Category Archives: Writing

Obey Scared

26 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in #LiveFree Thursday, Empty Nest, Faith, Friday Five, Link ups, Speaking Ministry, The Church, Writing

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Obey Scared (1)I knew deep in my heart what I needed to do next.

I had been praying for God’s direction for months. I spent time with my journal and my Bible, I talked about my struggle with trusted friends and I read everything I could get my hands on. Ideas were swirling around in my head, but the details were not yet clear. I wrestled with doubt and yearned for a guarantee of success. Before I took the first step, I wanted to know how everything would turn out.

I knew what to do, but I didn’t want to begin until all my fears were gone.

People of faith have a great excuse to stay stuck in neutral. When we are feeling nervous and unsure, we can always find a good reason to spend a little more time in prayer. After all, scripture repeatedly extols the virtues of waiting on the Lord. Psalm 27:14, among many others, reminds us of the courage sometimes found in waiting:

Wait patiently for the Lord.
 Be brave and courageous.
 Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

Yet, if we are really honest, there are times we use prayer as an excuse. More often than we would care to admit, we know exactly what we need to do next but we are hoping the lump in our throat and the butterflies in our stomach will disappear FIRST. We want guaranteed results and happy endings.

But God wants us to obey scared.

One of my favorite stories in scripture is found as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the desert. In order to enter the land of their dreams and destiny, they must first cross the raging waters of the Jordan River. Joshua 3 tells us that “it was harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks.” Joshua and his people know they will need God’s help to get across the swollen river or they will drown in their attempts. Although God has every intention of stopping the river for them to cross, He tells Joshua the water won’t stop flowing until they wade into the river.

Before they saw the miracle, they had to get their feet wet.

Personally, I prefer to keep my feet dry. Raging rivers and deliverance I can’t yet see are not my cup of tea.

But I do love miracles. And, like the Israelites, I have grown weary of wandering in the desert when the Promised Land is just over the horizon.

So I am learning to obey scared. I focus on the next right thing, head in the direction of God’s voice and wade in.

Obeying scared might look like any of these: Continue reading →

You Go, Girl: Why Brave Women Cheer Each Other On

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Brave, Faith, Grace, People I Admire, Speaking Ministry, Things that make me laugh, Women, Writing

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SheSpeaksI just scared my elderly dog. Thank goodness there are no hidden cameras in my house because I may have just yelled a few PG-13 R-rated expletives at the top of my lungs in my living room less than 24 hours after returning home from a Christian writers and speakers conference where I was mostly on my best behavior.

Here is one definition of humility: realizing you sent the unedited version of your book proposal to the publishers who kindly agreed to further consider your book. Luckily, the unintended file was attached to a gracious thank you note. The second thank you note, the one with the correct, edited version of the book proposal attached- the version which my brilliant real life editor friend painstakingly helped me craft- was a bit shorter and included a self-deprecating joke referencing jet lag after a one hour flight. Ha Ha, aren’t I just the silliest?

And I was feeling so fancy. Sigh…

In spite of this latest foible, I am for the most part flying high after my attendance at She Speaks this past weekend. In addition to the exciting opportunity to meet with two publishers, I attended a number of informative and beautifully presented workshops about writing and speaking taught by some of my favorite Christian authors. The quality of the conference was top notch and I gained a multitude of ideas about how I can make my writing and speaking better.

For instance, when you begin with a paragraph which draws your reader in and makes them want to read more, this technique is called A Hook. I have found in the past, dear reader, you particularly enjoy my stories about the times when I do things which scare the dog, thus my willingness to share my epic failure above. You are welcome.

Beyond the high quality training I received, my favorite part of the conference was three days of uninterrupted quality time with my writing sisters. These brave, talented, passionate women flew in from all over the world to learn more about how to spread God’s love and their message of hope. I met new friends and dug deeper with some “old” friends who are part of my online community. We also laughed A LOT. Laughing is my favorite, as IMG_2553you can see in this photo of my squad. Continue reading →

LOL: 5 Times I Made Me Laugh Out Loud

01 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Friday Five, My hair, procrastination, Recommended Reading, Teenagers, Things that make me laugh, Writing

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One of the more unfortunate examples of my big Texas hair

I crack myself up sometimes.

In person, I frequently use humor to connect with other people. It brings me great joy to make people laugh and I have occasionally been known to go a little too far past the line of propriety in my attempts to produce a chuckle or giggle from my listeners. My favorite people are those with whom I can be silly, including my frequently inappropriate extended family. I love to laugh and many find me to be an appreciative audience because I will laugh at almost anything. My dependability as an enthusiastic audience member is probably why they asked me to be Drama Booster President.

Because I tend to write about more serious matters, my blog posts don’t always reflect my love of humor. Over the years, however, I have occasionally found myself at the computer in a “bit of a mood” and the resulting posts are a little more unpredictable. The best ones, of course, are the times I am making fun of my own foolishness.

In honor of April Fool’s Day, my little Friday Five community is celebrating laughter (and perhaps fools) with 5 Laugh Out Loud’s. I decided to share a few old posts where I found myself giggling at my silliness while I was writing.

