The last time we met here, I was writing to you from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I spent a week there in June serving alongside others from my church. We ministered to orphans and families in the area through Forgotten Children Ministries. It was my third trip with FCM and the experience was impactful in many ways.
I had already decided to give the blog a “summer vacation” so after that post, I let it rest for the next 2 1/2 months. July and August were full with family weddings, vacation, writing conferences, a lot of reading and some quiet hours spent listening to God’s still small voice.
It feels good to be back — and to be celebrating five years of blogging!
A time of selah (a pause to ponder) was just what I needed. Earlier in the year, I’d begun to feel God was birthing something new in my small world of influence. As He laid things before me, it became clear He was directing me to offer to use my gifts to reach out to others with greater intention.
If you are not a subscriber to this blog, I invite you to sign up in the form at right to receive a free downloadable e-book titled “Do Tell! Why Your Life Stories Matter and How To Capture Them”. This little tool pretty much sums up what God has laid on my heart, and He’s given me to share with you — in writing and in speaking.
Funny thing is, the Lord inspired me to encourage storytelling from the start of this blog. Looking back at my very first post on August 8, 2012, I found this:
“Everyone has a story to tell.
It’s in the sharing of our stories that we unearth their meaning, find inspiration, that we discover ourselves and our place in the world.
We do not live our stories alone. And in the telling, we explore relationships — with those who share our stories and those who hear them. Our perspectives, gained from our unique experiences, color the world.
The popularity of social media attests to the fact that we want to tell our stories. Even the shortest “tweet” is an attempt to capture a story in the making, and a call out for that story to be heard.
When I share my “status” with you, I’m telling you what’s going on in my world and inviting you to comment on my story, maybe even tell me some of yours.
Tweets and statuses are fleeting. They float around in cyberspace and seldom do they land on a page that you can hold in your hand and return to with the flick of a finger. There is something solid and lasting about story captured between hard covers and passed, hand-to-hand, to be relished at leisure.
Tweet, blog or on paper, in the end what’s most important is just to tell our stories.
To keep them alive.”
I was writing about gathering some of my Dad’s stories and putting them in a self-published book called “One Man’s Work” (available through me in the “Tell Your Stories” tab above). Telling our life stories seems more urgent than ever, perhaps because another five years has passed. Or could it be that the state of our world today stirs up a desire to capture the essence of all that is of good and worthy of preservation in our lives so we may share them with those we love.
There has been a resurgence in the desire to create legacy.
In future posts I’ll talk about our “slice of life” responsibilities and we’ll begin sharing more of our life stories. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with two things. First, a quote from Daniel Taylor’s wonderful book “Tell Me a Story”:
“You are your stories. You are the product of all the stories you have heard and live — and of many that you have never heard. They have shaped how you see yourself, the world, and your place in it….Knowing and embracing healthy stories are crucial to living rightly and well. If your present life story is broken or diseased it can be made well. Or, if necessary, it can be replaced by a story that has a plot worth living,”
And this beautiful song:
Beaituful! I always think of Brene Browns words “The bravest thing you’ll ever do is tell your story.”