What do you do when the future you had planned for yourself, your child, or with your spouse is suddenly erased? A person confronting a chronic illness may feel uncertain about the future. Their hopes and dreams may be placed on hold or have to be altered. They may feel hopeless and helpless. “Thy Will Be Done: 60 Prayers for the Chronically Ill” is a resource to help persons connect with the perfect love which casts out all fear, the love of Jesus Christ.
Month: October 2017
Don’t Lose Heart
Today’s verse helps us to have a confident acceptance of the reality of life. Part of learning to deal with a chronic illness is learning to not lose heart.
Today’s Bible Verse:
2 Corinthians 4: 16 (KJV), “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”
What the verse means:
Christianity understands the steady decline of the physical body. Though we are rescued from spiritual death and alive with Christ, our bodies remain in the process of decay. The follower of Christ should recognize that our outer bodies are wasting away. From the moment of birth, we begin to die. It is inescapable unless the Lord Jesus returns first. Therefore, we should be released from infatuation with the physical body. The Christian’s faith is far from a fatalistic acceptance of suffering and awaiting death. Every believer in Jesus Christ has their eyes open to something else. That is the continuous restoration of the inner person. The Christian should be aware of increasing inner, spiritual strength. God does not forsake his children, but he gives us growing supplies of grace. The Holy Spirit works in us as an infinite well of life. This is a constant process of renewal. The Lord does not wind us up like a clock at the time of new birth and then ignore us. No, he gives daily spiritual energy. Let us never forget the physical and the spiritual are part of your life every day.
Praying using the verses:
- Heavenly Father, help us to not focus on our decaying or diseased body, but to realize that our inner self is being renewed daily.
- Lord, help us look to the things that are not seen, not the which are seen.
- God, help us look to the eternal, not the temporal.
Photo Source: Pixaby
7 Habits of Effective Writers
In 1989 the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey was published. I am using the idea to apply it to writers. Hence the title, “7 Habits of Effective Writers.”
The best place to start is at the beginning.
Habit One
Start. You have to put your behind in a seat and begin to write.
Habit Two
Be consistent. I am not saying do it every day. I am saying write on a regular basis.
Habit Three
Have a positive outlook. Walt Disney was credited with saying, “Think you can think you can’t, either way, you are right.” You need to believe you can and do the work.
Habit Four
Be committed for the long haul. It takes some time to write a story. One book wonders are the exception, not the rule. You can make a living as a writer, but it takes time and hard work.
Habit Five
Be willing to pay the price. When you pay the price in time, money and effort the price you paid is spent investing in yourself.
Habit Six
Never stop learning. You learn by attending conferences. You learn by reading books on the craft of writing. You learn by listening to podcasts and reading blogs. You learn by writing. You learn from your editor. You learn by reading books in the genre you write. An editor you ask. Yes, if traditionally published your encounter editors. If self-published you need to invest in professional editing.
Habit Seven
Have perspective. Your attitude is a key as I mentioned earlier. It’s okay to begin where you are and improve over time. If you are like me you write because you must write. You may need to do an attitude check if you want to have written, just sign autographs, and be adored by fans. I’m not saying that won’t happen. I am saying it is unlikely.
Courage
Facing a chronic illness is a scary daily challenge for both the person with the illness and the family. Through Jesus Christ, we can be strong and courageous.
How can we do this?
We cannot in our by ourselves. Daily the Lord Jesus our God goes with the Christian. We need to remember he goes with us. Today’s Scripture tells us the Lord will not leave or forsake the Believer in Jesus Christ.
Today’s Bible Verse:
Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV), “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
What the verse means:
Because Christians have God with them they should be of good courage. The courage comes from their confident assurance in God which faith gives. This confident faith in Christ allows us to bravely face each day knowing through him we shall have the ultimate victory.
Praying using the verse:
1. Heavenly Father, please help our family to continue to be strong and courageous in the face this illness.
2. Lord, we ask for Your comfort. Help us to not fear or be in dread of the challenges we are living through. Help us to not grow weary.
3. Thank you for letting us know it is the Lord our God who goes with us and that You will not leave us or forsake us.
4. We pray our family and loved ones would confess faith in Jesus Christ where they too can experience the comfort available to Christians.
Source: Pixaby
What is Scrivener?
What is Scrivener?
If you look up scrivener in the dictionary you will find the definition that a scrivener is a historical noun meaning a clerk, scribe, or notary.
