Penny J. Johnson's Blog, page 93
August 24, 2014
August 23, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: All Joy
James 1:2-4 NASB
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
August 22, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: Whatever and Wherever
Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
August 21, 2014
August 20, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: What Pleases Him
God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him.
August 19, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: Directed Steps
I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself,
Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.
August 18, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: Doing Your Creative Best
Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.
July 28, 2014
One Good Thing Every Day: The Summer of Our Couch Content
Recently, I heard an excellent sermon entitled “Just One More Thing.” The speaker displayed a photograph of his guitar collection lined up on a his couch, which immediately caught the attention of the guitarists in my family. Even I was impressed. He said he has been asked which one is his favorite–his grandfather’s banjo, the Les Paul, the Fender Stratocaster. He admitted, “It is the one I don’t have yet.”
The scripture of the morning came from Philippians 4:10-13, 19. As the speaker continued, I began to think about what it is in my life I seek to satisfy my soul. A stunning realization hit me.
While I enjoy certain possessions and desire a comfortable life, these are not what contend with my contentment. My contentment, more often than not, is contingent on the contentment of others.
Momentary despair sunk in. There is not enough time and money to make everyone in my life happy. There is certainly not enough of me! But, then I thought about the picture the speaker showed before the guitar collection. It was his family.
I realized the collection on my couch of contentment must include those people of highest importance–my husband, my three boys, and me. I almost left myself off the couch because after all someone has to take the picture, someone has to make happiness happen. But, that’s part of the problem. I need to couch myself with them. If I don’t, I’m apt to run off to help someone else with their couch content. Or worse, I allow someone else to ease their way onto my couch and push aside those who have the only right to be there all the time. I am one of those. The four sitting on the couch want me there, too.
Where is the Philippians 3:12-13 message in that? Sometimes it takes more strength to let go than it does to hang on. Sometimes it takes more strength to hold on than it does to let go. No matter how I view the photograph, if I recline myself on God’s divan, I find myself blessed.
What or who rests on your couch of contentment?
July 27, 2014
Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing
Excellent points to consider, especially when revising.
Originally posted on The Daily Post:
“I always refer to style as sound,” says Leonard. “The sound of the writing.” Some of Leonard’s suggestions appeared in a 2001 New York Times article that became the basis of his 2007 book, Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. Here are those rules in outline form:
Never open a book with the weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
Keep your exclamation points under control!
Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Same for places and things.
Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.
These are Leonard’s rules in point form. For context on each rule, check out this piece in the Detroit Free Press.
Source: Open Culture
July 17, 2014
One Page at a Time: Carving the Marble
“I saw an angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
My novel’s word count and page mass prove its manuscript weight, but now it is time to raise the hammer to strike the chisel. Writer’s block is not only for the rough draft; it is for the revision process, too. I circle, study, contemplate, muse as much or more than I did when I drafted the original. At least if I cut too much, I can paste or insert. Unlike Michelangelo. But, like him, I steady my gaze, carve the marble, and listen for the sound of wings.
