The Official Writing Challenge
BACK TO
CHALLENGE
MAIN
INSTRUCTIONS
how it works
submission rules
guidelines for
choosing a level
ENTRIES
submit your entry
read current entries
read past entries
challenge winners
Our Daily Devotional HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.


TRUST JESUS TODAY

  • Share
  • how it works
  • Submit
Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Inspiration/Block (for the writer) (05/20/10)
The Highest


Matthew 5:14a (NIV) You are the light of the world.

The word ‘inspiration’ always makes me take a slow, deep breath. My eyes close and a smile warms my face. The word always reminds me of the reason I became a writer.

I am a great fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. The third novel, Anne of the Island, finds Anne and her young adult friends facing life’s challenges. Ruby Gillis is a chum who had never given any thought but to her day to day pleasures. Unhappily, Ruby is now dying of consumption. Anne pays her a visit and finds Ruby terrified of death. Ruby’s “soul clung, in blind helplessness, to the only things she knew and loved”. Anne left that meeting a different young woman. I was changed as I read Montgomery’s prose of Anne’s thoughts: “The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.”

That sentence first inspired me to “the highest” and reinforced my faith. Second, I was consumed with the desire to write in a way that would make people aspire the way I did at that moment. The notion began as a desire and has blossomed over the years into a full blown passion and calling. I will never forget it. Over time I have reread and highlighted many such inspirations in Montgomery’s work as well as many of the Masters and Christian authors.

Keeping that goal in my heart and mind has gotten me over many a writer’s block. I just close my eyes and remember that moment and then ask the Father to help me take my readers to that place of inspiration; the highest.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE

JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
This article has been read 1357 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Jan Ackerson
05/27/10
This would be a lovely morning devotional for a Christians writers' conference.
Bryan Rudolph
05/28/10
What a wonderfully sensitive mind you have. Your perceptions of Anne and Ruby and your written transmission of those perceptions was welcoming. Oh . . . and to think you will develop your own Anne-like insights for all of us!

Your writing approach is so intimate, so freshly sincere, that I feel you are sitting beside me, telling me all this. That is writing talent . . . yes, and more . . . just keep it going, as you said you will . . . your future audience awaits.

Bryan R.
Dusti (Bramlage) Zarse
05/28/10
Inspiring.
Lyn Churchyard
05/30/10
Excellent writer's devotional. I particularly loved the last sentence-something to keep in mind always. Thank you :-)
Mildred Sheldon
05/31/10
What an inspiring devotional. Straight from the heart and beautifully written. I love Anagrams.
F=Follow
O-one
C-Course
U=Until
S=Settled.
Great job.
Maria Egilsson
06/01/10
jodybooks, this is very well written as well as being inspirational. Excellent entry.
Virgil Youngblood 
06/01/10
Brief, heartfelt, inspiring -- well done.
Carol Slider 
06/01/10
I love the works of L.M. Montgomery, too. Have you read her "Emily of New Moon" trilogy, about a young girl who grows up to be a writer?

Thanks for this beautiful, heartfelt devotional!
Lollie Hofer 
06/01/10
I liked how you wrapped up the culmination of your thoughts in the last paragraph. Well done!
Terry R A Eissfeldt 
06/01/10
Deep breath
aaahhhh
Inspired.
Thanks!
Brenda Shipman
06/03/10
L.M. Montgomery is one of my favorites, also, and of course, who could NOT love Anne with an "e"!? I really related to your experience of how reading others' work has inspired you. Me too! It's reading those gems that cause us to sigh or cry or laugh that fuels our desire to create something similar. I really liked this.