Tuesday, March 4, 2014

My blog title comes from Hebrews 3:13, "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."  I have been contemplating writing a blog for a long time and have finally decided to take the plunge.  I was motivated by my pastor's sermon on Sunday.   Writing a daily blog would be for my own benefit as a writer - daily exercise so to speak - but I have also been convicted that it is my responsibility to encourage others with the grace that God has shown me.    So those are my goals: to grow as a writer by using the gifts I have been given and to be a good steward of those gifts by encouraging others daily.

I have been assailed by doubts so many times as I've thought about doing this, and this time was no exception.  How will I find something worthwhile to write about every day, I thought?  Then I realized how much like the Israelites I am.  They had to trust God daily for manna in the wilderness.  I needed to trust God for daily spiritual food and the ability to share it.

Ann Lamott has written a book on writing entitled Bird by Bird.  To restate her advice very simplistically, she recommends writing a little bit every day.  Actually, it seems all the 'how to write' books recommend the same thing.  So this is my attempt to get started at writing every day.