When God Can Use Us

God can't use us because we've got it all together in life. Rather, He can use us precisely because we don't.

That is such a relief for me to remember, particularly because today is one of those days when I don't feel as if I have anything together.

At the times when we feel empty, at the end of our strength and our everything, we can return to God's words to the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (NIV).

And, with Paul, we can affirm that "when I am weak, then I am strong" (v. 10), because that is when we are completed with God's great strength.

Take us, use us, Lord, just as we are.

Jeanette Levellie: On Wings of Mirth and Worth: Win a download of Two Scoops of Grace!

Jeanette Levellie: On Wings of Mirth and Worth: Win a download of Two Scoops of Grace!: I know, I know, I said I was unplugging for a week while I flew to Spokane to speak , but I am so excited about a contest I'm having, I just...

Great Expectations of the Realistic Variety

A couple of weeks ago I was frustrated with myself. I was trying to "verbalize" the premise to a book I'm working on, and it seemed like I just could not pull my thoughts together.

"This shouldn't be so hard," I chided myself. Why was it taking so long for me to wade through my thoughts and to create a few simple paragraphs that would capture and convey them?

I worked on this one simple task all week--sitting down with the computer for a couple of hours each night, then putting it up in frustration before I had made much progress. I faithfully kept working at it, though, and little by little it came together. By the end of week I had completed the project, and felt proud of the accomplishment and how it had turned out.

My dear friend Terri had encouraged me in the midst of my struggle. She shared that sometimes we have "perfectionistic, idealistic ideas of what [we] should get done," which don't necessarily line up with reality. If we focus on doing what God wants us to do, He will take care of the rest. He is, after all, quite good at being the Master of the Universe and all that :-)

It is good to remind ourselves every so often (or encourage a friend to remember) that our expectations--especially our expectations of ourselves--are not always realistic. As a wife, as a mother, as a teacher, as a Bible study leader, as a _____________ (you fill in the blank). Let's just be faithful to what we can see, and trust God to be faithful with the rest.

Whether it is weekly, daily, hourly, or moment by moment . . . . He is "all over that"!

Of Friendliness and Rejection, Kid and Canine Edition

This weekend our family went to the park. We spent some time riding bikes, feeding ducks, and monkeying around on the play equipment.

It was a fairly nice day (for early spring) so there were a lot of families at the park, and many of them brought their dogs. My six-year-old son Caden, who is friendly and likes animals, asked pet owner after pet owner if he could pet their dogs. With his requests and friendliness, he met a lot of new canine friends.

That is, until he got close to a fat little chihuahua. Their first greeting was positive--the dog sniffed Caden's hand and allowed him to pet it. Later on, though, when he bent down with his face and body near the dog, the dog growled and snapped at his outstretched hand.

Whether Caden moved quickly and frightened the dog, or whether it was over-excited by the activity at the park, I don't know. (Or, like most of the chihuahaus I've met, maybe it wasn't very good with children.) Caden rose up and walked to my husband, bravely holding back the tears--at least, until he pressed into the strength and comfort of Daddy.

"The dog doesn't like me," he said through his tears.

Yes, the unexpected attack had frightened him. But what hurt even more, I think, was the rejection he received. He tried to share his friendship with the dog, and the dog bit back instead of accepting and returning that friendship.

This was not the first time he experienced the pain of rejection. Nor will it be the last. My prayer is that we as parents will be able to help him (and our other children) process those feelings, take them to the Lord, and grow stronger from the experience.

  

Proposal Jitters

I submitted a book proposal to an editor yesterday for a women's devotional book I am writing.

Although I have submitted proposals for a children's picture book, this submission affected me differently. After I attached the Word document to the email, I found it hard to compose the actual message. Initially, I reverted to ultra-professional sounding terminology, which sounded boring and really didn't reflect my warm, bubbly personality.

After all the time I had invested in the book so far, wrestling to find direction and to clearly express the thoughts of my heart, why would this short message prove so difficult?

I think, maybe, there is more at stake for me in this submission. Not only do the devotions come from my heart, they are a part of my very identity. Each one represents an instance in my life where God met me and drew me closer to Him, or opened my eyes to see Him more clearly. My heart and my life lay open upon the pages, to be accepted or rejected as the case may be.

