It was close, but Journey Thoughts and Word Salt fell short of the top prize at the 2012 Canadian Blog Awards.  I congratulate the winners and I thank all those who voted for my blogs over the past two months.  As they say, “There is always next year.”

For a complete list of winners and stats, please go to this website: http://cdnba.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/the-final-results-for-the-2012-canadian-blog-awards/

That said, I have been teaching some brilliant young writers this past term and I hope to have a sampling of their work on Journey Thoughts over the next few weeks.  Their assignment is to write a Christmas Devotional (between 250 – 500 words in length), which is asking a lot from these prolific writers.  All nine of them just participated in the NaNoWriMo challenge during the month of November (National Novel Writing Month) and they all exceeded our class word count goals!  One student even wrote over 50,000 words!  So to keep these young people to writing short devotional essays, may be a challenge all on its own.

I tell my students that “writing is the thing”.  Yes, we focus on the mechanics of writing: spelling, punctuation and grammar – but for the most part, we strive for putting our thoughts, our stories onto paper and glorifying God because He is the One that gave each of us the talents and gifts to use the written word to touch lives.  So, to those who faithfully read my little blog, please make a point of reading and encouraging my students over the next few weeks as they showcase their talents here on Journey Thoughts.  I know you will be blessed!