Scrivener software is your scribe. The scribe is a powerful content-generation software for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft. Almost every wants to be a writer knows the first step to getting a book published is to complete writing the first draft.
How Does Scrivener Help?
- Scrivener is your complete writing studio.
- Scrivener helps you to write, structure, and revise your book.
- Scrivener helps you create order from chaos
- Scrivener helps you organize your research where it is not only within easy reach but where you can find your stuff.
- Scrivener helps you get the first draft completed where you can compile and/or export it for printing.
- Scrivener even has a ios version if you use an iPhone. So far there isn’t a version available for an Android user like me.
- Scrivener is used by persons needing a long-form project management tool. The software is used by all sorts of professional and amateur writers, from best-selling and aspiring novelists to Hollywood scriptwriters, from students and academics to lawyers and journalists: anyone who works on long and difficult writing projects.
So, what is Scrivener
“Scrivener is aimed at writers of all kinds—novelists, journalists, academics, screenwriters, playwrights—who need to structure a long piece of text while referring to research documents. Scrivener is a ring-binder, a scrapbook, a corkboard, an outliner and text editor all rolled into one. It is primarily intended to be a first draft tool; although it is possible to complete a project that requires only basic formatting – such as a novel or short story – in Scrivener, often you will want to take your draft to a dedicated word processor or layout program for final formatting. Scrivener is intended to be a kind of “writer’s shed” for those of us who don’t have a spare shed.” 1
1From the introduction in the Scrivener tutorial in the software’s help file
Tears
Part of learning to deal with a chronic illness is learning that it is okay to cry, that the Heavenly Father cares about our tears. Today we look at what God’s word says about crying.
Today’s Bible Verse:
Psalm 56:8-9 (KJV), “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.”
What the verse means:
Why would one keep tears in a bottle? The idea behind the keeping of “tears in a bottle” is a remembrance. King David, the writer of these verses, is expressing a deep trust in God. He knows that God will remember his sorrow. He knows God will remember his tears. He also is sure the God will not forget about him. David is confident that God is on his side.
Praying using the verses:
- Heavenly Father, thank you for tears. Our tears help us identify and deal with our feelings.
- Lord, thank you for letting us know crying is okay.
- It is comforting to know that our tears are noticed by God, that he keeps track of our tears.
- Pray that we will turn the sorrow concerning our chronic illness over to God.
- Pray that we would feel the freedom to cry out to God and let the tears flow when we need to.
- Pray that our family would be supportive, loving, and understanding during the times the tears flow. Pray he would just hold her during these times without questioning and comfort her.
- Help us to have the confidence of King David, the author of these verses, and say with him – for God is for me.
Photo Source: Pixaby
Praise
As we care for ourselves or for a loved one with a chronic illness, often we grow tired and weary. As we tire we should focus on our Heavenly Father. The Lord God will strengthen and renew us as we praise him.
Today’s Bible Verse:
Exodus 15:2 (KJV), “The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
What the verse means:
We get our strength from the Lord. We should praise God. Why should we praise him? We praise him to the honor of God. We praise him to exalt his name. We celebrate his praise. Praise is the Lord God’s only. The praise isn’t to magnify man but to praise the Lord.
Praying using the verse:
- We confess that the Lord is our strength and our song;
- The Lord is our salvation.
- He is our God.
- We praise Him and will exalt Him.
Photo Source: By Yinan Chen (www.goodfreephotos.com (gallery, image)) [Public Domain], via Wikimedia Commons; File URL; Page URL. Modifications by Jimmie Aaron Kepler.
Remembering Janis Joplin
Today is the 47th anniversary of Janis Joplin’s death. She passed away on this day, October 4, 1970. I wrote this poem remembering her several years ago.
Dead on the Floor
“Tricky Dick” was the U.S. President
In America, a first-class stamp cost just six cents
Richard Nixon froze both the prices and our pay
We still loved going to concerts to see our favorite bands play
The Vietnam War was on the evening news for all to see
Marcus Welby, M.D. was the number one show on United States TV
Over in London, Jimi Hendrix overdosed
On Monika Dannemann’s sleeping pills two weeks before.
And in Los Angeles, John Cook found Janis Joplin dead on the floor.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler
© 2011
Originally published in “Writing After Fifty” in 2011.
It is included in the book “Gone Electric: A Poetry Collection” published in 2014.
Photo Source: By Albert B. Grossman Management (personal manager), New York. (eBay item photo front photo back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons