I began this blog post on a bitter cold day in February. Now it’s mid-March. Still cold, but no snow. Keep reading and you’ll discover why it’s taken so long to post this.
Below is an excerpt from my book, Write His Answer – A Bible Study for Christian Writers, that was first published in 1990 and is still in print in an expanded edition.
It is a bitter cold February day. As I sit at my computer and look out the window, I can’t help but daydream. A winter storm has encrusted the trees and bushes with a thick layer of ice that glistens in the bright sunshine. Spring seems a long way off. Wistfully I dream of golden daffodils and fragrant lilacs.
My thoughts wander to the vegetable seeds I planted yesterday in window boxes on my toasty radiator. Although they are weeks from sprouting, I’m already thinking how good it will be to have fresh, homegrown tomatoes, peppers, and cauliflower. The ringing of the phone brings me back to the present and, after a brief conversation, back to this blank screen. “Lord, what do you want to say through me?” I ask.
“Bear fruit,” I feel Him speak to my heart.
I sigh. For all my hard work this past month, I don’t feel I have borne much fruit. January’s mail was slow to bring acceptances or checks.
“I feel as if I’ve plowed and planted my garden, but nothing is growing,” I complain. “It’s not that I mind the hard work, Lord. But when am I going to see the fruit of my labors?”
“Have you forgotten what I taught you about abiding?”
I open my Bible to John 15:4 and read: “Take care to live in me, and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me” (TLB).
I think back over the past weeks and the many excuses I’ve made to shortchange my quiet time with the Lord. It’s no wonder my writing is not bearing fruit. I have been trying to do it in my strength instead of His.
Again the Lord reminds me that my relationship with Him is more important than anything I can do for Him. Then, in a new way, I also see the kind of fruit He longs for me to bear. Far more important than powerful prose or beautiful poetry is the fruit of Christlikeness.
“But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” I read from Galatians 5:22-23 (TLB). I have to admit that sometimes this fruit is sadly lacking in my life.
LOVE for the Lord and my readers is not always my motivating force. Too often I am caught up in the ego trip of seeing my name in bigger and better magazines. When editors do not accept my work, I do not feel very loving towards them.
My JOY is lost when I push myself to get manuscripts in the mail and measure my fruitfulness by the number of acceptances I receive in return. My PEACE is destroyed when I take my focus off the Lord and put it on myself – on my goals, my needs, my feelings.
My PATIENCE wears thin when things don’t happen as quickly as I want and feel they should. Instead of waiting on God and his perfect timing, I become discouraged and irritable. I say unkind things to the people I love, especially to my children, when they interrupt me when I’m trying to write.
GOODNESS makes me think of Paul’s words about Jesus: “He went around doing good” (Acts 10:38 TLB). Am I “doing good” through what I write? Using Lee Roddy’s acrostic, BERT, do my words really Benefit my readers? Do they Enrich them? Are they Relevant and Timely?
FAITHFULNESS. The Bible assures me that “the one who calls [me] is faithful” (1 Thess. 5:24 NIV). Therefore, I do not have to become consumed by the dollars and hours part of my writing – by the little I earn for the long hours I work. Instead, I can choose to trust His promise to supply all my needs (Phil. 4:19) and to remain faithful to my call to write His answer.
GENTLENESS, I learn as I look at the original Greek meaning of the word, is not just the way I treat others. The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament translates it as “meekness.” Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says, “It consists not in a person’s ‘outward’ behaviour only; nor yet in his relations to his fellow-men. . . . It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting.” In other words, instead of almost demanding that God “bless” my ministry, I must surrender my desires to Him. I need to follow Jesus’ example and remember how He took on “the very nature of a servant, . . . humbled himself and became obedient to death” (Phil. 2:7-8 NIV).
SELF-CONTROL makes me think of discipline and my need to take control of the hours in each day, as well as my thoughts, feelings, and actions which often defeat me. I can choose to dwell on the positives and not procrastinate. Most of all, I can choose to relinquish control of my life to the Lord every day and trust Him to work in me and through me.
“Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches,” I feel Him speak to me again through his Word. “Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit” (John 15:5 TLB). He doesn’t say when, but He also doesn’t say maybe. Instead, He gives me the conditions. I must deliberately choose to abide in Him and submit wholeheartedly to His pruning of my motives and goals. I must take care to stay close to Him – to let Him live in me. Only then will my life and my words bear fruit.
Click here for a free Bible study, “Bear Fruit.”
Write His Answer by Marlene Bagnull is a “must-have” resource for any writer. It offers the perfect balance of practical tools, personal honesty, and insightful passages of Scripture. I was inspired by her wisdom and challenged to answer God’s call to write in authentic, life-changing ways. Write His Answer will help you solidify your calling and get to the root of insecurities may writers face.
Angela Donadio
Recording Artist, Blogger, Author
For 30 years Write His Answer has encouraged writers. An autographed copy is available for only $10 plus shipping. Click here. You can save the cost of shipping by ordering $35 from the Write His Answer bookstore where you’ll find over 120 writing how-to books as well as the 2021 Christian Writers Market Guide – ALL DISCOUNTED!
Now, to share why it’s taken so long to post. I’ve been working on the 2021 Greater Philly and Colorado Christian Writers Conference! Due to the continuing pandemic, out of an abundance of caution we’re going virtual, but both conferences will be highly interactive and virtually amazing. The faculty is almost in place for both conferences.
