a friend who has promised to never leave me, no matter what happens. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

This friend carries me when I can't seem to take another step. (1 Peter 5:7)

He sings over me and delights in me! (Zephaniah 3:17, Psalm 18:19)

Do you know my friend? His name is Jesus, and He is the ultimate friend! He willingly gave his life so that I could be redeemed of my sins and enjoy eternal life in heaven with him.

"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for his friends."  John 15:13

What a friend we have in Jesus!

==========================================================

This is an entry for Five Minute Friday. Every Friday hundreds of writers join in this five minute writing exercise at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, Tales from a Gypsy Mama.

We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt that Lisa-Jo posts on her blog. And we connect on Twitter with the hashtag #FiveMinuteFriday

No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.

Unscripted. Unedited. Real.

Have a blog? You can join in, too!

Broken... for you

 

This is His body, which was broken for you…

As I tore the bread from the loaf at today’s Good Friday service, these words – broken for YOU – took on new meaning. On this day so many years ago, Good Friday, His body was broken for me. Because I was broken.

We all enter this world broken. But because of Christ’s great sacrifice, we don’t have to stay broken.

He was broken, so we could become WHOLE.

In exchange for death, He gives us life. (Ephesians 2:4-5)

In exchange for our nothingness, He gives us abundance and fullness. (John 10:10)

In exchange for our hearts of stone, He gives us hearts of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)

 

In exchange for our sin and shame, He gives us hope and healing. (Isaiah 53:5)

Thank you, Jesus, for bearing my sins on that old rugged cross. I stand before you with nothing, empty hands raised to heaven in praise, and I offer you my heart.

 

Your body was broken for me, and for all who would someday become your children.

In your brokenness, we have found blessing.

========================================================

This is an entry for Five Minute Friday. Every Friday hundreds of writers join in this five minute writing exercise at Lisa-Jo Baker's blog, Tales from a Gypsy Mama.

We write for five minutes flat. All on the same prompt that Lisa-Jo posts on her blog. And we connect on Twitter with the hashtag #FiveMinuteFriday

No extreme editing; no worrying about perfect grammar, font, or punctuation.

Unscripted. Unedited. Real.

Have a blog? You can join in, too!

 

 

Crazy Faith

Their plan was unconventional. Out-of-the-box. Maybe even just plain crazy.

But they were determined to get their friend to Jesus.

A massive crowd swirled around the entrance to the house, blocking what seemed to be the only way to see the famous healer.

But this group of persistent friends found another way.

Sure, climbing a roof with a paralyzed man on a mat might be an insane idea. But these men had a singular focus, and they had a spectacular faith.

You probably know the rest of the story: These amazing friends removed the tiles from the roof of the house and lowered their paralyzed friend right in front of Jesus.

What surprised me was what happened next. Five little words at the beginning of Luke 5:20:

When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

Did you catch that? When Jesus saw THEIR faith!

Jesus recognized these friends and their crazy, wild, unwavering faith. And He went far beyond  healing the paralyzed man of his physical affliction (verse 24-25)... Jesus saved his soul!

Have you been praying for a lost loved one, a troubled teen, a wayward adult child? Be encouraged by this: Jesus sees your faith! Your prayers are not falling on deaf ears.

This verse has given me such hope, and I pray it will do the same for you. Keep believing. Keep praying. No one is beyond the reach of His saving grace. YOUR faith can make a difference in eternity for your friends and family.

Don’t give up: Jesus sees your faith!