God Blessed Me With a Passion For Writing

A story about the ways God used my passion for writing to shape my life

When I was in kindergarten, I attended Sunday school at Willow Creek Church. I still remember singing and dancing to the song “Our God is an Awesome God.” That was my very first memory of finding my love for Christ.

When I was in first grade, I found my passion for writing. One day, after the bell rang, I begged my teacher to let me stay a few minutes after class to finish writing a story. Even though I usually found it hard to focus on assignments, I did not have that problem when writing stories or journal entries.

My love of writing lasted throughout the rest of my childhood and into adulthood. It took a while until I finally understood how my passion for writing was a blessing from God. Here is how God has kept my passion alive and how He has used it to shape my life.

Writing helped me survive early adolescence

During my middle school years, I felt insecure and socially awkward. While I had a few friends, I had just as many enemies. The boys I liked did not reciprocate my feelings. So I wrote stories about fantasies of everyone getting along and hanging out together. Some other stories involved crushes asking me on dates.

In addition to writing stories, I journaled about my frustrations related to social issues and learning disabilities. My notebooks contained lamentations and prayers. Writing gave me a way to connect with God and overcome struggles during my early teenage years.

My parents’ faith and Christian lifestyle influenced my writing

Somewhere around middle school graduation, I realized how blessed I was to have been adopted and raised to celebrate God’s love. My parents took my siblings and me to Sunday school every week. They also attended weekly church services and my mom became involved in teaching Sunday school. My parents’ dedication to the church and their willingness to sign me up for Christian camps and mission trips laid the foundation for my faith.

The summer before my freshman year of high school, the only class I really wanted to take was journalism. My mom thought it would be a good idea. She fully supported my interest. However, since I had learning disabilities, the school told my mom that they thought the class would be too advanced for me. Still, my mom continued to convince the school to give me a chance. I’m extremely grateful for that because it helped me get to where I am today.

When I wrote for the high school newspaper during junior year, I often had to stay really late to design pages. My dad often picked me up from school and listened to me talk about how much I loved writing. I told him I wanted to pursue writing as a career. Sometimes, however, I doubted my abilities because I compared myself to other writers. I’ll never forget when my dad told me to keep writing and “never give up.”

My parents’ patience, faith, love, and support helped me discover that I could combine writing and my faith. So I started writing stories about my faith and how it helped me get through my struggles. I also wrote about my parents’ influence on my life and my passions.

God’s creation of nature sparked creativity

During the summer before my junior year of high school, I attended a Christian camp. Twelve days consisted of a hiking trip to Lake Superior. The hike was really long, and at times, brutal. I felt like I would die in the summer heat. But when my camp group made it to Lake Superior, we celebrated the completion of our trek. On the lakeshore, I sat in awe, processing everything I saw during the hike. The view of the sunset from where I planted myself on the sands of Lake Superior was mesmerizing. I felt God’s presence ignite my soul. It was hard to find the right words to express how I felt, but I just let my mind go. I let my pen flow. If I had more time, I could have filled up several journals.

God allowed writing to help me process grief

At the end of my junior year of high school, my father died. It felt like my world crashed. For a while, my faith weakened. To cope, I wrote dark poetry. By senior year, I was strong enough to be vulnerable and share my writing with my creative writing class. Maybe God gave me the courage to do that as a way of telling other teenagers that it’s okay to be sad, and it’s okay to express it. Or maybe it was a way for me to ask for help. Whatever the reason, it felt like a release. I felt supported during that time.

God taught me that high-quality writing requires humility

One thing a lot of writers struggle with is humility. But God knows that humans aren’t perfect. He blessed many people with the same talents. I learned that I was a good writer, but I wasn’t the best writer. That was okay, though. Humility and the willingness to accept and use edits helped me enhance my writing skills. While criticism seemed harsh at times, it was a tool I could appreciate. Even though I am a sensitive person, I’m no longer afraid of receiving a list of suggested edits. God wants us to teach other people new things while learning from them as well.

Writing helped me cope with mental health issues throughout my twenties

At the age of 23, I became severely depressed. I had just graduated from college and gone through my first breakup. After my breakup, I lost many friends who were also friends with my ex.

While I battled feelings of loneliness, I seemed to have lost my identity in my jobs. Not having a job in my field made me feel like a failure. Then a coworker sexually harassed me. So going to work every day was torture. When I reported my coworker’s harassment to the store manager, he didn’t do anything about it. I felt worthless and blamed myself.

During that time, writing about my feelings helped me make sense of them. Going to therapy and writing about my sessions helped me improve my mental health. I gained the motivation to publish a book. Even though I was still depressed and anxious most of the time, having a goal to pursue gave me a distraction from hard times.

By age 26 or 27, a friend told me about a mental health website that paid writers to compose blogs and create YouTube videos about personal mental health issues. I received the honor of contributing to the website. Other writers have helped me get through hard times. I continue to read and blog for the website to this day.

Despite my challenges, God showed me how to use my passion for writing to reach out to people who shared my struggles. God knows that we will experience trials, but He promises to help us through these rough times. He gives a purpose to our lives and everything we endure. He shows us how to use our gifts and passions to fulfill His will for our lives.