See who is coming. Visit https://philadelphia.writehisanswer.com and https://colorado.writehisanswer.com. And save the date!
In our digital world, it’s imperative for your website to be readily found online. But what most people don’t realize is that sites don’t show up in Google search results by accident.
Actually, it takes a concerted effort to get a website to appear prominently in relevant search engine results. And in many cases, SEO services are chiefly responsible for raising a site’s profile online.
SEO, short for search engine optimization, can involve a number of techniques -- all of which work together to increase the visibility of a given website. Through the use of technical site adjustments, compelling blog content, and backlinking strategies, businesses across a plethora of industries are able to level the playing field and ensure future customers can easily discover them on the web.
At Celebration Web Design, we understand the challenges that Florida business owners face when trying to compete. That’s why we offer a variety of SEO services in Celebration, FL that you can count on. Let’s delve into the specifics of our SEO services and how they can help your website stand out for all the right reasons.
Search engine optimization is a difficult concept for many people to understand, especially those who have little to no experience with digital marketing. While traditional marketing and promotional tactics like billboards, television and radio advertisements, and direct mail still have a place in many budgets, certain digital marketing techniques (including SEO) rely on subtler methods to catch the attention of the public.
Many business owners won’t handle their own SEO, as it really is a full-time job in itself. Fortunately, you can benefit from the expertise of digital marketing professionals to get your business found online. As your SEO provider, here are the main marketing services we provide to our clients:
Onsite Blogs: Instead of making a hard sell, digital marketers focus on capturing the intent of the consumer and providing them with helpful information to enrich their lives. One of the principles of search engine optimization is to offer relevant, compelling content to users on a regular basis. By consistently updating your site’s blog with keyword-optimized content, we can drive traffic to your site and position you as a leader in your industry at the same time. We can even publish the content on your behalf, allowing you to market your organization with minimal effort.
Articles and Featured News Stories: In addition to posting valuable content on your site, we can drive traffic and improve domain authority with off-site content publication. Our team creates both articles and featured news stories in order to create high-quality backlinks to your site. This can improve your site’s backlink profile and show Google that your organization has worthy endorsements from other trusted websites. These pieces will be relevant to your industry and are posted by reputable publishers, allowing for a more substantive link-building strategy.
Onsite Implementation: Search engine optimization isn’t just about content creation (although, as they say, “content is king”). The details of website development, many of which are noticed only by search engine bots, can help or hinder your site rankings. Our team will conduct an audit of your site and make recommendations that can improve known ranking signals, such as internal linking, schema markup, and keyword ratios. We’ll take care of implementing our recommendations and adding relevant features like phone tracking and other sales analytics to provide you with more insight into your campaign.
With our three different tiers of monthly SEO campaigns, our team can offer a digital marketing strategy that fits your budget and overall goals. We focus on building high-quality content and links that can help your business, non-profit, or ministry experience lasting growth. For more information on our SEO and website design services, please get in touch with us today.
Celebration Web Design by SKWD Associates, LLC.
PO Box 471068, Celebration, FL 34747
1 877-313-7593
Food For Thought
The bigger your God, the smaller your problems and the smaller your God the bigger your problems. Ken Boa
One-time Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz said, “Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
Updates
The Celebration Web Design team recently modified the Contact Form.
The Contact Form Page was updated to enhance the current form and allow greater flexibility without paying for a custom form. With the new options available, you can use this form for a variety of requests such as sign-ups, gather opinions, surveys, etc. Any information collected on the form will be automatically emailed to the email address in your Organization Profile.
New Contact Form Features:
Please contact us if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions.
Our updated EZ-CMS management system has reached the testing phase. We anticipate it to be implemented in the third quarter of 2021.
Our CMS Development team is hard at work creating a major upgrade to EZ-CMS. This update will add functionally, make the controls more consistent, and add some modern goodness to speed up page editing and page construction. We will keep you updated as these changes role out.
Featured Partner
FarrHealthcare, Inc.
As owner of Farr Healthcare, a physiatry recruitment firm, I recently talked with a physiatry fellow who had never talked with a physician recruiter about PM&R jobs and was hesitant about it. I was caught off-guard because I talk with physiatrists every day. It was an eye opener for me.
For those of you who may not be familiar with Farr Healthcare, Inc. it is a physician recruitment firm that specializes in physiatry recruitment. We have been in business for 30 years. Prior to that, the company owner was the Director of Physiatry Recruitment for what was the nation’s largest rehab provider system. The significance of this is that the doctors recruited for this organization had to be happy with their jobs and vice versa, otherwise the company would not be happy with the recruiter. This mindset remains with the operations of Farr Healthcare in that we try to match the doctor’s interests with the interests of the entity that’s hiring and vice versa. We aim to be honest and ethical in the representation of physicians looking for practice opportunities and entities wanting to add a physiatrist.
As we have been in business for such a long time, physiatrists who knew us when they were PM&R residents contact us years later to help add a physiatrist. Practices and hospitals use physician recruiters because it is difficult to find a physiatrist as there is more demand than supply. We have often been told by employers that they post ads and receive few if any responses. Of course, metropolitan areas where you are or were doing your residency or fellowship will attract a lot of interest from physiatrists looking for a job. This is not the case in areas without PM&R residency programs. Farr Healthcare has contracts with the hiring entity so the recruitment fee is paid by the employer, not the doctor looking for a job.
Please visit us at www.farrhealthcare.com. The jobs postings are at https://farrhealthcare.com/openings/