Inspired Writing

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Lynn
logoSomeone told me when I published my first book to start a blog.  So I started blogging five years ago basically to promote my books.  I really had no thought about content or outreach, it was all about marketing and promotion.  I honestly had no idea what “blogging” really was and I had no idea  that a blog could have a potential for a world-wide audience.  It was when I started to gain followers and more and more people started to comment on the content I posted, that I realized that blogging had the potential to be a ministry.

This past year, I have seen God take my little musings and expand my reading audience world wide.  I have followers who contact me and ask for prayer…many of them from countries that are considered “dark” and believers persecuted harshly for their faith.  I am humbled and at times saddened that total strangers are so desperate for prayer that they contact me, a stranger to them personally, to ask for prayer.  It is the least I can do for them.

I have been discouraged at times by dwindling book sales and have often questioned the Lord as to why He wanted me to write and publish in the first place.  I never thought about it before, but I wonder if publishing my books was just an avenue that led me to blogging?  Perhaps it was not my books, although the Lord has certainly blessed that effort immeasurably, but the blog that has given me a ministry the likes I would never have realized had it not been for my need initially to promote my books with my blog.

It is a lot of effort.  It requires much devotion and passion to write regularly and write timely posts that appeal to a large audience.  I find I spend far less time promoting my books as a result of my blog but book sales have still held steady because people who read my blog venture to read the books as well.  Some authors may call this a means to an end, and that’s what I thought five years ago to be sure, but I have a whole new mind set now.

For me it’s not about using my blog to get people to buy my books per se, it’s blogging to bring a message of hope and Truth to people who hunger and thirst for spiritual food.  This past year, rather than promoting my books as much on the blog, I have been devoting myself primarily to writing for His Glory on my Journey Thoughts blog and God has blessed those efforts in ways I could not have imagined.

Christian writers, do not stop writing.  If God has called you to write a book…write a book.  If God has called you to write poetry, write rhyme and verse.  If God has called you to blog, blog!  Use your talent to bring honour and glory to God in everything you write!

Lynn Dove - authorLynn Dove calls  herself a Christ-follower, a wife, a mom, a grandmother, a teacher and a writer (in that order). She is the author of award winning books: The Wounded Trilogy.  Her blog, Journey Thoughts won a Canadian Christian Writing Award – 2011. She has also had essays published in “Mother of Pearl: Luminous Lessons and Iridescent Faith” and “Chicken Soup for the Soul – Parenthood” (March 2013), Devotional Stories for Wives: 101 Daily Devotions to Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire You (Sept. 2013) O Canada The Wonders of Winter: 101 Stories about Bad Weather, Good Times, and Great Sports (Nov. 2013) and Miracles Happen: 101 Inspirational Stories about Hope, Answered Prayers, and Divine Intervention (Feb. 2014) and The Multitasking Mom’s Survival Guide: 101 Inspiring and Amusing Stories for Mothers Who Do It All (March 2014).  She was most recently awarded Literary Classics International Book Awards – Seal of Approval and Silver Medal in Young Adult Faith-based fiction for her book Love the Wounded.  Readers may connect with Lynn on Facebook, Twitter and on her blogs: Journey Thoughts and Word Salt or on her website: www.shootthewounded.org.

This was originally posted on InScribe Writers Online.

Posted in Proverbs 16:9 - Journey Thoughts, Write On! | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Only in Canada, eh?

Posted on March 7, 2014 by Lynn

Thought we just needed to laugh at ourselves today!  Enjoy!

Only in Canada…can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance.

Only in Canada…are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.

Only in Canada…do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in Canada…do people order double cheese burgers, large fries and a diet coke.

Only in Canada…do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in Canada…do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in Canada…do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place.

Only in Canada…do we buy hot dogs in packages of twelve and buns in packages of eight.

Only in Canada…do we define ‘politics’ this way: “poli” in latin meaning ‘many’ and “tics” meaning ‘bloodsucking creatures’.

Only in Canada…do they have drive-up ATM machines with braille lettering.

Only in Canada…do the local papers cover national and international headlines on two pages, but require six pages for hockey.

Only in Canada…can you play road hockey on skates.

Only in Canada…Halloween costumes are designed to fit over snowsuits.

Only in Canada…do the mosquitoes have landing lights….oh, and the most effective mosquitoe repellent is a shotgun.

Only in Canada…does your snowblower have more kilometres on it than your car.

Only in Canada…do you clean the grease off your barbeque so you won’t attract bears onto your porch.

Only in Canada…does your municipality pay for a Zamboni before a commuter bus.

