Writing

Special Announcement & Giveaway

By Lisa B on April 25, 2008

Perhaps I should have planned this out more, but the cat’s out of the bag now!

Sunday, April 27th is Internet Evangelism Day. You may be asking yourself what is internet evangelism? Well, it’s sharing your Christian faith online. See, this is something very special to me as I answered questions for one of my online buddies last year. We’d known each other online for about 3 years — even worked together in the virtual assistant industry. She had questions about the Bible, God, Jesus and life in general and I did my best to answer them (which isn’t all that great but I was honest and prayed for her a lot!). On February 15, 2007, my buddy gave her heart and life to Jesus.

My own personal journey has been going on since July 7, 1996. This is the first time I have been on this end of the spiritual work God did on someone’s heart. The first time I actually shared my thoughts and faith with someone and was here when they made the decision to follow Jesus. I’m no fool. I know God was using many others in my friend’s life to work on her heart and mind. But me? Honestly I have always been busy in church — probably “preaching to the choir” so to speak. I’m sure that what I’ve said or how I’ve lived my life before has planted seeds in people watching me, but I’ve never gotten to see or be apart of the joy like I have been able to experience with my friend.

Even knowing my buddy online would have never been possible without the Internet. For all the bad things out there on the Internet, there are a lot of good things as well. There are hundreds if not thousands of blogs written by Christian women sharing their news about faith and family. Many people read those blogs and never comment. You may never know they are there — but when we get to Heaven, someone may walk up to you and say “I read such-and-such on your blog and I started seeking God. You’re one of the reasons I’m here.” Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Ok, on to my special announcement and giveaway news. I know many of you may consider yourself technically-challenged. My brain is filled with tons of technical things especially about blogs, WordPress and code. I have prayed for years to find my purpose in life, what God would have me do, and I’m still growing and learning. One thing I know I can do is to offer you tips, tricks and help with blogging. I want you to be able to blog — to share your faith with others online. Even if you only touch one person for God, that would so totally be worth it, right?

In honor of Internet Evangelism Day, I have started another blog — simply His blogger. I’m going to share how-to’s, tips and tricks you can use on your blog. But I’m also going to share information with you on how you can use your blog to share stories of your faith. I’ll be interviewing other bloggers who share their faith and get tips from them that will help you.

During the next week and a half, I’m taking comments over at simply His blogger. To celebrate my birthday and the launch of this new blog, I’m giving away a blog package. Whether you have a blog already or not, I’ll get you setup on your own domain, using WordPress.org (which is even better than WordPress.com), and give you some personal training to get you started. If you have a blog, I’ll transfer everything over so you don’t lose what you’ve already started.

Head on over to simply His blogger. Leave a comment to enter the giveaway. Vote in the poll. Send me your questions through the contact form. Let’s get started impacting the Internet with some good stuff!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Contests, Giveaways, Writing

Let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes

By Lisa B on April 13, 2008

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” — Matthew 5:37 (NKJV)

Today we went to church and the sermon was great. It was on Matthew 5:33-37 “The Moment of Truth” as the Pastor titled the sermon. This is usually a sermon that I don’t have problems with — meaning, I think I do pretty good at being honest. I’m not as good as I would like to believe.

There are many things I’ve said in the past that I would do or work on. Many projects, promises and things I have not completed. I am not good at following through with things, and I’ve been using that as a crutch — an excuse. Instead of working on what I said I would — or finishing what I said I’d finish, I offer up an “oh well, I’m not really good at following through on things.”

God convicted me of a few things I need to follow through on. A promise to Him and to myself to read scripture daily. Taking a few minutes each morning to have my quiet/prayer time. I must write — finish the writings I’ve started and start some new ones.

One of the other things I was convicted of was finishing the study I started online with a few women in the simply His forums. I apologize to each of the women who joined me in the start of that study. I know you were looking for me to hold you accountable when I really needed someone to hold me accountable. I will be posting another lesson this week. I will finish the study and stop making excuses for why I haven’t done it earlier. Isn’t it ironic that the study is on time management?

Things need to shape up around here. I know that. I need to continually pray before I say I’ll do anything, and when I say that I’ll do it — I need to make sure I do it. I hate to think I’ll let someone down, but even worse, I’d hate for someone to think “oh she sounds good but she’ll never do it.”

