A Post that Matters to Me

Joanna Young at Confident Writing has challenged us with a group writing project: Essential Lines from 2009.

1. Select your essential post

Sift through what you published in 2009 to select the post you’d call ‘essential’.

You can define that in different ways, for example:

• A post that matters: that mattered to you then, that mattered to your readers, that still matters to you now
• A post that captures what your blog’s all about
• A post that reflects what 2009 has been about, for you or for others
• A post that models essential writing

Joanna further instructs us to explain why we chose that post and encourages us to include a few “knock ‘em dead lines” from the post.

I narrowed down the choices in What I Learned from … 2009 for Middle Zone Musings’ groupwrite project. For Joanna’s challenge, I’ve chosen a post that mattered to me when I wrote it and still matters to me now.

Adversity? What Adversity? reminds me—and I hope you—that I—and you—have been blessed beyond belief with salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. All we have to do is accept the gift and proclaim Him Lord of Lord and King of Kings.

Nothing I have ever experienced or ever will experience can compare to our Lord and Savior being beaten, mocked, tortured, and murdered in the most vicious way.

And why? For my sins and your sins and the sins of the whole world. If I were the only person who needed redemption, Jesus would have died for me alone. My sin makes me Judas betraying Him, the chief priests and scribes condemning Him, Pilate washing his hands of Him, the crowd calling “Crucify Him!,” and the Roman soldiers killing Him. 

Yet Jesus prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34, KJV)

Thanks be to God for the gift of salvation!

Merry Christmas!

For unto us a child is born,

unto us a son is given:

and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

and his name shall be called

Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

~ Isaiah 9:6

 

 GOD, who makest us glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thine only Son Jesus Christ; Grant that as we joyfully receive him for our Redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our Judge, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

May you and your loved ones enjoy all the blessings of this holy season, and may the coming year be filled with joy and love.

photo credit: CARDS 4 NID Catherine.Clarke

Scripture for Christmas Eve

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You came into the world in the form of a tiny babe in a manger to shine Your light in the darkness. Open our eyes to see and our hearts to receive the light. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God world without end. Amen.

Scripture for the Fourth Wednesday in Advent

Isaiah 9:2

The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

Lord, we have lived in the shadow of death but Jesus fills us with light and life. May we never take for granted the marvelous gift You have given us, and may we make it our life’s work to share the Light of Jesus with the world. In His blessed name. Amen.

What I Learned from … 2009

Middle Zone Musings’ groupwrite project for this month is What I Learned from … 2009. Robert Hruzek has challenged us to compile a list of our favorite, best, most popular, whatever we choose posts for each month of 2009.

Choices like this are always hard for me for a couple of reasons:

• How do you choose your favorite child? Since every post comes from my heart, choosing my favorite post is about the same as choosing my favorite child.
• I write for my own enjoyment and don’t strive for profundity or eloquence—not that I would achieve those if I did strive for them. So it’s a little presumptuous for me to say any of posts are “best.”

In spite of the difficulties, however, I’ve come up with a list of posts by month.

