As I was growing up I looked forward to supper time spent around the kitchen table. After supper we would sit and listen to my Dad telling story after story. He is a great story teller and can bring the memories of people who lived long ago, alive once more. No longer were ancestors just a name and dates on a tombstone, but they were real people with real stories waiting to be told.
When I was a teenager, I started developing my gift of storytelling, I started writing short stories and poems. I have always been an avid reader; and writing just seemed to follow suit. A few years ago I had several people encourage me to compile all of my devotionals and stories into a book. I didn’t know where to start so my eldest son suggested that I start a daily blog as a way to keep all of my work organized.
When I first started the blog I worried that I wouldn’t have enough to write about but when you are talking about how God has impacted your life, how could you ever run out of things to say? I turned my blog, mamaspages, over to the Lord and asked Him to use it to minister to women around the world. And He has. My blog has been viewed, almost 16,000 times in less than 2 yrs, by people from every continent other than Antarctica. I may never have been able to minister in person to people in Russia, Germany, the Ukraine, Hong Kong, Slovenia, France, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina or Khzatland but through the internet I can tell others of the love of Christ. God took my love of writing and used it to bless others for Himself. Since starting my blog in August 2010, I have written two books and am working on a third which should be published by October of this year.
Publishing a book has never been as easy as it is to do now. We live in an age of technology and sometimes that technology can scare us into not using it for God’s work. It’s easy to say ‘I don’t know anything about computers’ and never try to learn but if learning to use a computer will help you achieve your dream and to use the gift God has given you, then we’d better turn our fear over to God and learn.
There are many self publishing companies out there who will help you get your book published. I personally use Lulu.com. They will walk you through the process of publishing your own book, step by step. You can choose the way your book looks, the size of it and every other detail about it. They will even help you to determine the price you should ask for it.
Once your book is published you next need to focus on marketing it. I asked two local stores if they would display my books for a small commission and they both agreed. I also use Facebook to advertise my books as well as displaying them at women’s conferences. Vista Print.ca has wonderful banners and business cards which can be custom made to help you market your book or advertise your business or ministry.
Maybe your dream isn’t to write a book but to be a chef or a teacher or a missionary or..... you fill in the blank. God will help you achieve your dreams if you turn them over to Him. Ask Him to direct your paths and He will. You don’t have to get to the end of your life saying ‘I wish I had done......’, with God all things are possible to him who believes.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might....
You may be thinking that what you have is insignificant to God but let me assure you that any ability you may possess He gave to you. Any gift that you have, He gave to you. Any talent, you guessed it came from Him too. So it is important that we use what we have for Him.
We all know the stories about Samson. God had set him apart for His use and gave him super human strength. He was the strongest man in the world. At one point, Samson finds himself in real trouble. He has been bound and is going to be delivered into the hands of his enemies, the Philistines. But God’s Spirit moved, and the ropes which bound him broke.
Judges 15:14-15 (KJV) Jdg 15:14 And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
Yet he was still surrounded by an army of armed fighting men. If you and I had been there we would have said "Just give up. You don’t have a sword or a shield.’ But the Bible says Sampson grabbed a near-by object and used it to kill 1,000 fighting men. Judges 15:15 tells us it was the jawbone of a donkey. A bone is not the weapon we usually think of when we are thinking about possible weapons to take on an army with, but it was all he had. It was the only thing in his hand and he trusted God with it. God took that insignificant bone and brought about a great victory with it.
It wasn’t the jawbone that brought about the victory. No it was the man who held the jawbone who was willing to let God use what was in his hand. No matter how insignificant it seemed.
What’s in your hand today? Maybe you aren’t a writer or possess super human strength or can sing like the angels. But just maybe you can make the best butterscotch pie in the world or maybe you love children and that love makes them gravitate to you. Maybe you love to scrapbook or take pictures or bake or sew or whatever. What are you doing with that talent? How could you use it for the Lord? Ask Him and He will direct your paths.
Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not.”
Whatever your talent may be ask the Lord how He would want you to use it and He will tell you. Then determine to start your own ministry for Him. Maybe it will be the ministry of helps by babysitting someone’s children so they can have a few hours off or maybe it will be baking for a widower who has been missing his wife’s cooking. Maybe you will use your scrapbooking skills to organize a senior’s box of old photographs which they never got around to putting in an album.
Maybe you’re sitting here today and thinking ‘I had a dream once but it’s impossible now’. Let me assure you that absolutely nothing is impossible with God. "If you can believe, all things are possible to those who believe."
- Mark 9:23
- Mark 9:23
Whatever your dream is turn it over to Him. Reawaken that dream you once had and ask God to show you ways to see it come to fruition.
What’s in your hand? How can you use it for the Lord? If He has given you a talent it was so you could use it for Him, not just for your own enjoyment. Let me encourage you to look for ways to bless others with your gift and He will open doors of opportunity that you never could have imagined.
It’s not what’s in your hand, it’s what you let God do with it!
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