Writing Stars from God

Just when we think we've "got it" all figured out, we realize that we need to be diligent about the areas of our lives that are not as we would like? OK, I'll be a little more transparent. I love, absolutely love, to write! Anything! About anything! I also love to read and blog and surf the net. When you're a writer, especially a Christian writer with a definite call on your life, these activities can vie for time and attention, can circumvent my creativity and wisdom, and worse of all distract me from what God desires me to be doing with the gifts He gave me!

So it's a bit ironic that I'll be speaking about "Your Idea to God's Plan" at the end of April, don't you think? There is definitely an irony in that and I will certainly share that at the conference:-) While I'm being completely transparent, I will confess I have a competitive streak. No, I don't care if I win a game of scrabble or monopoly. I just fight my perfectionism and so if I fail in a goal or a plan I can really get aggravated with myself.

I started writing at helium.com a long time ago. I've written articles on all kinds of topics and made a little money in the process. I'm talking pennies, well . . . maybe quarters:-) When helium.com switched over to a new system of calculating their payout system, the rules became a bit more stringent and they now require writers to maintain a peer rating above a certain percentile, submit a certain number of articles to certain categories, and also peer rate others' articles.

Do you see where I'm going with this? I worked really hard to rate enough articles to get a "rating star." Since I already had a "writing star" I didn't bother to submit anything. Well . . . last week my writing star went away because eventually everybody "falls from grace." I had to fight hard my desire to just throw a couple of well-crafted articles up there so I could get my star back! I really didn't have time, but I really, really wanted to get back that star!

Now . . . God doesn't really care how many writing stars I have at helium.com or anywhere else. I know that. I understand and accept that if I had time, it would have been a fine use of my skills and abilities. But I am working on some freelance writing for pay, promoting my book and attempting to write some God-inspired pieces.

Chatty Kelly addressed this topic in her blog this morning. Her areas of temptation were different than mine, but Satan uses her 'growth areas' just as he uses mine to undermine our efforts to live rightly and do what we know we must do to please God.

So I'm not going to even visit helium.com this week! Well, that's a bit cavalier. I probably will visit, but I'm going to just do a check in to see if I get that star back:-) I promise I won't stress about it:-) OK, even that's not completely truthful. I promise I will try to not be distracted by the things of this world. I'll let you know how that goes!

for God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control. (2 Titus 1:7 RSV)