Happy New Year!

ACFWAdvice, Authors and writing, Encouragement, Faith, Friends of ACFW, writing 2 Comments

By Shirley E. Gould

It’s 2020! Happy New Year to you, my writing friends. With 2019 behind us, we are facing a clean slate. That should make us happy. We have another opportunity to succeed in relationships, in our spiritual journey and in our writing endeavors. To succeed, we must prepare. I’m a planner. I make diet and exercise changes to get healthier. I like having a new devotional to read and a scripture reading plan to start my year. I purchase a writing planner to chart a course for my works in progress. I’m happy about a new start. But being glad about the year 2020 is a choice. If things haven’t been going your way, you need to pull yourself up and dust yourself off and try again. Put a smile on your face and look to the future—a launching pad into a new year. With the hope we have in the Lord, we can choose to be happy.

Nehemiah 8:10 says…

Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Newness is refreshing. It’s a second chance to make strides forward. Whether it is about weight loss, getting out of debt or finally finishing that manuscript, you are among a mass of people making new starts. It is a great time to plan strategic steps toward new goals and to re-ignite unfinished projects with renewed fervor. ‘New’ is that blank page with the cursor blinking as it waits for your words to pour onto the screen. It’s that clean smell right after a spring rain. It is a ‘do-over.’ And who doesn’t like a second chance to make a fresh start.

Isaiah 43;18 says…

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!

In this new year, we have three-hundred and sixty-five days to transform, to change things, to create a masterpiece, to take on new challenges and to make a difference. As we embark on this journey, we mustn’t waste time. You can use a planner or a calendar to plot your course. Choose your own method—but plan you must. As Christians we know that the Lord has a plan for our lives.

Jeremiah 29:11 says…

For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord. ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

With Him as your partner, you cannot fail. Spend time in prayer consulting Him about your forward movement. I pray before I write, asking the Lord to write with me. Before speaking engagements, I spend hours praying and seeking His guidance as to what He wants me to say to the crowd. Without His help, I’d fail miserably. I’ve learned as a Christian Fiction writer we don’t go it alone. We are a small part of a large group of writers depending on the Lord—who put this desire in us—to help us complete our word counts with excellence.

Writer friends, I end this diatribe with Psalms 20:4.

May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

After all—He is the one in charge.

Shirley E. Gould is an inspirational speaker, an African missionary and a freelance journalist. She’s founder of Kenya’s Kids Home for Street Children, an orphanage in Kenya, East Africa. Shirley has written articles and newsletters for twenty years and is presently writing Christian Fiction novels. She lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

Comments 2

  1. I’ve tried to write the good fight,
    and write it every day,
    but now, in the New Year’s Light,
    it’s maybe time to walk away.
    I’m sick of condescension
    and sympathetic smiles,
    of the cancer friends won’t mention
    while with heaven they beguile.
    Is this really all I’ve done,
    has panacea been the only boon?
    “I truly envy you, old son,
    you’ll be with Jesus soon!”
    You see, O You with kindling eye,
    I really do not want to die.

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