Part Five: Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars by Cheryl Wyatt

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO OUR READERS!

Please welcome back our friend Cheryl Wyatt as she returns with the final installment of her Staying Grounded While Your Career Soars. We've enjoyed hosting her and appreciate her wisdom.

Staying Grounded as Your Career Soars: Part Five
by Chery Wyatt

Day 5 - Giving

Wow. When I found out this post was going to go up on Christmas Day, I felt very inadequate to post it. Especially when Annette pointed out how neat it was that my final post in this series was on giving and that it fell on Christmas Day.

No gift is more valuable than the one wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. No gift maybe except the fact that that “gift” grew up despite the satanic attacks on his life and still loved us enough to go to the cross. And with no guarantee we’d ever love Him back.

This post is supposed to be writing related.

But frankly, I don’t know what to say other than every good and perfect gift is from Him. We have nothing, no gift or talent or imaginative ability except what comes from Him.

It boggles my mind that He doesn’t take the gifts away from people who don’t serve Him.

I think of beautiful voices who don’t sing to or for Him but who should because He planted that voice within them when He knit them together in their mother’s wombs. I wonder if He still loves to listen to them sing? Does it hurt Him?

I really wonder.

What about writers so talented yet their words mock Him? I’m not pointing fingers or judging anyone. I just wonder what their words would be like, the impact they’d have if their words were for Him?

Do you ever wonder?

I’m so thankful for the gift of writing. I know it comes from Him.

Even the desire to use my words as worship, poured out as perfume. Many times written in brokenness of things He’s allowed into my life. Just like He allowed the men to mock the woman who shattered her bottle and wasted it all over his feet.

Yet her gift meant more to Jesus than any other that day.

You are a sweet fragrance to God. I pray that today you will determine to write as worship. That you would lose concern over reviews, bad numbers, no contract, rejection, etc. And just be secure in the fact that your words mean something profound to Him. Let that be enough. Let that be your gift to Him today.

Your readership is a gift for which I’m humbly thankful.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and my prayer is that your writing will be a gift to others and especially to the One who placed the dream within you.

Happy Birthday, Jesus. This one’s for you.

Cheryl Wyatt

Born Valentine’s Day on a naval base, Cheryl Wyatt writes military romance. Her Steeple Hill debuts earned RT Top Picks plus #1 and #4 on eHarlequin's Top 10 Most-Blogged-About-Books, lists including NYT Bestsellers.

Her latest book, A Soldier's Devotion, releases January 1, 2010.

U.S. Air Force pararescue jumper Vince Reardon was headed to a lifesaving mission-until pretty lawyer Valentina Russo crashed into him, sidelining him for two weeks. Ever since his brother was wrongly convicted, Vince has little respect for lawyers, but Valentina soon earns his respect.and his heart.

Writing Hope at Christmas

Thursdays - Devotions for Writers

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord.
"Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future." (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

This Bible verse has been my life-line for many years.

Hope.

What a powerful word.

During Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the hope He brought to the world.

Christmas should be a time of merriment and cheer, but for some it’s a time of loneliness, grieving, and struggles with relationships, finances, or health issues.

I’ve experienced two holiday seasons that were difficult for me. The first was my first Christmas as a divorced person and not being able to spend all of the time with my kids. The second came after I remarried and we struggled with the death of my 19 year-old daughter due to a freak a freak car accident. Both times I was blessed with wonderful friends who surrounded me with love and support. They reminded me there was hope.

Perhaps someone you know is struggling. Others may desire to say something encouraging, but they just don’t know what to say, so they say nothing at all . . . But as writers, we have a gift for putting words together. We have something that we can offer to those who need hope.

I send out an annual Christmas letter with pictures to about eighty friends and family members across the country. For some, this is the only time we communicate. This year I wrote about courage, what it takes to follow our dreams and God’s calling in our lives, and relayed how family members have drawn upon that very courage this past year. I wanted to encourage others to pursue their own dreams.

Before sending it out, I asked my husband, “Does this sound preachy?”

He assured me it wasn’t offensive in any way.

As soon as our letters were in the mail, we received one from friends in another state. It relayed that after 30 years, the husband was laid off with no hope of being called back to the job. Devastated, they want God to show them a “plan.”

They included the husband’s current e-mail address, so I sent a note with encouraging words. I received a response the same day, expressing appreciation, saying that he’d read the e-mail out loud to the rest of the family. The Christmas letter that I feared might be taken as “preachy” meant a great deal to him. After reading it, he told his wife it was exactly what he needed at the time.

My vision blurred as I read . . .

Fellow writers . . . we have opportunities all around us to bring words of encouragement and hope this Christmas.

A note, card, or e-mail is something tangible that a person can read over and over when needed.

Use your gift for the written word – and help bring hope this Christmas.

Dawn