Hello everyone! I know it's a little late into the year, but I'm writing these posts way in advance, and I have a feeling we could all use some encouragement. So my plan for April is to write a bunch of posts that will serve as encouragement for writers--urging you to keep writing, to write stories that are beautiful, and to push through. With that in mind:

He gave us these stories.

You could have been passionate about anything. Plants. Chemistry. Particle engineering. Movie set design. Maybe you are passionate about those things, too. Maybe you can cook up a storm. Maybe you can draw a sunset so beautiful and real it brings tears to people's eyes. Maybe you run marathons no problem, or you can train the most vicious dog to love humans, or anything else. There are infinite things out there to fall in love with. Vocations, pathways.

And even with all of that--even with all these other things available, these other paths, these other choices--He gave us these stories.

You don't have stories in your blood by accident, dear writer. You are not accidentally in love with words. Your characters aren't real in your mind because you just happened to be in the right place at the right time. You've been imbued with the words. Our Father gives us gifts, and He gave you the words.

They're a gift. They flow out of you for a reason.

So use them.

Write the words when they come. Put your pen to paper and your fingers to the keyboard and tell the story that sits so heavy on your heart. There is beauty in stories. God gave the story you want to tell to you, and there is a reason that it exists. So tell it.

You never know--your words might be exactly what someone needs to hear.

There's a kid out there--a younger you, a lonely and sad one--who still needs a shot at hope. Maybe they'll read your story and find some.

There's a woman out there, your age, who's looking for a reminder of the wholesome love that can really exist, and you can bring that to her.

There's a boy who wants to see knights and heroes in his own time, and that's possible.

Emily Dickinson once said, "If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not have lived in vain."

God gave you your words and your stories for a reason. So keep going, dear writer. Keep writing.

We need your words. And they're a gift from him.

Keep going.