Our daughter is at that age where she is no longer a “child” but not yet a teenager.  Her special “friend” Charlie, is still as alive and real in her world as we are, and people in our life know not to refer to him as a “stuffed animal”.  Yet boys are starting to become interesting creations and a bad hair day can ruin an otherwise bright morning.  So when I’ve requested prayer for “What is it God wants me to write?” her answers, I’ve thought were well, suggestions from my eleven-year-old.  The same child who begs me to tell her stories about “squirrels being crazy funny” and “princess who love squirrels” also suggests:

 “Christian writing Mama, what else?”

“Angels and God things Mama.”

“How many times do I have to tell you?  You write “God stuff”!”

On the way to school this morning I was silently praying for our daughter when I had a clarifying moment for my own question.  Suddenly I heard her voice suggesting what I write and in the same moments I remembered one of the things I’ve been told in a multitude of ways which is “write what you know”.  If I take that with what my daughter’s advice is my direction to write would be to write “about God stuff, about the times I’ve encountered God and angels in my ordinary life”.

Returning home I pulled out my favorite Bible and prayed for as clear a direction from scripture as what I believed I had received as I drove away from school.   I started in I Corinthians 13 but it was chapter 14 that held my attention.  I read it over and over for I knew something was calling to me to pay more attention and verses 9-12 kept drawing me back.

“So it is with you.  Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?  You will just be speaking into the air.  Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.  If I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker and he is a foreigner to me.  So it is with you.  Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.”

I Corinthians 14:9-12 N.I.V.

Paul was writing about the desire the Christians in Corinth were having for spiritual gifts and how those gifts they desired should be ones that build up the church.  These particular verses are about orally conveying the message of Christ in a language that the audience members can understand. (At least to the way this layperson understands them.)

Would God direct me any differently today than He did through Paul those early Corinth Christians just because my venue is the written word?  After all God did not intend that Paul’s letter would be one to encourage and instruct just the Christians at Corinth.  Even then God knew that His message through Paul would one day be devoured by Christians all over the world.  Yes, I believe even then God knew I would be in need of His words to the Corinth church.  Should I not convey the message of Jesus Christ’s love for us?  That Jesus Himself became the mediator between God and us?  Should this message not be written in a language people can understand?  Should I not be writing so that God’s people are encouraged and the body of believers is built up?

Or in a more direct understanding, should I not write about my ordinary life and encounters with God and angels with words that people understand?

Maybe this blog is my assignment at this time whether I have many followers or not.  God must have His plans and as long as He keeps inspiring me I’ll keep writing “God stuff” and pray that I use words that people understand so He is edified.

-Faye