Which Voice Do You Hear?

The face in the clouds

Acts 14:10 "Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked."

Which do you hear?

Two voices, one of positive encouragement the other a put down, both on the same exact subject. An example? 
"Does my hair look okay?"
"It looks great."

"I think it looks like it got caught in a blender on high speed!"

When you hear (read) both, which do you hear that you'll carry with you? Do you hear how great your hair looks and you carry that positive affirmation through your day? More times than not you hear the negative comment and go on with your day with a little chip hanging on your shoulder ready to pounce on anyone that looks at you the wrong way.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27 (NIV)

I love this from Bible Gateway: "Jesus doesn’t tell us if we dig deep enough or study long enough or go to church often enough we’ll be able to uncover the hidden mystery to hearing His voice. Instead, Jesus lists only one prerequisite to hearing His voice: Be one of His sheep." - Katy McCown

You see, my point is, I listen to God but there are people out there muffling His words for me. I sit in the quiet of the morning, meditating on His word and His voice, listening in the still small place that He and I share in the spiritual flow of the cosmos, my soul. When I come out of this place, some negatively call it 'from under my rock', I see it as time WITH my ROCK of salvation! The negative voice hurts and puts a dent in my space but I truly try so hard not to carry it around in my day. It's kind of hard when the clamoring comes beating on your door seeking what it is you have hiding there.

It's ironic that I listen and hear his voice. I try and tell people that they too can listen and hear but I assume they have discord hammering at their door with other priorities that keep their focus away from hearing Christ in them. Yesterday, I received an email noting the distractions WE ALL have knocking on our door keeping us away from hearing HIS voice and listening to another voice that pulls and tugs at us and we often aren't even aware.

I happily live under my rock for many reasons, one of those reasons is to keep the distractions from trying to pull me into the deep end of the pool and drowning me. The other reason is that it is a cool solid place to dwell when needing a rock to lean on that actually listens and HEARS what I'm whispering. I can scream and shout outside of the rock and no one hears, and I'm okay with that too. After all, Jesus has been gently nudging people for centuries and the people smothered Him with fires and flames so they didn't HAVE to hear him.

When I was first diagnosed, the doctors circled around me like a school of sharks. They in no way offered me anything remotely helpful. This conservative state wants you to swim WITH the sharks or be eaten alive BY the sharks, you are not allowed an in-between spot on the spectrum. I am neither liberal or conservative, so basically, in a nation that DEMANDS you to choose a side or be burned at the stake, I'm screwed! I go to the doctor, they offer me drugs. I tell them my stance, they scoff and wave their hands as if blowing me off. They don't, I repeat, they DO NOT offer anything alternative! I need to cross state lines for that, and since I don't see that in my cards anywhere down the line, I stand firm with Christ and where He and He alone will lead me. HE is my safety net, my Rock! 

I CANNOT afford a chiropractor or an acupuncturist, I cannot do yoga because of my arthritis. I cannot turn to a doctor because all they spew at me is, "You need chemo chemo chemo. You don't need a chiropractor, you need chemo!" or "Here, have some drugs for your pain." That right there is the sharks I won't swim with. You too can agree or disagree with me, it is your right. I thank you all for caring endlessly for me and wanting to help. I sincerely love you all to the moon and back! 

I think I need to go under my rock for a bit and enjoy what is left of summer. Which voice is it that you hear? I hear God telling me over and over, "I GOT THIS! I GOT THIS!" All my praise and Glory goes to HIM! 

This is basically how I feel when not under my rock.

"And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
That's one thing he hated! The NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! " The Grinch, Dr. Seuss

Godspeed friends, in all that you do, be BLESSED!

2 Cor. 1:3 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;"

A closer look at The Face in the Clouds

Poetry Sunday ~ The Voice of a Child

Rev. 3: 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

The Voice of a Child

Written many years ago~Joni

A little seed, gently placed, into the hands of time.
Her soul was left amid the blooms in the garden of life sublime.
No one understood her quest and often nor did she.
There she dwelt in a cryptic world where eyes could never see.

Reaching out she uttered words, in hopes someone would hear.
But all alone the resounding truth whispered only to her ear.
She followed the path of righteousness the stones of suffering were lain.
Scattered among the rubble she bravely took the pain.

A force of light it beckoned her; the eden in her mind.
Surrounded by tranquility’s base, with souls so warm and kind.
Firmly standing in the pool of faith while others scoffed and scorned.
No one could see this young girl’s light or the wings that she adorned.

Cutting through, slashing her strength; all thought that she would fall.
Instead she rose above the realm to the place of duties call.
Sheltered within securities cage; no cry was she to mumble.
Awaiting the grace of a healing shield while always remaining humble.

The blessed healing swiftly came; her thirst did not subside.
Spreading her wings, surely to soar; one light her only guide.
Quenching her faithful desire, her pining never to cease.
Freedom stands at her doorstep...she now has gained release!!!

Luke 20: 36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

* one definition of an angel: a person having qualities generally attributed to an angel, as beauty, purity, or kindliness.

Perseverance

Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another. 

~Walter Elliott, The Spiritual Life

***

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. In writing you need perseverance to get any place.

