Tag: Let God Prevail

Story: Growth and Miracles

Posted on by docena

I have been writing and submitting since 1996. That’s twenty-six years. And I just received my 168th rejection. So I’ve decided to self publish or indie publish. To begin my indie publishing career, I purchased three e-books on Amazon. Two were in the genre I want to publish, fairy tale retelling, and one was a clean romance. The first one had a lot of plot or action, but not much character growth and the second one was pretty good. The clean romance, While You Were Speaking by Maria Hoagland, was well done and fun. Then I read through my book again and discovered that it was a lot like the first e-book I purchased, lots of plot but little connection to the characters.

At my writing group last night, Neysa Jensen shared from Jane Friedman’s website that plot is the external events and story is the internal transformation. We care about the character and the story through that internal transformation.

Today I read about Job from the Old Testament and his trials in D. Todd Christofferson’s talk, Our Relationship with God. I used to think that we study the scriptures for examples of people who always do what is right and try to emulate them. But Job cried out against God, saying that he’d been wronged. God chastises Job, and Job admits his sins and is humble before God. I can relate to Job. I can appreciate his story. His flaw, his despair, his abandonment. In our Come Follow Me study we’ve learned about Moses and the Israelites. They were a people who murmured and sinned again and again, but God refined them and prepared them for the promised land. They grew and progressed like Job, and that’s the story I can understand. The story isn’t about perfection. The story is about turning to Jesus Christ and allowing Him to teach and shape us.

I am fearful of this next step in writing. There’s so much I don’t know. My current manuscript is not as good as I originally thought. But I have a deep need, a desire, and a push from the Spirit that this is what I should be doing. I need to let my story be one of growth. Growth is painful. If expressing yourself through writing is not your thing, you may not understand this creative need I have. This trial may seem silly compared to yours, but there is probably something that is unfulfilled in your life for which God can do miracles if you let him. President Russell M. Nelson urged us to “seek and expect miracles.”

I’m committing to my characters’ growth. I’m committing to my own growth. I’m committing to story and miracles.

Peace: Let God Prevail

Posted on by docena

My son in high school is taking Eastern Geographical Perspectives. They spent one class period learning about Christianity and another learning about Islam. My son shared with me that Islam means submission to God. He made the connection between the word Islam and the word Israel that our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, recently shared. One of the Hebraic meanings of the word Israel is “let God prevail” (“Let God Prevail,” President Russell M. Nelson, Liahona, May 2021). I believe that repentance is the way we submit to God, the way we let God prevail.

In my scripture study this past week, I read about Alma, the prophet, calling the people of Ammonihah to repentance. He reminds them that God delivered their people out of Jerusalem, saved them from famine, sickness, “and all manner of diseases of every kind” and if they “transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they…have…and rebel against [the Lord], they will “utterly be destroyed from off the face of the earth” (Alma 9:21, 23, 24). I particularly noticed the part about being saved from sickness and diseases. This past week two friends of mine lost parents to COVID. I’ve wondered like many others about God’s plan with this pandemic. Did these two people die because their mission on earth was finished. Did they die because they are needed in the Spirit world to further the work of the Lord there? Did they die simply because their bodies are mortal and disease kills some? I thought about all the people who have suffered with illness and death of loved ones over the past year-and-a-half and wondered if we are not being saved from this disease because we’ve transgressed. As soon as I had the thought, my heart rejected that individuals were dying or not dying because of their personal transgressions. Today in church two prayers were offered asking for the pandemic to be taken away from us. So I’ve been pondering if God is calling us to repentance through this pandemic. Then I thought about the meaning of repentance. I used to think that repentance was only admitting I made a mistake or sinned. I now understand that to repent means to turn to God. Repentance is giving my heart and mind to God and asking what I need to do to be closer to Him. Repentance is submitting to God, letting God prevail. I don’t know God’s plan with this pandemic, but I do know that He wants us to turn to Him. He wants us instead of blaming and accusing each other, to come to Him in prayer and ask for our hearts to be softened, ask what we can do to serve one another, ask how we can let Him prevail in our lives. Then will the pandemic be taken away? I don’t know. I do know that as Alma preached to the people in Gideon, that we “should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things [we] stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things [we] do receive” and then “the peace of God [will] rest upon [us]” (Alma 7:23, 27).

We all need peace, peace in Christ.