On a side note: Thanks to Heather @ Desperately Seeking Sanity for making me her Blog Pick of the Week. She’s has tens more readers than I do I appreciate it!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Church, Writing

Equipping the Called

By Lisa B on March 4, 2008

I’m going on memory here, which is flawed most of the time There’s a quote I keep coming across here and there. I’m not sure who originated it, but I know Lysa TerKeurst shares it a lot — so she may be the one who came up with it.

God does not call the equipped. He equips the called.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately — especially when I start feeling like a failure at so many things. Then our Sunday School lesson (have I mentioned I think we’ve found a church? YAY!) this past week was on living a confident life — not a self-confident life, but a God-confident life.

⁹ who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, — 2 Timothy 1:9 (NKJV)

I felt better knowing that God did not call me to write because I have a journalism degree (I don’t) or because I got straight A’s in English class (I didn’t). I also remember a time in my journey of being a Christian when I learned why we have books in the Bible written by different people.

Each of us have our own very different (yet often similar) experiences. It’s entirely possible for each of us to look at the same situation very differently — to pick out different details to share. Even though Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote about the same things, they each shared different aspects of what they saw and heard. Did you know Luke was a physician? That he shared more about physical healing than the others? That’s where his interests and knowledge were. Those miracles Jesus performed stood out to Luke more because of his knowledge.

My writing is going to be filtered by my interests and knowledge as well. Here you’ll read about my experiences as a woman, a wife, a mother, a softball player, a biker mama and the list goes on. I used to look at other writers as “competition” but really when we are all called to write, God’s grace will equip us to write about the things only we can write about.

I’m so glad I don’t have to do it through self-confidence because I have confidence in God. I’m going to be pulling on more of that God-confidence this weekend. My motorcycle riding class starts this Friday! Hopefully I’ll have some good stories to share next week.

| Filed Under: Devotions, Motorcycle, Writing

Dizzy From Spinning My Wheels

By Lisa B on February 29, 2008

I know y’all have at one time or another spun around in a circle until you fell on your bee-hind dizzy. That’s how I have felt for awhile now — except I feel like I’ve been spinning for several months.

I am a writer. I determined (almost a full year ago) God was calling me to write — not to work on a business from home or making money (at least not to focus on those things), but just to write. Take care of my family, my house, myself and just write.

Here’s the thing. I am a Fact Finder. I found that term when I took a Kolbe test. Here’s a quote from the website explaining what a Fact Finder does:

Fact Finder Action Mode is based on the instinctive need to probe. Fact Finder behavior relates to the way we gather information. Fact Finder drive is most oriented to activities that encompass defining, calculating, formalizing, and researching.

This is me to a capital “T”. I will literally research something to death. Since I decided “I am a Writer” … I have been on a journey of researching everything there is to writing, publishing, marketing, etc. — all to the extreme point that I have not been writing. See the irony?

When I took that test, the action mode I scored the lowest in was Follow Through — implementation specifically. I know so much stuff. There are things floating in my head that I could spout out to you if you asked me — yet I have not had the Follow Through to actually write it all down.

I have been dizzy, still trying to figure out what God wants me to be when I grow up. But I had a very enlightening conversation with my friend Lori yesterday as she colored my hair (that’s another post in itself). She reminded me that we are all going through seasons in our life. God is constantly working on us. His timing is not our own. I’m not magically going to decide one day “I am a Writer” and it’s miraculously all going to happen. I’m not going to have publishers knocking down my door to get my story. I’m not going to have people holding me accountable for writing either. I need self-discipline and patience. Those seem to be the two hardest things in the world for me.

So, feeling better that I don’t have to have it all done today, I got up early this morning for my devotion time. I began reading Marybeth Whalen‘s For the Write Reason and I got confirmation from God. The first chapter is something Lysa TerKeurst shared in her book What Happens When Women Walk in Faith. The following sentences really touched me:

But even in this seemingly ineffective time of pruning and trials, God was preparing me for a season to come. This was not a waste of time. This “getting ready” period was an important part of fulfilling my calling.

I am so thankful God can use all I’ve done in the past year to get me ready. I’m thankful He’s preparing me for whatever is to come. I’m thankful I can stop feeling like I’ve been totally wasting my time. The knowledge is in my head now. I just need Him to show me how to get it out so that it can bless others. I’m also thankful for people like Lysa. I love how transparent and real she is — and to share all she’s been through and how God’s used her. All of the P31 women seem like real women I can relate to — not the “got it all together” woman I think of when I think of the Proverbs 31 woman. My prayer is God will still use me even though I go off on rabbit trails when He had me on the path I needed to go.

| Filed Under: Blessings, Books, Devotions, Personal, Writing

Update: Niece, Work and Teeth

By Lisa B on January 30, 2008

My Niece: Thank you for your prayers. She was not able to make it through her exam because of her headaches. She did find out this week that there is a tumor on her eye, but that it is treatable with medicine! What great news!