What if the editor doesn't like it? Will it crush my heart? The idea came to together specifically with this publishing company in mind. I respect the values and the vision they are founded upon.

And yet, I know that the Lord is faithful. Whatever motivated the idea to take shape within my heart, it is His message through me. He will open the doors that He chooses. This could just be one step upon the path that helps to shape this book and my writing journey into the form He desires.

And so, Lord, here I am. Your maidservant. May it be unto me according to your will.

Five things I learned at the Inland NW Christian Writer's Conference

I attended the Inland Northwest Christian Writer's Conference in Spokane, WA last weekend, and I loved it! It was my first writer's conference, and although I felt some flutters as I entered my appointment with an agent and one with an editor, I loved the entire weekend.

What a wonderful group of like-minded individuals encouraging one another on to fulfill the passion and calling that the LORD has placed upon each one of us. I never really felt a shyness or hesitancy about approaching anyone--whether they were other attendees or speakers. It felt like I belonged there :-) And the connections were wonderful--connections with other local writers, along with experienced writers, editors, and agents. I even had a couple of divine appointments I hadn't been anticipating :-)

In my local writer's group, we shared together this morning about the top five things we learned at the conference. There was a plethora (don't you just love that word, plethora?) of great information, but here is the list I shared at our group:

1. Social media is a must. Period. Today's writing and publishing market relies heavily on the author's "social footprint." Blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, and then some. Editors and publishers WILL "google" your name, so you want your writing "stage presence" to be prominent and visible. So, I jumped in with both feet and began blogging (after having thought about it for a number of years).

2. Write from your passion. It requires a significant investment of time and talent to get into print and to sell books--researching, writing, rewriting, rewriting, (did I say rewriting?), creating a social footprint. To make it worth the investment, I personally need to consider it part of my ministry. Since writing is a gift God gave me and a passion He placed in my heart around 30 years ago, I think I can do that :-)

3. Editors and agents (and successful writers, too!) are real people. They are normal "Joe's". They are approachable. They get tired and cranky (no, I did not experience that personally). They forget business cards or wish they had arranged the time in their class more effectively. Thus, where I am now, so once were they.

When I met with agent Blythe Daniel of The Blythe Daniel Agency, she was interested in helping me see the next stage in my writing pat--regardless of whether or not we mesh as writer-agent and have a long term working relationship. When I met in an interview group with Eddie Jones, Acquisitions Editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, he was approachable and laid back. He listened and asked questions as each of us pitched our book idea. He gave great feedback and also provided additional information to help with our writing.

4. Speaking and writing go hand-in-hand. Not all speakers are writers, and not all writers are speakers. But if you can speak, that helps to promote your platform, which obviously helps promote your book sales :-) This was actually exciting to me, because I've envisioned myself as a speaker at conferences for a number of years.

Part of my desire in writing is to encourage and strengthen other people (especially women) in their relationship with the Lord. He has done so much in my life and invested so much in me, I have a wealth of knowledge and relationship to draw from. I look forward to whatever speaking platform rises up in the next year or so.

5. Be an expert in your field. This part was confusing to me at first. Because I have  begun writing children's picture books, I pictured the need to become an expert in the topics I write about. How do I learn all I would need to in order to be an expert about Antarctica, for example? And then when I write my next book, to become an expert about that? And so on. Also, how would I fit devotional writing into that?

What I realized is that there is a hub that all of my writing will come out from, and that is the hub of who I am and what I do in my daily life. For me, as a home educator, that hub is homeschooling. My interest in educational children's stories (and the creative, funny things elementary students imagine and do) comes forth from that. My desire to help other moms though challenges in their daily lives does, too.

I hope my list is helpful or encouraging to you. If you have any questions, or have anything to add, I'd love to hear from you.

Do you like peperoncinis? Try this tasty trick!

If you like peperoncinis, you may enjoy a treat I discovered this summer. I call it "peperoncini-pickled green beans." My garden produced only a handful of green beans a week, which wasn't really enough to do anything with. I decided to put some of them in the peperoncini jar and see what happened. After they marinated for a week or so, I tried my first "peperoncini-pickled green bean." It was good! Now I buy frozen green beans and stick them in the empty jars. Not only is it tasty and cost-effective, it reuses the pickling juice.

If you try this and like it, be sure to let me know. I'd love to hear about your experience.