Favorite Quote – Nanowrimo Instagram Challenge

Todays challenge is favorite quote, but this would have to be one of the hardest challenges. I LOVE quotes. They often form the basis of what I post. My favorite quote changes as I grow and stretch along my journey.
The quote that I have lived my life by is “And it came to pass.”
No matter what happens in our life, it will either come to pass or the way we look at the challenge will come to pass.
When we change under the pressure of what burdens us, we move forward. I confess, sometimes the pressure was on for sometime before I was able to move forward.

Quote for Today
“And it came to pass.” – ubiquitous biblical quote.

Meditation
Whatever is troubling you, hold it out. Think about the worst scenario. Now think about the best possible outcome. Whatever happens, you will find a way to cope as you accept this thing has happened or, will happen or may happen. Hand it over to God. Stand in his amazing presence. You are not walking alone. It may take time. Acceptance is the first hurdle.

Writing
I have found a name for my fictitious town. Volcano Harbour and the closest city Te Taone (Maori for The City). I’m hoping this will be an acceptable name as Maori give the name of a place as a precious gift.

Nanowrimo is nearly here. Excitement and fear are building among writers. Look at it this way. If you don’t make the fifty thousand word challenge, whatever you do write is more than you started with. One time my story stopped at thirty two thousand words and I discovered it was a novella, not a full blown story. My characters refused to budge, no matter how hard I tried.

The background photo is from a wall of T L Travers Mary Poppins, from when we visited Maryborough, Queensland, Australia.

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The Best Life Hacks You’ve Discovered

Day1

We’ll need to put our heads together in this series because we’ve all discovered things that make our life easier.

This one comes from a recent conversation. The weather in New Zealand is so changeable. We can get all seasons in one day at anytime of the year.

Layers. The best way to dress is with layers to strip off and pull on as required. Choose clothing that matches and is interchangeable and you’re sorted.

No writing today. I was awake in the small hours and woke up groggy (I hadn’t been drinking – just in case you’rewondering).

Nanowrimo is just around the corner. Maybe this year is the one for you to join in? You’re going to write that book you always wanted to?

October is InstaWrimo where authors post a photo from prompts.

Todays:
I am…

thinking of things to incorporate in the plot I want to write.

We visited the swan again. She’s still sitting on her eggs. No sign of daddy-o.

Two Questions
Whats your clothing hack?
Are you taking up the Nanowrimo challenge?

I’d love to read your answer below…

Angels

Angels in the Word of God

Before writing this, I need to acknowledge my qualifications. I have none. I’m not a theologian. I’m not a deep thinker or detail person. I’m a big picture kind of gal who loves the Word and my Saviour.

As I wrote the story, and Curly struggled, I found myself drawn to Curly needing help. Curious, I explored angels helping him.

Often I’ve read about angels in the Bible and glossed over them giving little thought to who angels are, their place in the Kingdom and in our lives.

I think all my life I’d had this vision of plump little cherubs with fluffy white wings. I remember the shock when I found out that God placed Angels higher than man. Surely if God created Man in his own image, man would be more important than little fluffy angels. At fault here was my understanding of angels. At this stage of my life I’d read through the Word, one chapter a day, for ten years. I should have understood about angels more deeply. But I didn’t.

The more I looked into angels the more fascinated I became with them.

And the more I started thinking about angels, they started popping up all over the place as I read the bible. When I did a search, the word angel came up 346 times in the version I was reading.

In Exodus 23:20 – 23 an angel walked ahead of the Israelites, to guard them along the way and to bring them to the place God had prepared for them.
The Israelites were told to pay attention to the angel and to listen to what he had to say. They weren’t to rebel against the angel. And they sure were a rebellious and contentious group of people.

I had thought of angels as messengers and warriors (as in Daniel 10). And once we received the Holy Spirit in the new testament, I thought maybe angels were no longer required. They were just in the Old Testament beings, and heavenly hosts to be met when we make it to heaven.