• January: A Thirty-Six Year Tragedy—I chose this post lamenting the tragedy of 36 years of Roe v. Wade because I am passionate about saving the lives of unborn babies, and the thought of the 50 million babies denied the right to life sickens me.
• February: What I Learned from Love—I have been so blessed with the love of my family, the love of my husband, and above all the love of God that I was delighted to share my great loves.
• March: Healing Miracles—It took a series of three posts beginning with this one to describe the many healing miracles I’ve experienced in my life. What a blessing to experience these miracles and what a blessing to share them to the glory of God.
• April: Adversity? What Adversity?—This post was another opportunity to share the blessings I have experienced in life. April posts included five of six parts of a series on memoir writing, which I hope was helpful to readers. However, sharing God’s blessings is more important to me.
• May: Lessons from Community—The thing that surprised me most about blogging was the creation of community, and this post tells what that means to me.
• June: Creating Fictional Characters—This post was the first in an eight-part series based on a course I taught. The series was popular among readers and generated a lot of comments, and a couple of the posts rank high in Google for the phrase “creating fictional characters.”
• July: What I Learned from a Blooper—I enjoyed recalling a silly blooper I made that gave me the chance to share a little about physical therapy for strokes.
• August: Mission Impossible: Book Trailer for Dream or Destiny—Joanna Young’s challenge to post something we’ve never done before motivated me to try creating a video, which I’d wanted to do for a long time. Although I was satisfied with what I did for a beginning, I have yet to go back and improve the video enough to post it anywhere else.
• September: What I Learned from Laughter—This post links to a previous entry, which I enjoyed because I don’t often write humor.
• October: Domestic Violence and You—The last in a seven-part series, this post shared ways all of us can help with the problem of domestic violence, a cause close to my heart.
• November: Advent—We get so busy during the Christmas season that it’s easy to let other activities take priority over the reason for the season. Advent helps us prepare for the coming of the Lord.
• December: Christmas Gift-Giving—Though it’s important to focus on Jesus as the reason for the season, giving gifts at Christmas is a long and cherished tradition. The best gifts are those that come from the heart.

I’ve had some wonderful authors visit my blog this past year. Each of them deserves recognition; I couldn’t choose any one of them because I couldn’t choose all of them. Some posts weren’t considered because they didn’t contain anything original from me. The freelance rates survey took a huge amount of time and energy to compile. Recognition of special days—such as World Alzheimer’s Day, I Love to Write Day, and Religious Freedom Day—and special organizations and programs—such as Operaton EBook Drop: Free Books for Deployed Soldiers and Free E-Books for Read an E-Book Week—generated many comments. However, I limited my choices to posts that reflected my opinions, beliefs, and experiences.

Only two posts during the year generated 100 or more comments: World Alzheimer’s Day (102 comments) and Comments, Spam, and Comment Spam (100 comments).

The most-visited post this year continued to be a post from 2007: How Much Will It Cost? Average Freelance Editing Rates. The most-visited post written this year was Creating Fictional Characters—Part 1: Characters Are Story People. There were several other posts from 2007 and 2008 more popular than any 2009 posts.

Rather than believing that the quality of my posts is deteriorating, I choose to believe that good posts have staying power. That’s what I learned from 2009.

Scripture for the Fourth Tuesday in Advent

1 John 1:6-7

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

Lord God, we claim fellowship with You and with one another, and we can only do this if we are purified by the Blood of Jesus and walk in His light. Let us live by the truth and not deceive ourselves. We ask in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture for the Fourth Monday in Advent

James 2:14-17

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

Heavenly Father, sometimes we find it so much easier to say we have faith than it is show it by our actions. Especially at Christmas, we get so busy with our plans and activities that we forget those who are without food or clothes. Remind us that our actions demonstrate our faith more than our words and empower us to demonstrate our faith by showing Your love. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture for the Fourth Sunday in Advent

2 Samuel 22:29

You are my lamp, O Lord; the LORD turns my darkness into light.

Heavenly Father, turn our darkness into light so that we may shine as a beacon drawing the world to You. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who came as a babe in a manger and will return in glory. Amen.

Christmas Gift and Christmas Memories

Merry Christmas!

I hope the Advent readings posted here daily are giving you a moment of quiet devotion in the midst of the busy days preparing for Christmas.

To experience similar moments after Advent is past, download my Christmas gift to you: Scripture/prayer cards that you can print on your computer printer. Print on both sides of card stock or business card forms, and cut into individual cards with a Scripture on one side and a prayer on the other.

And take some time to sit with a cup of coffee or tea and remember past Christmases and special times with family. My Christmas memories may help give your own memories a boost.

Scripture for the Third Saturday in Advent

Ephesians 6:8-11

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

Lord God, our Father, thank you for making us light in You. Let us live as children of light through the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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