writing what you love | the beauty in the story God has given you (ft. Leah Grace from The Grace Haus)

My wonderful friend, Leah, and I are swapping posts today! This is her post and you can click here to read my post. Leah is so good at encouraging me and I knew she’ll encourage you too. Enjoy!

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Every story has a message in it—something that comes straight from the writer’s heart. 

Whether it’s a story of redemption, love, forgiveness, or justice, each story has a part of the writer’s story woven into it. 

My current novel is all about trusting God and finding your identity in Him. Finding my worth in who God says I am and learning to trust Him is something I’ve walked through in my own life, and I’ve certainly not yet reached the finish line! 

But I see where God has brought me from and I want to tell others about my journey. This is because my life has been so radically changed by the truths that God has shown me and I can’t help but want to share them with others! 

Because we have soulful messages in us that we want people to heart, it’s hard to write stories our hearts aren’t in, am I right? This happened to me last summer. 

In August 2023, I finished my novelette “Rodney the Rooster.” And while I’m glad I finished the project—it started as a novella and required an intensive rewrite and a redone plot—it wasn’t the story that was on my heart. 

I muscled through, finished drafting the day before my self-imposed deadline and printed two copies. 

But my heart wasn’t in the story. 

To some extent, I enjoyed retelling my dad’s bedtime stories and it made my day on Christmas morning to see him open his present and find the book in his hands. 

Yet writing it was so hard. 

It was hard because it wasn’t the story my heart wanted to tell, and spending hours each day on it felt like a bit of a waste when I had messages of hope, redemption, and love in my heart. Yet here I was, writing about chickens trying to escape an ambush by a bunch of hawks.

You see, I love to write because God has put messages on my heart that I know have the power to change lives.

Proverbs 18:21 says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Our words are powerful, and not only can they encourage or tear down, but they can impact lives permanently. 

The book I’m currently writing is a picture of a portion of my own life, my own testimony, my own journey. 

I know what it’s like to place your identity and worth in the wrong things. I know what it’s like to have to trust God and take a leap of faith because He’s your only hope. I know what it’s like to see all of your plans and dreams and wishes fall apart and need to rely on God alone because He’s all you have left. 

Due to those facts, I am the only person who can write this specific story the way that it’s supposed to be written. 

Because this isn’t just my story—it’s the story God has given me. 

That doesn’t mean God caused everything that happened in my life to happen—He doesn’t cause suffering or sin!—but He’s been faithful through it all and has taught me so much about His goodness and power. 

I can’t help but want to share that! 

My book is one that’s not only interesting, adventurous, dramatic. My story is one that is beautiful and needs to be written because Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.”

I have a testimony that needs to be shared. Whether it’s one person or a hundred who will be impacted by it, I need to share it. 

I love how Laura said in one of her recent blog posts, “Think about what a gift writing is and how amazing it is that by arranging twenty-six letters into different patterns, we have the power to change lives.”

People need to hear your story—and I don’t necessarily mean through nonfiction, although there’s a place and time for that too. 

What I mean is that right now, there is someone who is where you used to be. 

Right now, there is someone who needs hope, needs to know that God is the answer to every one of their problems. 

What if you’re the one God wants to reach this person through? 

Have you been redeemed from your past mistakes and failures? Then you have a story to tell about how God rescues all who come to Him and makes everything new. 

Have you found yourself in an identity crisis, not knowing who you were in Christ? Then people need to hear how you found your identity not in who you are on the outside, but in who God says you are. 

You have a story to tell because you have a story of your own. 

God has given you everything you need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (2 Peter 1:3), so He’s going to help you tell your story. 

Maybe that looks like writing a book—or maybe it looks like sharing part of your testimony with someone who needs encouragement. 

Listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, so that when someone needs to hear your story—whether that’s a book you write or a testimony you share—you’ll know. 

If you have seen God work in your life, then you have a story that someone else needs to hear. 

God will equip you to share it, because after all, He is the best storyteller of them all!

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Go check out The Grace Haus here!