Use Your Words…..

This is a phrase I often said to our kids when they were little.

Instead of crying, stamping your feet, or grunting…..try using your words!
It worked wonders for calming them down or making sense of what they were crying about.

Funnily enough, this phrase has come back to bite me in recent times!

For the last 3 years, I have been on a healing journey recovering from burnout.
It has been brutal and beautiful all at the same time, and I am thankful for the season. But I am also super thankful the season has come to an end. So what next?

This is the question I have been pondering for the last couple of months:
Go back to what I was doing?
Get a job?
Re-train?
Start something completely new?

As I was praying about this, I heard God say, “Use your words.”
I was like, “What?”
And again He said “Use your words. I have gifted you to write, so I want you to write.”

In some ways, this makes perfect sense, and in other ways, it makes no sense!
Sure, I can use my words, but how is that going to pay the mortgage?
Sure, I can use my words, but how will that help anyone?
Sure, I can use my words, but is that enough?

Like the patient Father He is, God let all the questions roll off my tongue, as I babbled on about the practical side of things, like how was I going to earn money, or who will read my words, or how everything was going to work out, then He gently said: “Don’t worry about those things, just do what I’ve called you to do, and that’s to write, to use your words.”

To be honest, it’s kinda scary! I have no problem writing words, I just have a problem when I think of people reading them.
What If they don’t like them?
What If they don’t make sense?
What if they aren’t perfect?

Regardless of whether they are perfect or not (most likely not!) I will write. Just as God has asked me to do.

And so here I am in obedience using my words! Writing this blog, sending encouragement through social media, and getting my books written.
I don’t know who will read my words, but that’s okay, that’s up to God. In fact, if no one reads my words, that’s okay too!
I am being obedient and that is all God asks of me. The rest, well that is up to Him!!