Which led me to Acts and the early church.

In Acts 12 I read James, the brother of John is killed and Peter is imprisoned. As the Christians were persecuted, their leaders were jailed and put to death, Herod saw he pleased the Jewish leaders.
Once they were imprisoned, there was no hope of getting them out of it. A cut and dried case. Peter was in prison waiting for his own death. But earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church meeting at Mary’s house (Acts12:5).
Just before Herod was about to kill Peter, his rescuer came. I wonder what battle the angel had to go through to get to Peter?
Peter is in prison, bound by chains, asleep between to guards. He was having a pleasant dream. About escape. Peter thought he was dreaming. Until the angel struck him on the side and told him to wake up and get up quickly. The chains fall away. Peter is told to get dressed and put on his sandals, wrap his cloak around him and follow the angel.
Peter is wondering if the angel is a vision, is he still dreaming? Is this real? They walk past guards. The gate to the prison opens for them of its own accord. Once they get out into the street, the angel leaves Peter, knowing he’s safe and he can manage the rest of the way on his own.
Once Peter realised he was free, he hurries to the house of Mary where the church is gathered praying for his release.
He knocks on the gate to the courtyard. Rhoda the servant girl answers. But she doesn’t open the gate. Instead, she hurries into the room where people are praying (for Peters release) to tell them Peter is standing out there knocking.
The people tell her she is out of her mind. They said it was his angel, not Peter. So I wonder, do we have our own angel and does our angel look like us?

Also of note was the acceptance of angels. The church was praying for Peter’s release and an angel appeared. I mean, wouldn’t that be headline news? But nah, it’s just his angel. Did the early church easily recognise Gods messengers? Are they here today? Do we see them? Or do we see people who might be angels?

More Questions than Answers

I don’t have any answers, but the cool thing about being an author you can write whatever you want, for the joy of it. For entertainment. For exploration.

The Story

In the story, I thought about Maddy, alone in her hospital bed, on life support. Would she be safe? Did her close family need reassurance that she was in the best possible hands?
I wondered who would see an angel? Would I? And if I did would I recognise an angel?
We’re told to entertain strangers because we never know when we will be entertaining angels (Hebrews 13:2)
I thought about young children who are faith-filled. No theology has gotten in the way of their faith. They would be likely to see angels. And accept them as a matter of a fact.
All in all, this has been an interesting story to write during Camp Nanowrimo.

Exploring the possibility of angels in our everyday life will continue. Exploring angels in Gods Word will continue as well. Will angels appear anywhere else in the series? I don’t know.

I’m looking forward to publishing the book about October 2019 (there’s still two books ahead of it, crying out to be released).

I would love to read your thoughts on angels. Please leave a comment below.

Entertainment

What’s in the Pipeline?

Editing (not my favorite side of writing) went on the back burner to write a short story about Christie and Dara’s parents, Alex (Sandy) and Deidre – how did they meet? What is their love story?

Now in the editing stages, Sign up for my newsletter if your interested in getting a free copy prior to publishing.

Craft Spotlight

‘People don’t buy ‘books.’ They buy entertainment, information or inspiration.’ – Joanna Penn

This podcast is quite enlightening preparing to write the next book. I highly recommend a listen, or even better subscribing to Joanna’s podcast. She is very generous with her knowledge for fellow authors.

So writing a story, after the first draft, ask the questions:

Does this entertain?

Are there twists?

Is it interesting?

Are the plot points in place?

Nanowrimo

Camp Nanowrimo is on in April. Have you got a story you want to write? This is a great practice opportunity for the big hit in November.

Authors and skilled people who help deliver your story give their advice for free. Why not take the opportunity to learn?

A highlight is a young writers workshop and plenty of encouragement.

Where are we?

Returning to Mainland Australia, and with summer throwing her last energy into temperatures in the mid thirties (that’s nineties in Fahrenheit), the east coast road, with beautiful beaches, beckons on our journey north.