Only in Canada…is every Canadian required to learn both the French and English versions of ‘O Canada’

Only in Canada…do we spend billions of dollars advertising everything in two ‘official’ languages (French and English) when less than 30% of Canadians actually speak french….and they all live in Quebec.

Only in Canada…do we understand the phrase, “Would you mind passing me a serviette as I just dropped my poutine on your chesterfield?”

Only in Canada…do we know what a “toque” is.

Only in Canada…do we know that the last letter of the alphabet is pronounced, “Zed” not “Zee”…and it does not faze us when we sing the Alphabet Song.

Only in Canada…do we have four seasons: winter, still winter, almost winter, and road/work construction.

Only in Canada…has nearly every kid had their tongue frozen to something.

Only in Canada…do we add “u’s” to the following words so they’re spelled right: labor, honor, color, neighbor

And last but not least…

Q: How many Canadians does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Twelve.  Four to form a Parliamentary study committee to decide how to solve the problem, one Francophone to complain that this joke was not translated into French, one Native Canadian to protest that the interests of the First Nations peoples have been overlooked, one woman from the National Action Committee On the Status Of Women to say that women have been underrepresented in the process, one to go over the border to the Niagara Falls Factory Outlet Mall and buy a new bulb and not pay duty on it on the way back, one to actually screw it in, one to collect taxes on the whole procedure so the government can afford it, one to buy a case of Molson for everybody to drink, and one to drop the puck.

Only in Canada, eh?

Posted in Canadiana, Friday Funnies, Hope through Humour | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The “Cool” Factor

Posted on March 6, 2014 by Lynn

my-grandkids-think-im-coolIn February we always celebrate our first grandbaby’s birthday!  We celebrate the engagement of my son and daughter-in-love. The month of hearts and love is always a time of celebration at our place. I love this season of life and as is obvious whenever I’m around my grandbabies, …I fully intend to cling tight to each one of them and rock, coo, cuddle, play, make silly faces, and love, love, love them for hours and hours…or at least for the youngest, until their diapers need changing…hahaha.

I take it as my God-given perogative…no, responsibility to totally spoil any grandbabies that come into the family!  I’ve told everyone I’m going to be the “cool” grandma.  It is not meant as a slight on Matt’s mom or on my daughter-in-law’s mom.  I have to be the “cool” grandma because Chandler’s Mom is the “hostess with the mostess” and Grandma Rollings has the undisputed title of best baker, cook and domestic goddess.  I bow to their expertise.

Me?  I don’t have many domestic skills…none actually.  The thing I do best for dinner is make reservations!  No, I’ve decided I’ll have to take up riding a Harley or something, maybe get a tattoo,… something to edge in the “cool factor”.  (I can just hear my kids rolling on the floor laughing hysterically.  “Mom ride a Harley?…get a tattoo?…yeah, right??!!” ) Okay, enough sarcasm, I guess I won’t be that cool!

On Feb. 20, 2011 as we waited expectantly for our new grandbaby to arrive on the scene, I also celebrated the 10th anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis.  Now I ask you…how “cool” is that??

If someone had told me on that day that ten years later I would be looking forward to holding my first grandbaby in my arms, I wouldn’t have believed them.  If someone had said on that day in the next ten years you would be hired as Children’s Minister at your church, you would go to seminary to get your Masters, you would see your daughter married and graduate from university, and you would publish not one but three books; I would have laughed bitterly and then shook my head because on that day I did not think I had a future or a hope.  All I thought of on that day was that I had cancer and it was a death sentence.

I came across this video and invite you to watch it as it describes exactly the emotions I felt on that day!

On the day I discovered I had breast cancer I felt knocked out.  It was all I could do to pick myself off the canvas and fight back. On my own strength I suppose I would have been “down for the count” but I did not rely on my strength.  My strength comes from the Lord and on that day as I wept before the Lord, He gave me this scripture:

 10 I said, “In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death
and be robbed of the rest of my years?”

11 I said, “I will not again see the LORD,
the LORD, in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on mankind,
or be with those who now dwell in this world.

12 Like a shepherd’s tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.

13 I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.

14 I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!”

15 But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul.

16 Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.

17 Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.

18 For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.

19 The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.

20 The LORD will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the LORD.

Isaiah 38:10-20

So for our family February seems to be a stellar month.  It is my “milestone” month and a time to rejoice that I’ve been able to praise God another year.  The fact that it is “The living, the living – they praise You, as I am doing today; [grandmother]  tell your [grandbabies] about Your faithfulness…” (vs. 19)

Now that is what I call pretty cool !  Oh, and in case anyone was wondering…I’m celebrating being cancer-free since 2001!

God is good!

Posted in Family Life, Inspiration & Devotion, Proverbs 16:9 - Journey Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment