By Laura Boone
We’re excited to post today an article by Laura Boone from Life’s Love! She kindly agreed to do a blog post swap with us, and our post will be linked here when it’s posted this Tuesday. Thank you, Laura!
When we think about writing we probably don’t imagine humility going with it, but what if we really did need humility as writers? What if it was one of the key qualities for success and happiness as an author? Humility isn’t just something for our Bible/prayer time, or when we’re interacting with others (although we do some of that as writers). Humility is needed for every day, every writing session, every writing project.
Humility is what reminds us that it’s not all up to our strength, our creativity, our wisdom, or our power. Humility is what shows us that we don’t have to be better than other writers nor do other writers have to be worse than us. Humility is what whispers in our ears and tells us we are good enough, we are worthy, we are loved.
Pride is what tells us that we have to write beautiful books and stories and blog posts all on our own strength, using our own willpower and grit. Pride is what tells us that our writing is better than someone else’s and believe it or not, pride is also what tells us that our writing is junk. Pride is what tells us that we won’t ever make it, and that we’re not good enough.
Which would you rather have whispering in your ear, telling what to think and how to act? It may seem hard to be humble, to prioritize God’s thoughts and truth above ours, but humility is where the grace is (1 Peter 5:5), humility is where the riches, honor, and life are (Proverbs 22:4), humility is where we go to be exalted (Matthew 23:12).
There are three different times we can have humility, when we’re with God, when we’re with others, and when we’re with ourselves. Humility in all three of these categories is crucial to our peace as a person and also our success as a writer.
Humility before others
Comparing our work to someone else’s through the distorted lens of pride can ruin our creativity. Either we think our writing is better than theirs or we think it’s worse. Both points of view are detrimental. If we get caught up thinking that our writing is so much more amazing than that of other people's, we are likely to fall (Proverbs 16:18). And if we think that our writing is trash compared to someone else's, we are condemning the thing with which we could have brought God glory (1 Corinthians 10:31).
But what if instead of focusing on the quality of our work compared to someone's else’s we just focused on God and what he thinks about our writing? What if it didn’t even matter if other people’s writing was better or worse than ours? What if all that mattered was God and him getting the glory?
When we put our entire focus on God instead of what others are doing, it gives us freedom to focus on blessing others instead of just comparing ourselves to them.
Humility with ourselves
Humility with ourselves is not viewing ourselves as trash, it’s not thinking that what we create is bad, it’s not putting ourselves down. Viewing ourselves with humility is submitting to what God says about us. This looks like looking at ourselves and what we create matter of factly, not exaggerating in both directions. This also means looking at what we write through the lens of love. That’s how God sees us and our writing, why shouldn’t it be how we see ourselves and our writing?
Love rejoices in the truth, the truth that says you are enough. Love is kind, it doesn’t focus on your mistakes. Love hopes all things, it doesn’t see your failures and assumes that you’re going to stay there. (1 Corinthians 13).
Having humility with ourselves is about choosing to align with God's perspective of love, instead of contradicting that perspective with our own perspective of pride.
Humility before God
Humility before God while we’re writing looks like realizing that we can’t write all on our own, using all of our own power, strength and creativity. We need God’s help, his Holy spirit, and his Word.
This is something I’m really learning about these days. It’s so easy for me to focus on how many words I need to write, how much time I have to write, or how much writing I can squeeze into a certain amount of time. But I really want to get better at realizing that this time that I call my “writing time” isn’t my time at all and the reason it’s there is to bring God glory and pleasure (1 Cor 10:31, Rev 4:11), not to get as much work done as possible. I can’t expect to write beautiful, God-honoring words that touch hearts and point people to him unless I allow him to first touch me as I write those words.
For me, this involves slowing down, talking to my Father, and choosing to let his peace rule in my heart (Colossians 3:15). I don’t have to be the strong one, I don’t have to be the only one making this “thing” called writing work. I’m supposed to be carrying an easy burden, a light yoke (Matthew ll:28-30).
Let’s draw near to God, so he can draw near to us (James 4:8). Let's humble ourselves in his sight, so he can lift us up (James 4:10).
When it comes down to it, having humility with our writing means putting the focus on God and his truth, versus what we think. It’s not about what other people write, it’s not about how good of a writer we think we are, it’s about putting God first with our writing and choosing to have his perspective of love towards ourselves, our writing, and other writers.
Laura Boone is a child
of God first and foremost and after that she’s a writer, the oldest of a family
of nine children, a musician and much more! She loves playing her guitar,
cooking and baking, gardening, and spending time with family and friends. She
loves to write because she feels like God has given her a dream and a mission
to spread the truth of his kingdom. She believes that God gives us our desires
and talents for a reason and she’s looking forward to exploring this
passion that he has given her! You can find her on her blog, as
well as on Instagram!
We hope this article was a blessing to you! Let us know your thoughts in the comments, and don’t forget to check out her blog! Thank you again, Laura!
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