Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Book Reports

About a month ago, I told all of you I was jumping in and getting serious about writing a book. I had a plan to finish a rough first draft by June 2 (about 50,000 words, I figured).

Well, it's almost May 1. I'm not halfway done. The first two days after I told you about it, I wrote 1,000 words a day. But then all of you stopped praying for me and I stopped writing.

Just kidding! I'm sure you still prayed, but I stopped writing. To be fair, I got a little busier with volunteering at the daycare and some other tasks, but I still had some time and I just didn't use it to work on this project.

I started back in on April 19 and I've put my butt in the chair several times in the past couple of weeks. I may not be done by June 2, but I will keep plugging away until I'm finished. If I make time to write even just a little every few days, I'll have to finish eventually.

I can't remember who told me about a woman in a nursing home who decided to work on a quilt for ten minutes every day. The teller thought that seemed like such a small amount of time - she would never finish it. But she did!

I also heard of a man who wrote an entire novel by writing for twenty minutes in his pickup during his lunch break every day.

So I will keep writing. 

If I can stop reading.

I've been reading some great books by Rachel Starr Thomson lately. I'm on book 4 of the Oneness Series and I'm really enjoying it. Kind of reminds me of This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti.

I just recently discovered her writing and am so glad I did. You can check out her blog and more about her writing at rachelstarrthomson.com

Can't wait to move on to some of her other novels and nonfiction books.

 I also have stacks and stacks of books waiting to be read. So many books - so little time!

One of these weeks I'm going to give my full Focus Friday to my friend Shannon Popkin's book Control Girl. I've read the first few chapters and have found it so practical and wise. I sure have problems with wanting to maintain control and refusing to surrender. Shannon's book teaches us how to surrender control to God and become Jesus Girls instead of Control Girls. I'm thinking this might be a great Bible study for a group of us from church to do sometime in the near future.

Finally, I've been really wanting to get to A Trail of Crumbs by Susie Finkbeiner. It's the second in a series of three. I enjoyed meeting Pearl Spence in A Cup of Dust and I can't wait to see what happens in this next installment.

I feel so blessed to consider Susie Finkbeiner a friend after meeting her at Breathe Christian Writers Conference in Michigan. She's a great writer and one of my inspirations.

So there you have it. A "book report" about my book and some ideas for some books you may enjoy reading.

Keep praying for me and let me know if I can pray for you as you do a little bit at a time on your own project. If you do that, it will get done!

"All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." (Proverbs 14:23 NIV)

Is there anything you've been putting off but really want to complete? How can focusing on God help you to consistently do a little bit at a time until it gets done?

Focus Friday: Let's Focus on Stress

I had a very bad day earlier this week. I had a couple of things to do this week that really stressed me out. I did the first obligation and it went pretty well, but for some reason I started thinking negatively about the event and about myself and I got myself worked up into quite a state. I got so stressed that I almost called to back out of the commitment I had made for the next day and I wanted to just go crawl in a hole somewhere and never have to deal with anything ever again.

Well, I'd like to say that I prayed and asked God for help and I felt better right away, but I'm afraid that things didn't happen quite like that. Oh, I knew God was there. I felt the Holy Spirit trying to get me to focus on the right things, urging me to think about the good, reassuring me that I would be okay. Unfortunately, I didn't make a conscious choice to put my focus on the right things.

Instead, I focused on the "what if"s. I focused on all of the things that could go wrong. I focused on how bad I would feel if I didn't do things perfectly. I focused on myself and it got me to a very bad place.

I'm happy to report that I did what I had to do and it went just fine. I thought about it all the way home and realized that I had been way too stressed for no reason. I was glad I had not backed out of the event and I thought a great deal about God. I thanked Him for helping me to do what I had to do in spite of my fears. I reminded myself that I could go to Him right away so that my stress could be lessened in the future.

How timely that later that evening I opened my email to see a blog post from Susie Finkbeiner talking about the same topic. She shared great thoughts about doing what scares us in order to get where we need to be.

I also talked to my husband about my stress and fears and he reminded me of how nervous he used to get when he first went into the ministry. It has gotten easier for him, but he still gets nervous at times.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that I have grown this week. When I feel stress I usually want to flee, but I'm learning that it's usually much better to stay and fight. Fight through the fear, fight through the uncertainty, fight through the anxious feelings. It will get you closer to the person you want to be. It will remind you to focus on God and what He wants you doing with your life. Sure, it's easier to avoid everything outside of our comfort zone, but we never grow if we just remain in the same place and stay comfortable.

Fight, my friends, and you may just find that your stress lessens as you focus on God and His plans for you.

"Why are you so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." (Psalm 42:5 NIV)

What do you do when you feel lots of stress? Do you stay and fight or do you just want to flee? How can focusing on God help you get through those times of stress?