About nine years ago, I met many friends who were all on the same path as me. We were all in a course, learning to write to see where this dream would lead. I had already taken a two year course and as perseverance goes, I jumped into yet another writing course. This one was free, and it had many classrooms full of wanna-be writers like myself. As the classrooms waned, my love for writing didn’t.

I met this one guy, awesome writer, who was going down the road with me, and as we met with many forks in the road, our paths separated as he continued in his day job and love of carpentry, and I was moving full steam ahead in the writing world. Nine years later, we are still friends, but both on different journey’s, as all writers wind up on.

Oh he is still an excellent writer, the love and gift didn’t go anywhere but he is now embarking on becoming his own boss in the Rehab business, and this year I’ve finally said enough is enough and moved on to something else myself. Yeah, I’m taking care of ME first, then I’ll move on to teaching you all, then getting a job in the real world, pending health issues.

My New Year, which began on Easter, left me with a whirlwind of changes that will be made this year. I will persevere in getting to where I need to go and when I get there, you all will be the first to know. If I don’t persevere, then I’ll get nowhere and be in this same situation come next year! So send up some positive prayers for me as I go on and move forward.

To be a writer, perseverance in many fields needs to be acquired first. It’s not just about writing, oh no, there is a lot more to being a writer than that!

You will become an editor -- correcting and perfecting your work before it becomes publishable. Don’t think an editor does it all for you. You have to be ACCEPTED first before they tinker with your manuscript and the least amount of tinkering, the better

A Copywriter -- Yes siree, an essential tool of the writer if he is to move forward in the writing field.
 
free assistance on copywriting are found here
 
A fileclerk? You might say, “No way, not in writing.” But YES way, in writing you need to keep track of all your submissions, accepted or rejected. You’ll need to keep track of money and expenses, for tax purposes.

A negotiator -- You’ll need this skill to work in a proper fee for all your hard work. Are you gonna just accept a $500 dollar offer for your manuscript? Think about it.

A Marketer -- You need to promote YOU and your work. No one can do it for you. And since you’ve taken on the role of fileclerk, you now have the beginnings of where to start. Connect with writers, promote together. Tweet your heart out.

An assistant to other writers -- Yes, you’ll want to help OTHER writers also. Maybe offer them something in a field that didn’t fit you. Hand it off to someone who writes in that field.

With perseverance...you just might make it!

***

But the moment you turn a corner you see another straight stretch ahead and there comes some further challenge to your ambition. 

~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Elements of Writing

Elements of writing

There are eight parts of speech. Can you identify them? Words are based on these eight parts of speech. They are:
noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, interjection


noun - a person, place or thing.
verb - asserts something about the subject. It is the action of the sentence.
pronoun - a substitute for a noun: he, she, it, which, etc. (tricky these pronouns are. Do your research!)
adverb - modifies a verb,  adjective, phrase or clause
adjective - modifies a noun or pronoun
preposition -  links the nouns, pronouns, phrases to other words in a sentence
conjunction -  more tricky words: but, and, or, for, so, yet
interjection - is a word added for emotion! For excitement. (Remember schoolhouse Rock) Yay! Aww... Hey! Eeek!




Pronoun cases (subjective, possessive, objective)
verb tenses: active or passive?
Can you pick out phrases and clauses? Would you know how to punctuate each?
Then there’s the punctuation usage. (Yes, I over use the exclamation mark!)


All this to become a writer? Is it even worth all the effort for you to put into it? For me it wasn’t, but for others, they’ve went on to great success in the writing world and have become published authors. I could go on and on about perseverance, and hanging in there, and push yourself to the limit. But after nine years of persevering, mentoring, teaching other folk the craft of writing, and giving my all to the writing world, it took one bad crop to spoil every ounce of hard work that I put in and now, I don’t write like I used to. I don’t really care to write anymore. No more writing site, no more writing friends and colleagues, I have within my grasp, a blog. That’s it.


Sure I love writing my blog posts, I write poetry also, but a grammarian? I have never reached that level. I wrote because I loved to write! Knowledge was a bonus, but no one is perfect. I’ll add that if you’re going for perfection in your writing, then you’re going at it all wrong.


The link provided for Grammar, gives an individual rundown on each of these essential elements. You will need to study these elements whether in a class, course, or by other means: library, internet, so that you know the proper way to write a sentence. To write a paragraph, you will surely want knowledge of how to write the sentence first. Improper usage of the words can make you appear not very knowledgeable in a field where you need knowledge.


There are many courses out there for you, whether for a fee: Writers Digest offers many seminars on writing for a costly fee, then there are sites for a low fee, but not many active classes so people run away. Then there is you, the writer; ready willing and able to go at this writing biz, full steam ahead.


My best advice is this: Find a site that suits YOUR needs. Whether you work alone on gaining grammar and writing knowledge, then post to the writing site to help you get some critical feedback, but be very careful of becoming ‘friends’ in the community setting. Just as in real life, they may be there to help you but they can also be the ones who put a halt to your dream, out of jealousy? Envy? Whatever the case may be, protect your heart before oozing it to the public, for sure you’ll meet with a dead end.