Work: Yesterday I posted that I am going to work my way to the She Speaks conference or know that it’s not God’s will for me to go this year I had one lady email me who I’d done work for before — wanting some updates done. I also had someone call me yesterday about a project that would take care of the cost of the conference — although that’s still in the planning-not-for-sure phase. Just good news all the way around that I might have enough business to raise the money to go.

Teeth: I’m getting my bottom braces off tomorrow! So I’ll have Duck take pictures of my wonderful, straight teeth when he gets home from work tomorrow — or, I guess, when we get home from Upward basketball practice Pictures are coming! I promise!

Fitness: Well, I’m throwing in an extra one on ya here and it’s not even Thankful Thursday yet! Guess I can’t wait I have been going to the gym and working out the past couple of weeks. A couple of ladies there have started doing line dances to get their cardio in before their weights and I’ve joined them. It has been probably 12 years since I’ve been line dancing and such, and let me just tell you — my legs hurt! Wow! It was a really good workout Although Duck swears I’m not going to learn to run faster if I dance instead of run on the treadmill, but I’ll work on balancing those two next week!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Family, Fitness, Writing

She Speaks Conference 2008: Win a Scholarship

By Lisa B on January 29, 2008

Lysa TerKeurst is hosting a chance for you to win a scholarship to the She Speaks Conference June 20-22 in Concord, North Carolina. I have heard of this conference and secretly wished to go for several years. It’s not even 3 hours from my house, so travel expenses can’t really be an excuse (although I have others!).

The She Speaks Conference has tracks for speakers, writers, women’s ministry leaders and teens, so don’t feel like the conference is only for speakers. They have even added some blogging classes from Boo Mama, Big Mama, and Rocks in my Dryer.

{Insert confession number ten million and eight here: I was extremely jealous when I heard they had gotten Shannon, Sophia, and Melanie to speak at the conference. I kept thinking “pick me! pick me! I know tons about blogging!” But the thing is, I know tons about the technical aspect of it. These women know how to write to grab an audience. I could learn a lot from them. I should be happy for them, and I’m working on that }

To enter for your chance to win, head over to Lysa’s and read the rules. She wants everyone to write a post on why you would like to win the scholarship. This is probably going to sound really weird, but I’ve always considered myself blessed. Even though we don’t have the money for me to go, I’d rather someone else get the scholarship. I know there are moms out there who are struggling and could benefit more from the scholarship than perhaps I could.

I’m going to be doing some blog work to see if I can make the money needed for me to go. You can email me if you’d like for me to help you setup a blog, customize one, or change one. I’ll know if the registration closes before I make enough money that God doesn’t have this conference in my plan for this year and I’m ok with that!

Good luck to all of you who enter! I hope to be meeting all of the bloggers at the conference

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Contests, Writing

Thankful Thursday

By Lisa B on January 24, 2008

A week has gone by already! I can’t believe it! Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

Straight teeth! Ok, so I put off having Duck take pictures because I was hoping to get my lower braces off today. However, it’ll be next Thursday when I get them off. I’m loving my teeth which is something I haven’t felt in many, many years. Maybe I’ll share a shot of my upper teeth tomorrow — full smile next week
Wonderful women sharing their hearts in writing: Lysa had over 110 articles submitted for consideration in the P31 Magazine. Head over and visit the ladies who submitted as well as checking out who won! I’m thankful most of all that I was able to be a blessing to Lysa and her team by organizing all the entries.
Women who know fashion as I do not! Shari is a P31 speaker who shares fashion advice from a Christian perspective. I won a copy of her new ebook — soon to be released book. If you’re stuck wondering what to wear, pop over to her blog and leave questions for her.
A wonderful husband, who not only has done the dishes several times this week, but who is also trying his best to teach Doodle and me how to play basketball. He’s very patient, kind and loving. Just what the athletically challenged need!
Cats — the musical: It was nice to get out and do something, albeit fancier than we’re used to.

Iris @ Sting My Heart is hosting Thankful Thursdays. I encourage you to read and comment on other blogs but also to join in with your own Thankful Thursday post even if you don’t make it to all of them on Thursday. God is doing great and wondrous things. Share that with the world