Here are 5 Times I Made Myself (and possibly you) Laugh:

Speaking of Struggling… Speaking of my own foolishness, this is the pitiful tale of the time I tried to move an air hockey table on a wet floor in flip flops by myself. And how the entire debacle was ALL my husband’s fault. And how I couldn’t be blamed for my bad behavior because I was hungry. Learn from me, gentle reader. Do as I say, not as I do. I still have flashbacks every time I go down in the basement. But my knee is fine now, thank you for asking.

Only Dinosaurs Use Two Spaces  Ok, I just read through this again and I am still mad about this rule change. And I still don’t understand thong underwear. Continue reading →

Top Posts of 2015

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in #LiveFree Thursday, Blogs, Brave, Current Affairs, Empty Nest, Friday Five, Link ups, Parenting, Politics, Scripture, Speaking Ministry, The Church, Throwback Thursday, Writing

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blogreportOur little blog had over 10,000 views in 2015!

I published 77 posts this year and people from over 100 countries found their way to Grace Notes. You came by way of Facebook, Twitter, various search engines, and a number of other blogs. While I am quite clear my mom is still my most faithful reader, many of you who are not even my mom kept coming back time and again.

I am incredibly grateful for EVERY SINGLE VISIT.

I am honored you would share a few minutes here with me and my other readers. Because I want this place to be about community, encouragement and the sharing of ideas, I thought I would end 2015 today by looking back over some of our favorite “conversations” this year here at Grace Notes.

Top 5 posts of 2015

Losing Myself The most read post of this year was something I wrote in response to other people’s great ideas! Part of the great joy of 2015 was developing relationships with a number of other bloggers. Two of my favorite blogging communities simultaneously suggested the idea of writing letters to our younger selves. What do I know now that I didn’t know then? Inspired by my recently empty nest, I wrote a letter to my 31 year old self at the moment I was about to quit work prior to the birth of our second daughter. This ode to my parenting journey clearly struck a cord with many of you and you shared it generously with others.

Careful with Rainbows was my second most read and shared post. Continue reading →

Half of the Moon

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by in Blogs, Brave, Guest Blogger, Writing

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As I have shared with you before, I have been blown away by the community that I have found as part of the For The Love launch team. Many of us are aspiring writers, so we have decided to encourage and support one another by introducing our readers to one another.  I told my new writing friends to send me their favorite post about being brave, my theme for this season of my journey.  Here is the “brave first” in this series of guest posts from my talented writer friends.

Friends, meet Andrea.  She blogs over at Empty Plate, Full Heart because she believes that hearts are filled when stories are shared.  She is kind, encouraging, funny, generous and beautiful.  She is also a Texan!  Please enjoy this beautiful piece from my new friend Andrea about being brave.  Then go check out her blog!

Half of the Moon by Guest Blogger, Andrea Stunz

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”  ~Mark Twain 

IMG_4868The moon is always a whole moon but it’s never fully exposed. When it reveals itself in what we call a full moon, it’s still just half of the moon. We only see one side of it. It’s impossible for us, on earth, to see the moon fully. Fully exposed. Fully known. Fully vulnerable. Only God can see it fully.

We are a moon. We are a whole being but we don’t expose ourselves fully. We may reveal more to some than others but there is a side to us that only God can see.

It takes so much courage and trust to share ourselves in all of our fulness. Fully exposed. Fully known. Fully vulnerable. Many of us try. Many of us don’t. Many of us can’t. We’ve been burned from past exposure, often repeatedly, and closed off that part of our soul that no one could ever love enough to protect. This is why we need grace and the Giver of it.

God sees our other half. He sees the dark side. The hidden parts. He longs for us to share that with Him. He waits for us to tell him about these parts even though He already knows. Because He knows that in the telling that we will see that He is trustworthy and we will find our brave.

We are the moon. He is the Creator of it. He sees us fully and loves us anyway. So so much.

On the dark side of the moon there is a sun. It covers the darkness with light. It brings freedom. It brings hope.

So there’s that.

Hallelujah!!

~Andrea

 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! 1 Corinthians 13:12 (The Message)

Originally published on Andrea’s blog: Empty Heart, Full Plate

Only Dinosaurs Use Two Spaces

16 Thursday Apr 2015

Posted by in Empty Nest, Random Musings, Things that make me laugh, Writing

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baby-dinosaur-cartoon-CA-350-v04-Dinosaur_doneI experienced the shocking realization this week that I am officially a dinosaur.

In case you were wondering, the secondary definition of dinosaur is this: a person or thing that is outdated or has become obsolete because of failure to adapt to changing circumstances. I am not a giant extinct reptile, but apparently, by certain measures, I am the other kind of dinosaur.

At least according to the 25 year old coworkers of one of my girlfriends.

A viral post popped up on my Facebook feed entitled Nothing Says Over 40 Like Two Spaces after a Period. Intrigued, I clicked on the rather smart alecky post and discovered that unless you are using a typewriter, it is no longer appropriate to insert two spaces after the final punctuation in a sentence.

Are you kidding me? HOW DID I NOT KNOW THIS?

I consider myself a fairly well informed person. I watch the news, participate in social media, read books and converse with a wide variety of people. Continue reading →